Identitätsprobleme und verletzte Schamgefühle

Counselling and therapy are increasingly about supporting the insecure self and clarifying pressing identity problems. Behind feelings of self-doubt, excessive demands, disorientation and not belonging, we often come across open or hidden issues of shame. At the same time, in the sometimes flashy and distant nature of public productions, in the increasingly harsh and irreconcilable social and political controversies, we experience a kind of “liberated shamelessness” that threatens to endanger respect, tolerance and democratic manners. This article sheds light on the dual role of shame as a guardian and as a potential destroyer of human sense of identity and discusses the diversity of feelings of shame and reasons for shame in their impact on individual and social conflicts.