The Bright Side of Shame: Transforming and Growing Through Practical Applications in Cultural Contexts

By Claude-Hélène Mayer

This book provides new ideas on how to work with and constructively transform shame on a theoretical and practical level, and in various socio-cultural contexts and professions. It provides practical guidelines on dealing with shame on the basis of reflection, counselling models, exercises, simulations, specific psychotherapeutic approaches, and auto-didactical learning material, so as to transform shame from a negatively experienced emotion into a mental health resource. The book challenges theorists to adopt an interdisciplinary stance and to think “outside the box.” Further, it provides practitioners, such as coaches, counsellors, therapists, trainers and medical personnel, with practical tools for transforming negative experiences and emotions. In brief, the book shows practitioners how to unlock the growth potential of individuals, teams, and organisations, allowing them to develop constructively and positively.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Apr 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9783030134099

Book preview

Part ITransforming Shame in Cultural Perspectives

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Claude-Hélène Mayer and Elisabeth Vanderheiden (eds.)The Bright Side of Shamehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13409-9_1

1. Opening the Black Box Part 1: On Collective Shame in the German Society

Claude-Hélène Mayer¹, ²  

(1)

Institut für Therapeutische Kommunikation und Sprachgebrauch, Europa Universität Viadrina, Logenstrasse 11, 15230 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

(2)

Department of Management, Rhodes University, Drosdy Road, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa

Claude-Hélène Mayer

Email: [e-mail]

Abstract

This chapter is the first of two chapters on shame in German society. It explores collective shame in the German context, thereby, opening the black box of shame which is often left closed and stored in the back of collective and individual minds. The chapter explores shame from different German historic and contemporary collective perspectives and provides the reader with an overview of research and state-of-the-art research and practices on collective shame in the context described. It explores how shame is experienced and developed, (re-)constructed, addressed and transformed at these different societal levels. The chapter presents conclusions and recommendations on how to transform collective shame in different German contexts.

Keywords

GermanyHistoric shamePoliticsViolenceShame developmentCollectiveNation

Claude-Hélène Mayer (Dr. habil., PhD, PhD)

is a Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, an Adjunct Professor at the Europa Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology (University of Pretoria, South Africa), a Ph.D. in management (Rhodes University, South Africa), a Doctorate in political sciences (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany), and a Habilitation with a Venia Legendi (Europa Universität Viadrina, Germany) in psychology with focus on work, organizational, and cultural psychology. She has published numerous monographs, edited text books, accredited journal article, and special issues on transcultural mental health, salutogenesis and sense of coherence, shame, transcultural conflict management and mediation, women in leadership in culturally diverse work contexts, constellation work, coaching, and psychobiography.

Wenn die meisten sich schon

armseliger Kleider und Möbel schämen,

wieviel mehr sollten wir uns da erst

armseliger Ideen und Weltanschauungen schämen.

Albert Einstein¹

1.1 On Opening the Black Box

Shame is a powerful emotion which is often associated with self-condemnation and which impacts strongly on regulating social interaction in which a person or a group has violated a moral or social code (Tangney & Fischer, 1995; Zhang & Chen, 2016; Pettigrove & Parsons, 2008; Rensman, 2004). Shame, is not only the regulating social interaction with regard to an individual and/or social code, but is also a force behind an objectifying self-consciousness (Lotter, 2012).

In the 1980s, Scheff (1988, 400) highlighted the invisibility of shame in Western cultures, pointing out that shame is viewed as a master emotion which is inherent in all communities, and which appears to be invisible in certain societies and cultures. Scheff (1988, 400) refers to these as low-visibility-shame societies. In her book on shame, Jacquets (2015) emphasises that shame plays an important influential role in the political arena. She discusses shame and shaming as powerful tools in influencing collectives, and describes seven effective ways to shame others, as well as exploring shaming within virtual realities (Jacquets, 2015).

Germany could be classified as a low-visibility-shame society, according to Scheff (1988, 2013). The topic of shame seems to be strongly taboo in German contexts (Scheff, 2003). In low-visibility shame cultures, shame seems to stay unrecognised, denied or even forgotten (Scheff, 2016).

