"Each essay in this volume provides a cultural perspective on shame. More specifically, each chapter focuses on the question of how culture can differentially affect experiences of shame for members of that culture. As a collection, this volume provides a cross-cultural perspective on shame, highlighting the various similarities and differences of experiences of shame across cultures. In Part 1, each contributor focuses primarily on how shame is theorized in a non-English-speaking culture, and address how the science of shame ought to be pursued, how it ought to identify its object of study, what methods are appropriate for a rigorous science of shame, and how a method of study can determine or influence a theory of shame. In Part 2, each contributor is primarily concerned with a cultural practice of shame, and addresses how shame is related to a normative understanding of our self as a person and an individual member of a community, how culture and politics affect the value and import of shame, and what the relationship between culture and politics is in the construction of shamed identities. Cultural Perspectives on Shame will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in cross-cultural philosophy, philosophy of emotion, moral psychology, and the social sciences"--

Each essay in this volume provides a cultural perspective on shame. More specifically, each chapter focuses on the question of how culture can differentially affect experiences of shame for members of that culture. As a collection, this volume provides a cross-cultural perspective on shame, highlighting the various similarities and differences of experiences of shame across cultures. In Part 1, each contributor focuses primarily on how shame is theorized in a non-English-speaking culture, and address how the science of shame ought to be pursued, how it ought to identify its object of study, what methods are appropriate for a rigorous science of shame, and how a method of study can determine or influence a theory of shame. In Part 2, each contributor is primarily concerned with a cultural practice of shame, and addresses how shame is related to a normative understanding of our self as a person and an individual member of a community, how culture and politics affect the value and import of shame, and what the relationship between culture and politics is in the construction of shamed identities. Cultural Perspectives on Shame will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in cross-cultural philosophy, philosophy of emotion, moral psychology, and the social sciences.

This volume combines empirical research-based and theoretical perspectives on shame in cultural contexts and from socio-culturally different perspectives, providing new insights and a more comprehensive cultural base for contemporary research and practice in the context of shame. It examines shame from a positive psychology perspective, from the angle of defining the concept as a psychological and cultural construct, and with regard to practical perspectives on shame across cultures. The volume provides sound foundations for researchers and practitioners to develop new models, therapies and counseling practices to redefine and re-frame shame in a way that leads to strength, resilience and empowerment of the individual.

This edited collection of interdisciplinary perspectives on shame provides insight into scholarly concerns regarding the appropriate methods for studying shame and the theories that they yield, as well as the import of shame to our self, others, and the community to which we belong.

This volume is envisioned as a primary reference in research, studies and concepts on shame through the lens of gender and from transdisciplinary, cultural and transcultural perspectives. It sheds light on the state of the art regarding shame and its meaning in the context of gender from theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives from the standpoint of positive psychology. Since the experience of shame, the expression of shame as well as the individual or collective handling of shame depends in a special way on cultural factors, special importance has been given in the chapters to the consideration of cultural framework conditions. This volume is founded on the editors' first three publications on shame from positive psychology perspectives and an upcoming work on shame and ageing.

The term "walk of shame" is deeply rooted in the idea that shame is a difficult emotion stemming from a feeling of inferiority or social discomfort, which causes a person to wish to disappear, become invisible, be "swallowed up by the earth". However, sometimes exactly at such a moment of disgrace, individuals are publicly exposed to the full extent of their misery and must walk "the walk of shame" witnessed by family, friends and acquaintances. Shame, considered by some to have genetic origins, is an integral part of social circumstances and settings in accordance with a set of values, patterns of thought and the individual's physiological make-up. Shame is the result of familial, social and media processes. Thus the walk of shame does not take place privately behind closed doors, but on city sidewalks, in the workplace, in newspaper columns and on television and computer screens. It is not surprising, then, to discover that the tremendous power of shame has expropriated it from the individual's control in the private sphere to the public sector, creating a collective punishing mechanism whose goal is to warn against undesirable behaviour. Indeed, a person's public humiliation is a form of punishment, a negative sanction leading to disgrace, debasement and mortification. This book discusses the walk of shame from a cultural perspective, focusing on contexts, strategies, images etc., that reveals the many facets of a controversial concept.