ABSTRACT
Helen Block Lewis, one of the first psychoanalysts to write about shame, encapsulates shame's legacy of evading a ubiquitous definition. The absence of a robust examination of shame in the depth psychological literature combined with a lack of unanimity in the mental health field overall yields a too narrow and insubstantial understanding of the subject. According to clinical psychologist Gershen Kaufman, differential patterning of gender socialization results in feminine and masculine gender scripts that govern identity, stratify, and shape interpersonal relations. Generally, women have a higher incidence of shame and often focus their shame on their physical appearance. Shame is radically self-focused and at the same time it exists because of our social brains. Shame has an impact that is so powerful and excruciating to self and others that it produces secondary shame: shame for having shame. The remora-like quality of secondary shame must be accounted for in any treatment approach.
