Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the SelfThis is a revolutionary book about the nature of emotion, about the way emotions are triggered in our private moments, in our relations with others, and by our biology. Drawing on every theme of the modern life sciences, Dr. Nathanson shows how the nine basic affects--interest-excitement, enjoyment-joy, surprise-startle, fear-terror, distress-anguish, anger-rage, dissmell, disgust, and shame-humiliation--not only determine how we feel but shape our very sense of self. For too long there has been a battle between those who explain emotional discomfort on the basis of lived experience and those who blame chemistry. As Dr. Nathanson shows, chemicals and illnesses can affect our mood just as surely as an uncomfortable memory or a stern rebuke. He presents a completely new understanding of all emotion, providing the first link between the exciting affect theory of Silvan Tomkins and the entire world of biology, medicine, psychology, psychotherapy, religion, and the social sciences. Shame is the least understood of the painful emotions, although it affects every phase of life. We have all been made to feel foolish just at the moment we most wanted to appear wonderful; we have all been rebuffed by those we wished to court. Not one of us looks exactly as we might wish. Shame haunts our every dream of love, and influences how we experience ourselves as sexual beings. We react to shame by withdrawing, by making painful alliances with those who humiliate us, by calling attention to what brings us pride, or by attacking whoever has made us feel inferior. The comedian, as Nathanson shows in his discussion of Buddy Hackett, makes us laugh at what we try to keep hidden, transforming shame intoacceptance and even pride. This book explains everything that can possibly make us proud or ashamed. All are in this book; nobody who reads it will be quite the same again. |
Contents
SYSTEM | 9 |
Introduction | 15 |
WHAT IS EMOTION? 35 2 THE AFFECT SYSTEM | 73 |
THE NEUTRAL | 107 |
SHAMEHUMILIATION | 134 |
THE FACES OF SHAME 153 12 SIZE | 163 |
15 | 185 |
SHAME AND | 217 |
THE COMPASS | 305 |
ATTACK | 326 |
BUDDY HACKETT AND THE COMEDY | 378 |
AFFECT BEYOND THE LIMITS | 414 |
RANGE OF SHAME | 455 |
477 | |
487 | |
TRUE LOVE | 236 |
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Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self Donald L. Nathanson No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
ability accept action activity adult affect system amplified anger associated attack attention baby become behavior biological brain Buddy Hackett called capable caregiver character structure child cognitive compass of shame complex concept culture described display dissmell and disgust distress embarrassment emotion empathic enjoyment-joy excitement experience of shame face facial fear feel firmware force Fred Astaire Freud function homosexual human humiliation hunger idea impediment infant innate affect intensity interaction interest interest-excitement interpersonal involved libido linked live look machismo male masturbation mechanisms memory ment modulation mood mother narcissism negative affect neurotransmitter normal organism ourselves pain patient patterns person pheromone positive affect produce psychoanalytic psychotherapy reaction response scripts sense sexual arousal sexual dimorphism sexual drive sexual intercourse shame affect shame and pride Silvan Tomkins situations social someone specific stimulus tion Tomkins triggered understand withdrawal women