The Mask of Shame

The author combines his obvious thorough understanding of the subject matter with fascinating clinical examples to provide the reader with a text that should be required study in all psychoanalytic institutes. With the use of literary illustrations; Shakespeare, Talmud, the understanding of Shame comes vividly to life.

This book is a must for those people who are interested in the subject of shame, because this subject was too difficult for even Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was excellent in his theory with respect to the drives with the active purpuses. Freud already recognized the drives with passive purposes, but couldn't yet describe them in a very subtle way. By these passive wishes there is a great significance for the other in the psychological life of a person. Also Wurmser describes the psychological life of man in terms of intrapsychich structures but gives more colour to the fantasies about the other and the begging position in the situation of shame. Not only the emotion of shame is written down by Wurmser, but also the meta-psychological position of shame, which is reflection in the character traits of e.g. masochism or in schizophrenia, in which the boundaries between the ego and the object disappear. The structure of shame is difficult and painful, but also magic. The fantasy about the other is a very early pre-oedipal tendency, in which the separation-individuation conflicts are very important. By reading this book the insight into this problems will be augmented, and also therefore it is very inspiring. Sometimes it is even very interesting in a philosophic way, because the difference between guilt and shame is explained thoroughly. The experience of shame is, like guilt also a desire of the ego-ideal within the superego but in the case of shame the ego fears to be destroyed and not to destroy. That is an important difference and is fundamental in psychoanalytic thinking. It is an absolutely psychoanalytic masterwork, sometimes even exciting, because of the wonderful case-histories.