Shame

The Exposed Self

Michael Lewis

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 1995
• Print ISBN: 9780684823119
• eBook ISBN: 9781439105238
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Emotions in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Shame, the quintessential human emotion, received little attention during the years in which the central forces believed to be motivating us were identified as primitive instincts like sex and aggression. Now, redressing the balance, there is an explosion of interest in the self-conscious emotion. Much of our psychic lives involve the negotiation of shame, asserts Michael Lewis, internationally known developmental and clinical psychologist. Shame is normal, not pathological, though opposite reactions to shame underlie many conflicts among individuals and groups, and some styles of handling shame are clearly maladaptive. Illustrating his argument with examples from everyday life, Lewis draws on his own pathbreaking studies and the theory and research of many others to construct the first comprehensive and empirically based account of emotional development focused on shame. In this paperback edition, Michael Lewis adds a compelling new chapter on stigma in which he details the process in which stigmatization produces shame.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Shame in Everyday Life
• Our Emotional Lives
• The Self and Its Development
• Self Thoughts and Shame
• The Origins of Shame
• The Socialization of Shame From Parent to Child
• Reacting to Our Feelings Felt and Unfelt Shame
• Prolonged Reactions to Shame Humiliation Depression and Rage
• Pathologies of Self Narcissism and Multiple Personalities
• Individual Differences and Shame Fights Between Couples
• Stigma
• Shame Across Time and Place
• Notes
• References
• Index