Shame on you

Summary

We touched on many aspects such as attempting to separate the feeling of guilt from shame, how shame can be used as a means of conformity, how different cultures place shame on different things and by changing your environment you can alter your belief system. We also dived into the topics of whether removing shame can reveal your authentic self and how comparing yourself to the expectations of a culture and/or other people, both from a physical and mental sense, can bring forth feelings of shame. So how can we eliminate shame? Unfortunately we can’t, and we shouldn’t, as it’s a fundamental emotion for us humans. Without it, we risk not only to loose respect for ourselves but for others in general. We therefore must face our shame as a means of exposing both the flaws in our character and more importantly the flaws in our culture. Once we identify them, only then can we start to tackle them.