Notes on the Evolution of the Relationship between Guilt and Shame in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology

Abstract

The author examines evolution of the relationship between the concepts of shame and guilt in anthropology and in psychoanalysis between 1900 and 1980. He finds that three periods have succeeded; in a first period guilt was presented as more essential in symptom-construction than shame in occidental societies; in anthropology shame was mainly viewed as germane of primitive or non-occidental societies, and guilt was seen as an “occidental” feeling. He shows that this view has been criticized in the 1960ies, and that nowadays shame is recognized to be much more pervasive in occidental cultures and guilt is also present in non-occidental settings.