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In Others’ Eyes: An Analysis of Shame
By Günter Harry Seidler; Translated from the German: Der Blick des Andreren. Eine Analyse der Scham byAndrew Jenkins; Preface to the American Edition by Otto F. Kernberg
Shame lies at the center of what is most noble about humans -- our moral conscience -- and also is bound up with the primary problems of our civilization, i.e. depression, substance abuse, violence and hatred. Shame serves as one of the primary sources for the ability to know oneself (through self-reflective consciousness) and others (through empathy). Yet, the word shame is also a source of much confusion in the fields of psychology and sociology and is typically (and erroneously) associated with solely negative constructs.
A number of 20th century authors have grappled with the nature of shame including Francis J. Broucek, Gershen Kaufman, Andrew P. Morrison, Donald Nathanson, Silvan Tomkins and Léon Wurmser. Now, thanks to a remarkable translation by Andrew Jenkins, Günter Seidler’s comprehensive analysis of shame has become available to English readers. The first draft of this work received the Sponsorship Prize of the German Psychoanalytic Society. This along with encouragement from Léon Wurmser led Seidler to extend his study and publish it in a more complete form.
Seidler has been contributing to the German literature on shame since 1981 -- the same year Wurmser’s The Mask of Shame appeared – but only one of his papers previously appeared (in 1997) in an English language journal. Seidler’s foundation in approaching shame is predominately psychoanalytic, yet he integrates a strong grasp of contemporary affect theory and object relations.
Seidler’s book is graced with a Forward by Léon Wurmser and a Preface to the American edition by Otto F. Kernberg. Seidler opens his analysis with a phenomenological exploration of shame followed by reflections on Sartre and literature before reviewing the major 20th Century scholarly texts on shame. The core of the book delves deeply into Old Testament stories of creation and the myths of Narcissus, Tiresias and Oedipus. In Chapter 6, Seidler examines the role of shame in illness and psychopathology. Here Seidler’s articulate scholarship and complete grasp of the literature on shame guide the reader to clear indications and new understandings of the role of shame in problems in intimacy, depression, suicidality, depersonalization, compulsive syndromes, sexual dysfunction, and stigmatization in the role of being a psychotherapy patient. The book closes with an examination of implications of Seidler’s model of shame for therapy.
Seidler’s “theory of alterity” proposes a three-stage, model for the developmental of shame that builds on the myths of Narcissus, Tiresias and Oedipus. In this model, transformations of shame affect support the emergence of consciousness, self-referentiality and internalization. Those with backgrounds in psychoanalysis and object relations will find much to grapple with in this text. Clinicians without such backgrounds will also find the book provides an understandable and especially useful analysis of shame. Readers challenged by the ambitious scope of Seidler’s project are amply rewarded by the new understanding and appreciation of shame that this work achieves.