Shame breeds Contempt

2/11/2009


                                                                           image source


As a child grows in an environment
in which his needs and longings for
specialness and warm relatedness are
consistently frustrated, he begins to
turn away from his own needs in
depression and shame.

We can imagine the young child
wondering, What is wrong with me
that I get so little response from
my mother?

The two possible answers are
I am too defective and unworthy
of love, and there is something
wrong with what I am asking for.

In both cases, there is something
wrong, either with the child himself
or with his needs and desires.

This experience of unimportance
or wrongness is the common
relational backdrop for vulnerability
and susceptibility to shame.

- Andrew P. Morrison,
The Culture of Shame



contempt frequently functions as
a mechanism for ridding the self
of unbearable shame, in this case
by projecting the shame out of
he self into another person

- Andrew P. Morrison



                                         image source


Posted in Psychology

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