Next
Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 18 Apr 2020

Taken: 18 Apr 2020

0 favorites     4 comments    54 visits

See also...

Keywords

Excerpt •
Being and Nothingness •
Author •
Jean-Paul Sartre •
Existentialism •
Second Excerpt •
The Descent of Man •
Charles Darwin •

Authorizations, license

Visible by: Everyone
Attribution + non Commercial
Photo replaced on 18 Apr 2020
54 visits

Shame

Shame
Comments
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
4 years ago.
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
The nature and strength of the feelings which we call regret, shame, repentance or remorse, depend apparently not only on the strength of the violated instinct, but partly on the strength of the temptation, and often still more on the judgment of our fellows. How far each man values the appreciation of others, depends on the strength of his innate or acquired feelings of sympathy; and on his own capacity for reasoning out the remote consequences of his acts. Another element is most important, although not necessary, the reverence to the Gods, or Spirits believed in by each man: and this applied especially in cases of remorse. Several critics have objected that though some slight regret or repentance may be explained by the view advocated in this chapter, it is impossible thus to account for the soul-shaking feeling of remorse. . . . . Even when an action is opposed to no special instinct, merely to know that our friends and equals despise us for it is enough to cause great misery. . . . . Page 118
2 years ago.
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
Shame has been linked to something called self-discrepancy theory, an idea developed by Edward Tory Higgins in 1987 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Tory_Higgins he suggested that we all use an internalized ‘ideal self’. You might see yourself as moral, intelligent, and upstanding, for example. And why shouldn’t you? You drive carefully, say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and are respectful at all times – a right and proper member of society. To become our ideal selves there are ways we ought to behave, and the self that behaves in those ways is called the “oiught self’. The ideal self is something we aspire to be, who we hope we are, ideally. The ought self is the self that has sense of duty, sticks no codes, and fulfills obligations. It does the things one ought to do so. Your ideal self drives carefully because it shoulx and because not doing so sould put other people in danger, which is morally unacceptable. Your ought self drives carefully bvecause it’s the law, and you’re not the sort of person who breaks the lw. Byt there are always gaps between this ideal/ought self – for example, it might be the case that regardless of your self-perception, you are actually a terrible driver who swears like a sailor. When you realize that your actual self is not living up to your ideal/ought self, you might feel the sensation of shame.. . . . .

Then shame does something else – it initiates a fight-flight-freeze reaction: fear. Usually, we’ll freese, worried about what people think of us. But if we believe tht our shame has been caused by someone else, the need to fight can take over. We get angry. Still, as a social emotion, shame isn’t just about individual feelings. According to the anthropologist – Ruth Benedict – the balancing of shame, fear, and anger can underpin the emotional regimes of entire cultures. ~ Page 162

A Human History of Emotion
6 weeks ago. Edited 6 weeks ago.

Sign-in to write a comment.