A PHILOSOPHY OF SHAME

An old-fashioned examination of shame, supported by stacks of psychoanalytical, literary, and philosophical citations.

Equipped with many references to Freud, French classics, and Greek philosophy, Gros (Disobey! The Philosophy of Resistance, 2020, etc.) attempts to reveal the complexities of human shame by parsing it out into a series of taxonomies such as moral shame, digital shame, and shame rooted in how one is perceived by others. “This existence in the gaze of others is our hell,” he explains, “our loss of innocence.” Each of these categorizations leads to further variations and subclassifications, such as discussions of family honor and “insurmountable disgust” or “the shame of being seen as—or feeling oneself to be—pitiful, revolting, and dirty….We project ourselves into all manner of scenarios beneath the gaze of other people, and those imaginings prompt us to erect a moral barrier.” In order to reckon with shame’s amorphous forms, Gros similarly projects himself into a variety of philosophical stances that often feel more like curious explorations than they do reinforcements of a cohesive statement. Gros is eager to humanize his claims and often articulates his points as a narrative: In one section discussing gender equality, he writes, “It used to be the case that I was excluded from a particular post or status because I was a woman or from an ethnic minority or from a disadvantaged background.” Elsewhere, he dons the voice of an abuse survivor, and later, in tandem with a discussion of Sartre, imagines himself being caught spying by a neighbor. Much of the book is devoted to discussions of sexual abuse, which, when viewed primarily through the lens of literature and philosophy, lands on awkward footing. Ultimately, Gros’ hypothetical, drifting narrative detaches his philosophy from the humanity at the core of his subject. This leaves much of the book in the realm of fanciful inquisition and risks reducing trauma to a series of intellectual quandaries.

An academic treatise rich in concept but short on heart.