Shame arises from individual isolation and dissolves within collective action

Evidence

All feeling of shame rests upon isolation of the individual; it arises whenever stress is laid upon the ego, whenever the attention of a circle is drawn to such an individual—in reality or only in his imagination—which at the same time is felt to be in some way incongruous. … It is one of the strangest social-psychological phenomena, in which this characteristic of concerted action is well exemplified, that many fashions tolerate breaches of modesty which, if suggested to the individual alone, would be angrily repudiated. But as dictates of fashion they find ready acceptance. The feeling of shame is eradicated in matters of fashion, because it represents a united action, in the same way that the feeling of responsibility is extinguished in the participants of a crime committed by a mob, each member of which, if left to himself, would shrink from violence. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 735

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the blasé attitude and crowd psychology in Simmel’s urban essays; membership in a mass suspends individual shame just as it suspends the blasé detachment. — connects to: Homeless people organize among themselves when poverty takes on a shared positive content — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 447; Expanded social circles throw the individual back upon himself — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 699; When one social impulse is blocked, people compensate elsewhere — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 730 (+7 more)