Shame is vividly presented in literary descriptions, universally recognisable in everyday observation, and is highly significant in mental life. However, it is neglected in psychoanalytic literature. This book, written by a respected psychoanalytic author, is addressed to a ‘wider readership’—which I take to mean a lay intelligent public.

Morrison belongs to a scholarly group of analysts, who have been interested in narcissistic phenomena and specifically in shame. This group, mischievously dubbed ‘the shameniks’ by one of