Shame: The Exposed Self

Michael Lewis

Aug 1995 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

This will be the most important book you ever read if you do not know enough about shame. This book has changed my perspective on how shame shapes my life. One has to use this book as a major stepping stone in understanding how shame is the most powerful driving force in our psychological composition. We are ashamed to think of shame. I truly believe now that even therapists are afraid to talk about shame because it will drive their patients away. However, it is essential that as individuals we come to grips with our perspective on shame or risk a continuation of an “unhealthy shame” based society. Lewis covers the entire subjects with poignant quotes from the best know psychoanalysis etc. on the subject. As laymen on the subject I would not just read this book but study this book as reference for further study. As a professional psychoanalysis etc. I would reconsider what you learned over the years and make sure you are adequately incorporating this essential subject into your reasoning.

About the author

Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of The Undoing Project, Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and three children.