Introduction

Shame is an overwhelming emotion, and its use in theory and practice, for example in the sociology of emotions, psychosocial theory and applied social sciences such as social work, is also burgeoning and complex. Within sociology, how shame is generated through class inequality in education, health and poverty is the focus of much careful analysis (Reay, 2005; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009; Chase and Walker, 2012; Peacock, Bissell and Owen, 2013). Social work literature on shame in relation to service users and social workers is beginning to emerge (eg Walker, 2011; Gibson, 2016; Frost, 2016).

Noticeably, the sheer volume of versions and approaches to the concept of shame circulating contemporarily, and the ubiquity of its use, renders the concept both confusing and opaque. It is a term used to describe very personal, even confessional, experiences of feeling unworthy within oneself, but it can also mean feeling negatively evaluated by social groups (as with internet shaming). It is further used in broader contexts, for example being ashamed that unassisted refugees drown on one's national shores in attempts to flee war zones. Social workers report that, for their service users (and sometimes themselves), of all the complex psychosocial human states they encounter, the most prevalent, entrenched and obscure is shame. This chapter proposes a framework for making sense of the many contemporary uses of shame.

Ways of ‘ordering’ shame (eg definitional, comparative) are specifically formulated in a great deal of seminal work on the subject. For example, the notion of shame as either ‘external or internal’; shame in contrast to other significant negative emotional states such as guilt or stigma; as either individual or social/group; and as comparable across cultures and epochs, do much to guide readers through this complex topic (Stearns, 2016). This chapter advances a structure, not by establishing contrast or comparison with other experiences or across time, but by focusing on meaningful differences within the existing ideas of shame in circulation. Axel Honneth's (1995, 2012) work on recognition is the prototype of this model.