Abstract
This book explores what we know about the history of shame, from early human societies onward, and explicitly links historical patterns and complexities to current issues surrounding shame. As both a personal and a social emotion – individuals experience shame, but societies or social groups variously rely on shaming –shame is a particularly interesting candidate for historical analysis. A related analytical focus emerges from the tension between current psychological views on shame, which emphasize the destructive results of the emotion, and the wide reliance on shame in many past and contemporary societies. The most obvious historical target on shame involves the attacks on the emotion – after virtually universal acceptance in agricultural societies – in Western culture from the late 18th century onward. This book explores this change and its causes, tracing the impact but also the limitations of the shift, while also placing the new patterns in some comparative context regarding societies that remained less individualistic. Finally, the book picks up on several recent new developments, particularly in the United States, as shaming experiences a partial resurgence thanks to new partisan divides and the impact of social media. Shame, in some, offers a diverse and fascinating history, as part of the growing enthusiasm for exploring emotions in the past; and the history connects to a number of very real current issues about shame and shaming.
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