The last few years have seen an upsurge of interest in the topic of shame, albeit more outside than within the analytic community. Even today there seems to be a marked reluctance to explore the fascinating theoretical and technical implications of attributing an independent role to the affect of shame, to shame as defense and the defenses against shame, to the forms of anxiety and depression specifically connected to shame, and questions like: What is the distinction between shame and guilt? How does analytic theory have to be modified to accommodate the complex issues involving shame in a way that does not simply treat them as a subset of those articulated about guilt? What is the relevance of the studies on shame for psychoanalytic technique? And particularly: What are the roles of intrasystemic superego conflicts, the opposition between shame and guilt, the dialectic between "shame values" and "guilt values" (and their corresponding ethical categories), both for the