ABSTRACT
Shame is classified as unhealthy when it is experienced in a disproportionately greater intensity or frequency than the level of that person’s first response to a similar shameful situation. Unhealthy shame has two basic components: acute and internalized. When past shaming experiences, particularly involving those in early childhood, remained unresolved, they get deeply etched in the person’s shame memories. Further external shameful incidents, including those which are only mildly shaming, can trigger off the unresolved shame of the old experiences and set off a disproportionate intensity of shame in that person beyond the normal and healthy level to what is termed as acute shame which is maladaptive and unhealthy. When acute shame is unbearable, the individual will unconsciously suppress it from surfacing. This results in the internalization of shame, which is accumulated and stored in our shame memory in the realm of the unconscious. When shame is internalized, it no longer needs to be activated by what is external, but it can be triggered internally and the person will feel shameful for being ashamed of himself. The internalization of shame will serve to modify the person’s identity to be shame-bound with an abiding sense of not being good enough.
