By Norman M. Brown, Ph.D. This the third in the series, Shame is Especially Useful. To make good use of this novel approach to relationships the other two blogs are essential. Blog 2 mapped the compass of shame: four clusters
2. Undoing the Damage of Shame. Withdrawal and Attack-Self.
By Norman M. Brown, Ph.D. Before attempting this novel approach to shame, please read my first contribution, All Emotions are Beneficial. Shame is especially Useful. For this previous blog will turn many of our normal conceptions upside down. How we
All Emotions are Beneficial. Shame is Especially Useful.
Shame is Inborn Darwin taught that all inborn emotions are designed to promote the survival and success of each species. So how can shame be good for us when it feels so bad that many of us avoid it like
5. Further Shame Research, from Toddlers to Computers and Adults
A videotape study of toddlers (1.5-3 years old) at play in a New York preschool1 showed significant differences in boys’ and girls’ relating with their mothers who were watching them. These difference prefigure some of the typical adult sex differences
Research on Shame based on Disrupted Relations
The popular conception of shame in America is a onsesided version of 1990s TV host John Bradshaw’s “toxic shame.” This translates a shame moment signaling I have done something bad into a character flaw: I am bad. But already in
Shame 3. Healthy Shame Promotes Repair of All our Relations.
When we’re familiar with the compass of shame responses in our lives, we don’t need to be ashamed when noticing we have just enacted one or more of them, either internally or in external actions. Instead we can be interested
Shame Benefits Our Growth: 1. Popular Awareness and Physiology
Of all the nine inborn human emotions, shame is probably the most undervalued and certainly the most underappreciated. At least this is true in America where high self-confidence is valued for achieving success, wealth, power and fame. The popular conception
Prologue: WHY FOCUS ON “TOXIC MASCULINITY?”
The Love and Power Institute posits a few fundamental ideas about the crisis threatening our sustainability as a species today: that overpopulation and unprecedented technological capabilities have led us to destabilize and despoil the earth until very drastic measures will
Joy As Closest Emotion to Love, Part 1: Sight
by Norman M. Brown Ph.D. | Of all the basic inborn emotions joy may be the closest to love. There are pathways to joy from many other inborn emotions, but we will explore the physical sources first. These are the
JOY, Part 2: Sound
by Norman M. Brown Ph.D. | While visual pleasure may move us with or without associated meaning, sound can affect us on a different level. For sound may seem simpler than the complex features of a face or landscape, yet