The Construction of Shame in Feminist Reflexive Practice and Its Manifestations in a Research Relationship

Abstract

Despite the psychically toxic nature of shame, it has historically been under-researched and under-theorized. However, a recent burgeoning of literature has brought an increasing awareness of shame as a pathogenic force. An investigation of this noxious affect is especially pertinent in the context of feminist qualitative research. The authors consider the significant effect of shame on a specific dialogue that unfolded with a female survivor of rape in Cape Town. The analysis tracks the ubiquitous manifestations of shame between researcher and researched and reveals how shame was unavoidably generated, exacerbated, and maintained within the intersubjective field. What is highlighted is a need to reflexively locate the emotion within the racialized, gendered, and institutionalized relationships. Such a consideration would arguably provide invaluable insights for psychological research and practice as it pays critical attention to positionality, reflexivity, and the power relationships inherent in the production of knowledge.

Trauma and Migration

“…An underlying sentiment of shame pervades his speech: he is ashamed of being someone who sells drugs, ashamed of not being able to support his family and make them proud. The mystifying dualism of this shame is that it is at once an isolating, intimately intra-psychic phenomenon seeking concealment, yet remains deeply embedded in a visual and public interpersonal space where the self is violently and unexpectedly exposed to the critical gaze of the Other (Womersley et al, 2011). The source of shame can therefore never be completely in the self or in the Other, but is a rupture of what Kaufman (1989) calls the "interpersonal bridge" (p. 22) binding the two.…”

Being Through Doing: The Self-Immolation of an Asylum Seeker in Switzerland

“…An underlying sentiment of shame pervades his speech: he is ashamed of being someone who sells drugs, ashamed of not being able to support his family and make them proud. The mystifying dualism of this shame is that it is at once an isolating, intimately intra-psychic phenomenon seeking concealment, yet remains deeply embedded in a visual and public interpersonal space where the self is violently and unexpectedly exposed to the critical gaze of the Other ( 29 ). The source of shame can therefore never be completely in the self or in the Other, but is a rupture of what Kaufman ( 30 ) calls the “interpersonal bridge” (p. 22) binding the two.…”

Working with Shame and Trauma

“…I am also a woman, like some and not others. As we have explored elsewhere in reflecting on working with South African survivors of rape (Womersley et al, 2011)-the shame linked to the similarities and differences across marks of identity, so boldly and unavoidably expressed through our bodies, is a fundamental part of the interaction between researcher and researched in the context of qualitative interviews being conducted, particularly among vulnerable populations and particularly when exploring the sensitive topic of trauma.…”

“…The case study also appears in a scientific article published in Qualitative Inquiry (Womersley et al, 2011). Shame lies at the heart of the traumatic experience of rapeit is the experience of the body being exposed as inherently damaged or defiled and the consequent disconnection of the self from society.…”