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<blockquote>The age of [[childhood]], in which the [[sense ]] of shame is unknown, seems a paradise when we look back upon it later, and paradise itself is [[nothing ]] but the mass-[[phantasy ]] of the childhood of the [[individual]]. This is why in paradise men are naked and unashamed,. until the [[moment ]] arrives when shame and [[fear ]] awaken; [[expulsion ]] follows, and [[sexual ]] [[life ]] and [[cultural ]] [[development ]] begin. Into this paradise [[dreams ]] can take us back every night; we have already ventured the conjecture that the impressions of our earliest childhood (from the prehistoric period until [[about ]] the end of the [[third ]] year) crave reproduction for their own sake, perhaps without further reference to their [[content]], so that their [[repetition ]] is a [[wish]]-fulfilment. Dreams of nakedness, then, are ''exhibition-dreams''.<ref>{{IoD}} Ch. 5</ref></blockquote>

The [[word ]] shame encompasses: 1) the raw [[emotion ]] linked to a [[loss ]] of one's bearings; 2) judgment about this [[state ]] (the [[perception ]] of shame as such resulting from the comparison of oneself with a [[model]]); and 3) judgment about both this emotion and the possible causes of shame (implying possibilities for [[action]]). In all cases, shame is a sense of [[anxiety ]] about [[being ]] excluded, that is, not only fear of a [[withdrawal ]] of [[love]], but even withdrawal of any [[form ]] of interest.

In "[[Three ]] Essays on the [[Theory ]] of [[Sexuality]]" (1905), Sigmund [[Freud ]] linked shame to the action of the forces of [[repression ]] (what was initially an [[object ]] of [[pleasure ]] becomes an object of modesty, disgust, or shame). By contrast, in "La honte comme [[angoisse ]] sociale" (Shame as a [[Social ]] Anxiety; 1929), Imre Hermann described shame as a "social anxiety" linked to attachment.

Shame always has two aspects: one relating to individual [[mental ]] functioning (anxiety about mental disintegration), and the [[other ]] relating to relations with the group (anxiety about being excluded). Pathological shame is to be distinguished from shame as a [[signal ]] of alarm. [[Coping ]] with shame involves both naming it and reinforcing the secondary [[processes ]] to [[limit ]] its disintegrative effects. It can be [[displaced ]] or masked, especially by resignation, anger, [[guilt]], or [[hate]].

To a certain extent, shame was a "blind spot" for Freud and, in his wake, for many [[psychoanalysts ]] who reduced it to a pathological [[affect ]] linked to the [[ideal ]] ego and opposed to the guilt associated with the [[oedipal ]] [[superego]]. However, it is a [[concept ]] that is essential to the [[understanding ]] of the dynamics of social bonds (it protects [[people ]] from engaging in nonhuman actions) and [[intergenerational ]] secrets.

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243.