The psychology of shame : theory and treatment of shame-based syndromes /

The author of an earlier book on shame (Shame, the Power of Caring, 1980) uses here Silvan Tomkins's theory of affect to construct and elaborate a full-scale theory of shame. Kaufman integrates Tomkins's ideas about emotions with object-relations theory. The book attempts to account for the origin and developmental course of shame and related affects, as well as the experience of shame in everyday life and in psychopathological syndromes. Primarily aimed at practicing psychotherapists and students of psychopathology and the emotions, it requires more than passing familiarity with psychodynamic ways of thinking. The book is frustrating because Kaufman sometimes fails to adequately define key terms or to explain the concepts he uses. Aside from some illustrative case histories, not much empirical support is offered for the theory. Furthermore, many aspects of the theory are overgeneralized and unsupported either by argument or evidence (e.g., Kaufman fails to provide convincing evidence that guilt, shyness, and embarrassment are variants of shame). The book successfully integrates script theory into an analysis of the experience of shame. Overall, only graduate students and scholars already convinced of the utility of this point of view will find this title interesting. -R. R. Cornelius, Vassar College