This article presents a critical discussion of the problem of shame, or embarassment, considered from the social point of view, where shame represents a symptom and indicates a wounded ideal. Shame is thus a social emotion, since it usually appears as a reaction to the gaze of the other and indicates a failure in narcissistic confirmation. This hypothesis suggests that in clinical work with subjects who have had psychotic experiences the expression of shame, as ontological proof of the gaze of the Other, constitutes an attempt by the subject to prove her/himself as such. From the clinical point of view, this reflection points to the mutual presence of shame, psychosis and social relations.
Social relation; narcissism; psychosis; emotion of shame