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4/25/2006

Guilt vs. Shame
This topic came up the other night, and I couldn't quite put my finger on how I wanted to express the difference between the two, so I consulted my authority on all things academic, Dr. David Hibbard (you can call him H-Bomb, but just for the summer). Here's his take on it:

...guilt is strictly an internal emotion. It seems to keep us from doing bad things (as Freud might say). You could actually feel guilty just imagining doing something "bad". But no one else seems to know what you are feeling (unless you tell them, I guess).

Shame, on the other hand, seems to be what you feel when you have actually done something "bad" and are publicly embarrassed in some way.

Developmentally speaking, my guess is that shame rears its head pretty early in life, whereas guilt takes a certain level of cognitive advancement and may develop a bit later.

-David R. Hibbard, PhD
Department of Psychology
Illinois Wesleyan University
dhibbard@iwu.edu

So this is what I was trying to say, I just couldn't get it out as succinctly. I guess that's why I'm a college drop out and H-Bomb has a fucking professorship. I love my Uncle Dave, he's the only person I know who knows the guitar intro to "Rebel Rebel" and the answers to all my questions about psychology.
- posted by Mason @ 1:01 PM
Ya'll Motherfuckers Said What?:
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