It is crucial to note from the outset that shame as a neurophysiologic phenomenon is not bad in and of itself. It is, rather, our system’s way of warning of possible impending abandonment, although we do not think of it in those terms, and certainly not at very early ages. However, our problem with it is generally that we tend to respond to it by relationally moving away from others rather than toward them, while experiencing within our own minds a similar phenomenon of internal disintegration.
