The Horizons of Chronic Shame

Abstract

Experiences of shame are not always discrete, but can be recurrent, persistent or enduring. To use the feminist phenomenologist Sandra Lee Bartky’s formulation, shame is not always an acute event, but can become a “pervasive affective attunement” (Bartky, 1990: 85). Instead of experiencing shame as a discrete event with a finite duration, it can be experienced as a persistent, and perhaps, permanent possibility in daily life. This sort of pervasive or persistent shame is commonly referred to as “chronic shame” (Pattison, 2000; Nathanson, 1992; Dolezal, 2015). Chronic shame is frequently associated with political oppression and marginalization. In chronic shame, it is the potentiality of shame, rather than the actuality, that is significant. In other words, the anticipation of shame (whether explicit or implicit) comes to be a defining feature of one’s lived experience. Living with chronic shame has important socio-political consequences. Thus far, chronic shame has eluded simple phenomenological analysis, largely because chronic shame often does not have a clear experiential profile: it is frequently characterised by the absence rather than the presence of shame. The aim of this article is to provide a phenomenology of chronic shame, drawing from Edmund Husserl’s formulation of the ‘horizon’ as a means a to discuss structural aspects of chronic shame experiences, in particular how chronic shame is characterised by structures of absence and anticipation.

Experiences from a 10-week weight-neutral treatment program for patients with clinical binge eating disorder and higher weight

“…To cope with expectations of feeling ashamed, participants described avoidance of social events, reluctance to selfdisclose violability, and making fun of their own body's when socializing with friends and family, whereas binge eating episodes was described as a strategy to cope with concrete feelings of shame. Shame grown out of time-limited, discrete events can be labeled chronic, and concepts of chronic shame (30) can enlighten developmental aspects of inferiority found in our study. Thus, the depth and range of inferiority experienced by the participants, and how avoidance becomes a central attempt at coping can be better understood.…”

“…The last readings were also partly driven by theory, or what van Manen describes as insight cultivators (29). Two analytical concepts: chronic shame (30) and intersubjective thirdness (31) was drawn upon when investigating the material. In contrast to the feeling shame, chronic shame denotes an attitude or way of being that can characterize persons having experienced oppression or social domination (30).…”

“…Two analytical concepts: chronic shame (30) and intersubjective thirdness (31) was drawn upon when investigating the material. In contrast to the feeling shame, chronic shame denotes an attitude or way of being that can characterize persons having experienced oppression or social domination (30). The anticipation of shame can become a de ning feature of the lived experience, causing a continuous sense of social anxiety, personal inadequacy, and relational disconnection (Ibid s 740).…”

Shame, Guilt, and Medical Error in Ann Patchett's State of Wonder

“…73 In this way, the novel precisely enacts one of shame's core phenomenological features: it is not experienced as present, and instead experienced as a "present absence." 74 It may indeed be the novel's failure to engage fully with Marina's shame, as shame, that so provoked Ofri. By adding "novelistic drama" to the medical error, the novel leaves out its most dramatic element: the anxiety about shame that constricts the writer's pen, that circumscribes its product.…”

Ayahuasca in the treatment of bipolar disorder with psychotic features–A retrospective case study

“…Danforth discussed focusing-oriented psychotherapy as a supplement to preparation for psychedelic therapy (Danforth, 2009). Dolezal et al suggested that shame-sensitive practice is essential for the trauma-informed approach (Dolezal, 2022;Dolezal and Gibson, 2022). Bosch et al reviewed psychedelics in the treatment of bipolar depression, commenting that the integration of these promising and fascinating substances into contemporary biomedicine seems feasible and even desirable (Bosch et al, 2022).…”