Shame is the recognition of being as the Other sees one
Evidence
By the mere appearance of the Other, I am put in the position of passing judgment on myself as on an object, for it is as an object that I appear to the Other. Yet this object which has appeared to the Other is not an empty image in the mind of another. Such an image in fact, would be imputable wholly to the Other and so could not “touch” me. I could feel irritation, or anger before it as before a bad portrait of myself which gives to my expression an ugliness or baseness which I do not have, but I could not be touched to the quick. Shame is by nature recognition. I recognize that I am as the Other sees me. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 660
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines shame as recognition — an ontological structure, not an emotion arising from comparison.
- XREF: connects to: Being objectified by another’s look constitutes an inescapable existential guilt — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 72; Shame is fundamentally experienced in the presence of another person — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 659; The Other is an invisible presence that supports shame without being an object (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Shame is fundamentally experienced in the presence of another person
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 659 - The Other is an invisible presence that supports shame without being an object
#expands(0.80) - Shame first reveals one’s factical body because the Other’s look falls on embodiment
#expands(0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 97 - The Other’s look makes the self haunt an unreflective consciousness
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 727 - Being perceived as an object by another creates communal shame and alienation
#corroborates(0.75) - Shame claims the Other’s freedom as one’s own, affirming a unity of being.
#complicates(0.75) - Shame at nakedness symbolizes the human condition of being seen as an object.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 784