[lit-ideas] Re: Kamikaze versus 9/11 Terrorists
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 19:53:37 -0800
Irene wrote:
Shame is a serious topic of study in the psychological community. It's
known as the "master emotion". It's much more than pop-sociology jargon.
Here are two psychologists' enlightening remarks about shame.
http://www.mundanebehavior.org/issues/v1n3/scheff-retzinger.htm
"This article outlines a social psychology of the basic emotions in
social relationships. In our theory, shame and pride are the emotional
building blocks of interpersonal relations. But because there is so
little empirical evidence about pride, we focus mainly on shame. First
we review Mead, Cooley and Goffman’s concepts of the self, showing how
they imply the centrality of shame and pride. We define shame as a class
name for a large family of emotions which includes not only
embarrassment and humiliation, but also "discretionary" shame, such as
modesty, shyness, and conscience. The common thread in these variants is
seeing self negatively in the eyes of the other(s), and therefore
perceiving a threat to the bond. To illustrate this idea, we apply it to
a single episode, a phone call between two friends. We present this
episode in the form of a dialogue with the reader, to help overcome the
counter-intuitive nature of our framework. We ask the reader to employ
not only analysis, but also introspection. Finally, we propose that
shame is the central affect in social relationships, a way of making
them visible."
Note that, as it turns out, shame is said to be 'a class name,' for a
number of other emotions, attitudes, and states, which are conceptually
different from it. Notice too that the authors give equal place to
'pride' but claim, despite the attention given to pride in Western
thought from Aristotle on down, that nobody's studied pride. This, they
seem to believe, allows them to say that 'shame' is _the_ 'master
emotion.' (Their title is 'Shame is the Master Emotion of Everyday
Life.') As shame is a class name, it is no more specific than the term
'animal,' and does about as much work as 'animal' does in 'The earth is
inhabited by animals.'
Body shame is more than not liking one's body. Body shame is taking the
feeling of being fundamentally defective (really the definition of shame)
and applying it to one's body. Therefore, someone like Marilyn Monroe
could very easily have body shame. Many beautiful women think themselves
ugly, the way anorexics think they're fat.
This discussion began with a superficial and anecdotal investigation of
cultural differences concerning displaying (or decorating, Eric
suggested) one's body. It is hard to see what anorexia has to to do with
this.
Shame starts very early in life, predating guilt. Also, shame isn't a
problem. Small amounts of shame are what conscience is based on. Healthy
people must have it. Sociopaths have no shame. "Toxic shame" is the
problem. Toxic shame starts with the very young child's (guilt is formed
by the age of 2, so this is earlier than that but I don't remember exactly)
blaming himself for mom not coming to his rescue when he cries, etc. It's
what children do, it's all they know how to do, blame themselves for
everything bad.
Here you leap on your favorite hobby horse and begin to rock furiously.
I've heard your views on the depravity of human life and the origins of
that depravity. We've had this discussion before.
Toxic shame sounds like it should be psychobabble but it's a real thing. I
think it was Alice Miller who coined "poisonous pedagogy". That's based in
toxic shame. It's the parenting style credited with creating Nazis.
People think money is the root of all evil. Toxic shame is the root of all
evil; pharma's price gouging, war, etc.
'Toxic shame' is psychobabble, as are most of the headings in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, where
'distinctions' between 'disorders' are continually being refined to the
point of absurdity. If you suck your thumb, you're suffering from
pollexitis. (At least.) When Koch's Postulates are used in psychology,
I'll reconsider my views.
You're right, though, shame is very different from modesty. People who
have appropriate levels of shame are relatively modest.
This would seem to be true by definition.
Robert Paul
Professor of Mundane Behaviour
Mutton College
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