In praise of shame
Shame has gotten a bad name in psycho-therapeutic circles where it’s reviled as a debilitator. I think it imbues life with tang and zest. We wouldn’t enjoy pheromones so much were they not 
spiced with shame (Adam and Eve, Albrecht Durer, inset). I confess I don’t much care for its tabloid aspects, but I think it’s often the ghost in the machine, and high art and literature would suffer greatly without it.
A shameless society, which I think our general hypocrisy is working hard to create, would be a crazy-maker in its barrenness. A society without shame would be like living with no olfactory sense, no taste buds, no sense of touch. Shame has been given the same black eye as sobriety. We should reconsider their virtues. It makes our hair stand on end, it heightens experiences, makes human encounter exhilarating and scary.
Psycho-therapy is a wonderful thing—I’d be much crazier than I am without it—but it shares a tendency with isms to be doctrinaire and authoritarian. If I weren’t ashamed of some of my fancies I wouldn’t bother to pursue them. When it comes to art, that would be a disaster.
Rehabilitating shame would be at least as salubrious as admitting, finally, that Prohibition dramatically improved public health.
—DM
“If I weren’t ashamed of some of my fancies I wouldn’t bother to pursue them. When it comes to art, that would be a disaster.”
What an incredibly lovely statement, and so very true.
Thank you, Lyrical. You’re a college student,
right? I think that’s brave. College is not for
the weak. In my third year at college I had a
total meltdown. Suddenly the world turned antiseptic and impersonal, and I imploded. I like the idea that your blog shares your feelings as you fill your mind with whatever the world has to offer. Good for you!
DM