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    Shame and Guilt: A Psychoanalytic and a Cultural Study
    Shame and Guilt: A Psychoanalytic and a Cultural Study
    Shame and Guilt: A Psychoanalytic and a Cultural Study
    Ebook94 pages2 hours

    Shame and Guilt: A Psychoanalytic and a Cultural Study

    By Gerhart Piers, Roy R. Grinker and Milton B. Singer

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    This book, whose influence and renown have steadily grown since its first publication, is a psychoanalytic and cultural study of shame and guilt. In Part I, Dr. Gerhart Piers, a psychoanalyst, gives concise definitions of these two previously inadequately define terms, and clearly distinguishes between them. He discusses the experiences that can cause guilt or shame in an individual; why some persons develop into guilt-ridden individuals, and others become shame-driven; and the special and sharply different therapeutic considerations that must be given to the person afflicted with guilt or shame. In Part II, Dr. Milton Singer, an anthropologist, applies Dr. Piers' analysis of guilt and shame within the individual to his own study of cultures.—Print ed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarakaldo Books
    Release dateMay 8, 2020
    ISBN9781839744457
    Shame and Guilt: A Psychoanalytic and a Cultural Study

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      Book preview

      Shame and Guilt - Gerhart Piers

      © Barakaldo Books 2020, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      SHAME AND GUILT

      A PSYCHOANALYTIC AND A CULTURAL STUDY

      GERHART PIERS, M.D.

      Staff Member, The Institute for Psychoanalysis Chicago, Illinois

      and

      MILTON B. SINGER, PH.D.

      Professor of the Social Sciences The College of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

      FOREWORD BY ROY R. GRINKER, M.D.

      Table of Contents

      Contents

      Table of Contents 4

      Foreword 5

      Acknowledgments 6

      Part I — SHAME AND GUILT 7

      1 — Guilt and Shame 7

      2 — Structure of Shame 12

      3 — Ego-Ideal and Super-Ego 13

      4 — Guilt-Shame Cycles 16

      5 — Pathology and Phenomenology 17

      6 — Masochism in Guilt and Shame 20

      7 — Character Formation 22

      8 — The Question of Onset 23

      9 — Therapeutic Considerations 24

      10 — Cultural Problems 26

      Part II — SHAME CULTURES AND GUILT CULTURES 27

      1 — Introduction 27

      2 — Internal vs. External Sanctions 29

      3 — Psychometric Data on Shame and Guilt in American Indian Cultures 33

      4 — Psychoanalytic vs. Cultural Interpretations of Guilt Cultures 41

      5 — Summary and Conclusions 47

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 49

      Foreword

      NO BETTER SELECTION could be made for the first psychiatric monograph of the American Lecture Series than this study of shame and guilt. Both terms have been loosely used interchangeably although each stands for feelings derived from special early experiences that have influenced different psychological forces. Each is associated with a different intrapsychic pattern and probably contributes to a characterological type. An understanding of these differences is necessary for the development of adequate therapeutic procedures for the sick individual and for the accurate analyses of cultures.

      The combination of psychoanalytic and anthropological contributions to understanding of the same phenomena is particularly fitting in the discussion of shame and guilt anxiety. Both are instilled in varying proportions in individuals by the forces of their culture through pressures and sanctions imposed on quantitatively susceptible energy systems; in turn the resulting character structures accrete to the cultural attitudes of the next generation. Such a transactional circular process is of great significance in this age of increasing mastery of the physical world, the results of which are utilized by the irrational forces of human nature and increase man’s anxieties.

      The bewildered focus of an attack to produce a change in humans—a lessening of all forms of overcompensatory aggressiveness—is the American mother who has been badgered by child-guidance mentors, first in the direction of rigid scheduling and now in permissive self-demand. However, our culture puts a premium on achieving through competition to be, or to have, the best, which is conducive to internal shame or an external sense of inferiority, and at the same time imposes moral, religious, and filial responsibilities which result in a sense of guilt. Each secondarily leads to reactions, defensive against personal anxiety, but aggressive or masochistic within the social group. In what manner may this circular process be altered—it matters not whether through social change, altered child-rearing or treatment of individuals—is an important question implied by this timely and scholarly monograph.

      ROY R. GRINKER

      Acknowledgments

      I WISH TO THANK the following for reading Part I and for offering many valuable suggestions, some of which I could incorporate into the final draft: Dr. Therese Benedek, who also formally discussed Part I in its original presentation to the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society in November, 1950 and to whose encouragement I feel particularly indebted; Dr. Franz Alexander, whose earlier statement of the problem is used as the starting point for parts of my thesis; Miss Helen Ross, Dr. Paul Kramer, Dr. Elizabeth Zetzel, Dr. Raymond De Saussure, the last three for their thoughtful discussions of my paper; Dr. Roy R. Grinker, who first suggested publication in the present form and who offered many helpful criticisms and suggestions; Dr. Eduardo Weiss; and last but not least, I want to thank my wife, Dr. Maria Piers, who contributed largely to this study, particularly from her knowledge and experience in child development and anthropology.

      GERHART PIERS

      I am indebted to Prof. Robert Havighurst of the University of Chicago for his kindness in making available to me his unpublished studies of American Indian children.

      MILTON B. SINGER

      SHAME AND GUILT

      Part I — SHAME AND GUILT

      A Psychoanalytic Study

      By

      GERHART PIERS

      1 — Guilt and Shame

      OF ALL THE more organized forms of intrapsychic tension, those manifested in the feelings of guilt and shame are possibly the most important ones, not only in emotional pathology, but quite generally in ego development, character formation and socialization. Although they have been recognized in their importance by the great majority of modern psychologists, it is quite surprising to find that they are usually neither clearly differentiated nor adequately defined. This is particularly true for the feeling of shame, its phenomenology, genetics and dynamics.

      In order to delineate both concepts, it seems advisable to start with the more largely accepted views held in regard to guilt feelings. Briefly restated, they are: the dynamically important sense of guilt remains as such unconscious, although the concomitant anxiety becomes conscious. The sense of guilt is generated by the Super-Ego. Without the formation of such an internal authority, psychological guilt does not occur. (For brevity’s sake, we shall in the following frequently say guilt instead of guilt feelings

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