I know from my own clinical work that when people are beaten and hurt, they numb out so that they cant feel anymore.

I know from my own clinical work that when people are beaten and hurt, they numb out so that they cant feel anymore.

Since the earliest period of our life was preverbal, everything depended on emotional interaction. Without someone to reflect our emotions, we had no way of knowing who we were.

Shame is the root of all addictions.

Condemning others as bad or sinful is a way to feel righteous. Such a feeling is a powerful mood alteration and can become highly addictive.

All these feelings need to be felt. We need to stomp and storm; to sob and cry; to perspire and tremble.

The most paradoxical aspect of neurotic shame is that it is the core motivator of the superachieved and the underachieved, the star and the scapegoat, the righteous and the wretched, the powerful and the pathetic.