Empathy and shame through critical phenomenology: The limits and possibilities of affective work and the case of COVID‐19 vaccinations

Abstract

This paper begins by developing the critical phenomenologies of shame and empathy. It rejects that empathy is the supposed antidote to shame, and rather demonstrates the ways in which they function in parallel. The author contends that both shame and indeed empathy risk objectifying and fetishizing the other who is being shamed or empathized with. This argument and phenomenology about the relationship between shame and empathy is then applied and further developed through a case study of COVID‐19 vaccinations. The author explores whether empathy and shame ever “work” to increase vaccine uptake, and ultimately argues that both affects do and do not depending on the structures of power informing the specific context.

The shameful dead

“…Shame can cause the shamed party to reject the basis (ideas, evidence, authority, ideology) on which they were shamed, hardening what might have otherwise been a passing opinion or habit. Uses of shame to create behavioural change can never fully anticipate what form shame avoidance might take; permanently losing trust in the source of the message, for example, or closer personal identification with the object of shaming (Golafshani, 2022). Shame is an identity-forming emotion, not a quick behavioural fix.…”

Editorial for the 2023 philosophy thematic edition: Treating the whole person: Philosophical health

“…In a discussion of the relationship between emotion, ethics and epistemology, Penelope Lusk's work illustrates how shaming practices in medical education can propagate epistemic injustice 33 . Maryam Golafshani develops critical phenomenologies of shame and empathy, applying them to an analysis of practitioner and patient behaviour in the context of Covid‐19 vaccinations 34 . Jerome Kroll and Abdulahi A. Mohamed present a pressing discussion of shame and other moral emotions (including guilt, regret and remorse) in cross‐cultural practice, with reference to the experiences of refugees and the methodological problems confronting evidence‐based and narrative psychiatry in addressing the needs of these patients 35 …”

“…33 Maryam Golafshani develops critical phenomenologies of shame and empathy, applying them to an analysis of practitioner and patient behaviour in the context of Covid-19 vaccinations. 34 Jerome Kroll and Abdulahi A. Mohamed present a pressing discussion of shame and other moral emotions (including guilt, regret and remorse) in cross-cultural practice, with reference to the experiences of refugees and the methodological problems confronting evidence-based and narrative psychiatry in addressing the needs of these patients. 35 The section concludes with Luis de Miranda's book review 36 of The Philosophy of Person-Centred Healthcare, by Derek Mitchell and Michael Loughlin.…”

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and shaming on TikTok: A multimodal appraisal analysis

“…In contrast, hesitancy rates in the United States remained relatively strong across eight states in February 2022 (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2022). The phenomenon also elicited a response of vaccine shaming, which is the purposeful act of shaming people for refusing vaccines, in Australia, the US and elsewhere (Golafshani, 2022).…”