The Role of Shame in Symptom Formation

Let me first express my delight at the chance to discuss the psychoanalysis of shame and guilt with neuro-behavioral scientists. I have been devoting the past 25 years of my life to these two grisly states — in my view human beings’ principal moral emotions. And of course it does not take much thinking to realize that the reason I have had to focus on shame and guilt is that in psychoanalytic work and psychotherapeutic work of any kind these are the two prevailing emotions with which clients address us.