Shame as an anthropological, historical and social emotion
In her chapter Veronika Magyar-Haas shows that in an anthropological point of view the possibility of the experience of the self in two modes – as a subject and an object, and so the difference between the ‘I’ and ‘Me’ – serves as a structural condition of feeling ashamed. Even if shame in this sense can be defined as a universal human feeling, the historical and cultural relativity of this phenomenon is to be taken into account. The author argues that in shameful situations subjects become objects for others and for themselves, too. She points out that by analysing shame, the existential difference of the self can be presumed – but the sources of shame as well as its intensity and forms of appearance are historically, culturally, and socially varying. It will be argued that in the emotion of shame the self reveals itself as a vulnerable self, which is in various relationships to others and to social norms. With reference to neoliberal expectations and ‘workfare programs’, the chapter illustrates to what extent they generate shame among service users and how shame can be seen as a reproduction of power.