Guilt, I am told, is about things we have done or not done, but our shame is about the primal emptiness of our very being—not what we have done, but who we are and who we are not. Guilt is a moral question. Shame—foundational shame, at least—is an ontological question. It is not resolved by changing behavior as much as by changing our very self-image, our alignment with the universe. Shame is not about what we do, but where we abide.
The difference between guilt and shame
