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The Widening Scope of Shame is an edited volume that is expectably uneven, ranging from provocative and insightful to inexplicable. Nonetheless, for any reader who is not familiar with the literature on shame, this is the place to go. The book's 19 chapters cover everything that has been written on the topic, including Helen Block Lewis's pioneering work as well as current contributions by the well-known editors, Lansky and Morrison. As is inevitably the case with an edited book devoted to an important yet relatively small topic, the literature review from chapter to chapter is painfully repetitive. However, for those readers who are not familiar with the literature on shame, some of the repetition may serve to forever implant this information in long-term memory.
The editors appropriately begin the volume with a historical overview of the literature and the development of the term shame. From the time of Freud to the present, the authors illustrate the long-standing and inevitable experience of comparing oneself to some standard and finding oneself to be woefully inadequate. The resultant emotional experience is shame. Related concepts of envy, rage, depression, and narcissism, are covered extremely well and in a readable fashion. Morrison and Stolorow are the authors of another chapter that plumbs the depths of the intersubjective nature of the shame experience, positing the following question: “Does narcissistic vulnerability lead to shame because of failure to attain complete independence and autonomy in one's identity formation, or does shame come from failure to attain worthiness for merger or relationship