While I am partial to the concept of an internalized other, I do not know if I fully understand it. However, given what I do understand, it seems to me that while Williams may be correct that the internalized other plays a vital role in shame, I think it would be a mistake to identify this other, with shame itself.
To begin, why is the internalized other necessary for shame? If I understand Williams, shame needs more than merely to be seen. If this was the case there would be no culture of shame, no acts that could be deeded as shameful, just recations to acts, and reactions to those reactions. While this social competent plays an important role in shame it can't be everything. So Williams argues.
The internalized other effectively acts as an identifier of shame, looking at the self and identifying certain acts as shameful. "If you did X, it would be cause for you to feel shame", the other says.
Now to my main point, this ability of a human to identify (or perhaps label) certain acts as shameful is not the feeling of shame, though it may be necessary for this feeling. I say this because I get the sense that many people do things, like the man looking through the keyhole, not feeling shame in the current moment, but will nonetheless, upon being caught, feel shame.
To me, it seems completely plausible that a person could refer to the internalized other, know (or label) something as shameful, yet not feel shame during the act. Shame may thus require both the recognition of shame and the social awareness of the act labeled as such.
While I find your argument compelling I disagree that all instances of shame require "being caught." I feel shame when I am alone. Even if there is no one there to catch me doing something and my image to others isn't ruined I could still feel shame. If I do poorly on an assignment for a class I feel shame because I feel as though I could have done better or tried harder. You could put pressure on my argument by saying that it is the teacher who caught you at not knowing the material however I do not believe the shame felt in that situation is contingent on that. Nonetheless, another example could be given of taking an online test where only the test taker sees the result. If I take an intelligence test online or a practice test for the GRE that I have to take and I do poorly, I could still feel shame at performing poorly, even though no one else will see it. This could be categorized as embarrassment but I would argue that it is entirely different. I am ashamed of myself for not doing the work necessary or studying hard enough in order to do good on that test. This could even go past cases of intelligence and feeling shame for not being smart or prepared enough. Say I am taking a Buzzfeed quiz on which Harry Potter character I am. If I got Malfoy I could still feel ashamed even though I am not sharing my results. I am the only one seeing this and I am still ashamed that the quiz determined that my character was similar to Malfoy's.
ReplyDeleteIn this argument, I tend to side with Michelle on this. Velleman used the example of Robinson Crusoe as an example of self-shame, which I think is quite relevant here as well. It supports Michelle's examples quite well. The example of Robinson Crusoe would bring out the idea of what Williams would call the "interlocked expectations between himself and the world". The way that we could have shame on ourselves may be that we develop such our "moral ecosystems" from when we were in society. They are so pervasive and ingrained that it is difficult to ever rid ourselves of their influence, but we are able to create them as our own. For example, using Michelle as an example. Michelle is a intelligent and good person. She portrays herself as being good and intelligent, and most likely thinks of herself as being a good and intelligent person. So when her own actions, whether in front of someone else or herself, do not reflect her being a good and intelligent person she feels like she has misrepresented herself. When she gets that result of being a Malfoy, I can see why one would feel shame. (Besides the fact that no one really wants to be Draco or Lucius - I could see being Narcissa, but...)
ReplyDeleteI always found it difficult to define why we can judge ourselves. It makes me think about how when you're older you look back on when you were kid and you'd tell them this, or your didn't like your hair style then. Perhaps that's a way to think about why self shame can exist. The person who commits the action and the person who judges it are simultaneously a part of your being.