Forms of shame between social processes and prospects for subjectification

Abstract

The aim of this article is to mark an original sociological way of access to the study of shame. The main theoretical hypothesis concerns the distinction between two forms of shame: Me-shame and I-shame. After having mentioned the main sociological reflections about shame, the author refers to G.H. Mead’s social theory’s distinction between Me and I to argue that Me-shame points out a form of shame that is sociologically relevant, objectivised and socialised, which concerns the violation of a given core of social norms. I-shame, on the other hand, points out the subjective dimension of shame and as such it can be defined as a social compression of intersubjective sources of subjectification. Having briefly discussed the distinction between Me-shame and I-shame, the author focuses on a particular form of I-shame called critical I-shame. After a theoretical definition, the author proposes a case study dedicated to this form, which aims to emphasise the emancipative role of shame. The case study ultimately shows how renewed recognitive social resources permit the humiliated subject to gain access to new self-definitions and to reappropriate himself in a creatively open way of current meanings that may have taken on oppressive trait.