When it comes to defining shame, it is quite difficult to do so. Although it is healthy human power, yet it, sometimes, turns out to be a true sickness of the soul. Shame is an emotion that can be experienced as a result of a comparison between one’s actual actions and one’s standard of actions. It can also occur by comparing one’s actions with social standards. Although shame is an emotion, yet it can be exhibited through a person’s thought process, emotional state or affect.
There are two appearances of shame. The first type of shame is a healthy shame which is nourishing; it let the person progress and move forward, it has the capacity to teach from one’s mistakes; and it does not push the person into the corner. On the other hand, there is another form of shame that is toxic in nature. As the name implies, it is life-destroying and pathological. It leads a person towards isolation; it does not let the person progress rather regress back. A person experiencing toxic shame even starts disowning oneself. Toxic shame has a tendency to hide the real self of an individual and covers itself up, so it is essential for a person to recognize the various faces of shame and its behavioral cover-ups such as being hopeless or irremediable on being flawed, mistaken, or defective; circulatory in nature by acting out the internalized shame and then feeling ashamed about the shameful actions; as spiritual bankruptcy; grandiosity; narcissism; paranoid; self-alienation and isolation.