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The Widening Scope of Shame, edited by Melvin R. Lansky and Andrew P. Morrison, offers a comprehensive view of the subject. It is presented by seminal workers on shame. For readers who are not familiar with the subject, it offers a good introduction to the topic. For those who are more familiar with the literature on shame, this book will enrich their understanding of the subject.
The book is interesting and encyclopedic in various senses of the word. The book's title is inspired by the classic psychoanalytic article of Leo Stone (1954), “The Widening Scope of Indications for Psychoanalysis”. This article is widely credited for legitimizing the opening up of classical psychoanalytic inquiry. Similarly, this book admirably accomplishes the task of opening up the subject of shame. Its vocabulary is rich but difficult. In its discussion of shame, it brings in a wide range of different schools of psychoanalytic thought — from Freud, through Klein, Winnicott, Bion, Kohut, the intersubjective school, the interpersonal school, and Karen Horney. Likewise it draws from a wide range of philosophy — Aristotle, Kant, Spinoza, Hegel, Dewey among others. Bringing together so many different areas of thought makes the book fun to read. The book also includes contributions from sociology, marital therapy, women's reactions to infertility, and religion. And last, but central to its purpose, all of these fields are brought to bear on the subject of shame.
According to the editors (p. xiv) they intend to present shame as including not only the negative affect associated with self-exposure but shame in a larger sense. By doing this, they show how understanding shame leads to an understanding of the bond that ties human beings to each other, and how that bond is regulated. In this respect, the book is truly ambitious. On the one hand, the authors attribute much to shame, saying that narcissism, envy, anger, therapeutic impasses, attention deficit disorder, depression, and dependency are at