Shame- January 10

Anger has often been described as one of the strongest human forces, as Freud argued in the early twentieth century. Yet shame may be even more debilitating.

Shame sits at the center of many human emotions and may underlie much of the dysfunction seen in people with trauma and mental health difficulties.

What makes shame particularly powerful is its hidden nature. Shame hides.

It appears when a child is made to feel that they are bad, and it resurfaces when an adult is judged harshly, especially in public.

Shame is debilitating because it directly attacks the self. It reactivates old, sometimes inherited, feelings of inadequacy. To cope, the psyche often constructs surface emotions and narratives that allow avoidance of genuine self-confrontation.