However, there seems to be a split with regard to shame in German historical and collective contexts: on one hand, people do not seem to wish to talk about shame and collective historical events, while on the other hand, there is a vast amount of literature (Brogle, 2016; Burleigh & Wippermann, 1991; Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006; Lu, 2008; Rothe, 2012; Sullivan, 2014a, 2014b) dealing with Germany’s past, referring indirectly to past shame, but defining the emotions rather as pain or suffering.

If a shameful event is too difficult to process and is too emotionally laden, it is stored in the unconscious rather than being transformed at conscious levels. This is true for collectively experienced shame, as well as for individual shame (see Mayer, part 2 in this book). When discussing collective shame, it needs to be acknowledged as an emotion that demonstrates flexible and strategic features while negotiating social and relational contexts (Burkitt, 2014). Shame is thereby viewed as an emotion which occurs in response to the judgement of a person, with actions being seen through the eyes of the other, based on the foundation of the social norms and values of the group (Scheff, 1988).

Collective shame has often been referred to sceptically in the literature which questions how a collective could even have or create a particular emotion (Pettigrove & Parsons, 2012). Smith (2008) observes that collective emotions are usually questioned owing to the difficulty of phenomenological credibility. However, he points out that collective emotions, such as collective shame, often contribute to certain dynamics within and across societies which might lead to conflicts (Smith, 2008). Such shame-based conflict emotions might be addressed through face-saving narrations (Smith, 2008), or by using other strategies such as denial, repression (Lewis, 1971), or the development of collective pride (Sullivan, 2014a, 2014b).

Germany has suffered as a nation from its history and feelings of collective shame and guilt, based on the two world wars (WWI and WWII), the Nazi past, the Holocaust, the split nation and its reunification, as well as from its image of being a domineering and aggressive nation (Sullivan, 2014a, 2014b). WWII and recent German history have been assessed from many different viewpoints around the world and judged in negative ways. This multiple and long-term negative reference might have contributed to strong feelings of shame in German collectives and individuals (Sullivan, 2014a). However, this societal shame is scarcely visible, as is often the case in modern societies (Scheff, 2016). Lotter (2012) argues that shame is a phenomenon that develops out of social practices and cultural forms of life. It is strongly connected to moral and philosophical discourses within a societal setting and opens new access to ethical understanding. In this manner, shame is viewed in terms of its function as a protector within individual and social contexts. Conflicts based on shame experiences are not only protective, but also viewed as important for the moral development (Lotter, 2012) of an individual or collective. Shame is a universal emotion which manifests itself in various ways and practices (Lotter, 2012).

This chapter focuses on the exploration of collective shame in German contexts. In so doing, the black box of collective German shame is opened and its transformational aspects in contemporary society are revealed.

The following section provides insight into collective shame in German contexts with regard to historic and contemporary experiences. Applications will then be provided in terms of statements on collective shame in German contemporary contexts, with questions for self-reflection and team discussions. Conclusions are provided and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

1.2 Shame and Shaming Before and During WWI and WWII

Although shame often remains unspoken in contemporary German contexts, shame does play an extraordinary role in German history and in the present (Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006). Shame in research in German contexts is often referred to as a collective shame (Brogle, 2016; Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006; Rothe, 2012) and has been explored with a strong focus on historical world events, such as WWI (Lu, 2008) and WWII (Burleigh & Wippermann, 1991; Sullivan, 2014a, 2014b) in which Germany played a major role.

Research shows that before WWI, concepts of shame differed strongly according to class and gender in Germany (Frevert, 2014), being transformed during WWI, when shame and honour became emotions of the wartime which impacted strongly on the politics, but also on military actions and gendered concepts. During this time in Germany, shamefulness was considered a virtue for women (Frevert, 2014). Foreign soldiers, the enemies, and the captured, were shamed publicly by being displayed, dishonoured and ashamed in public.

After WWI, the concepts of shame changed again (Frevert, 2014; Lu, 2008). Post-war politics have led to creating reconciliation marked by political and moral transformation based on strong experiences of shame and guilt within the German society (Lu, 2008). Shame and guilt in the post-WWI years covered up a huge part of the national identity, as well as certain societal values and beliefs. These led to strong collective identity transformations and new politics (Lu, 2008), which, under the influence of collective shame, turned out to1 be somewhat defensive, reactionary and violent and were viewed as not necessarily healthy transformation of the collective shame of the previous war (Lu, 2008).

During WWII, a culture of shame was encouraged by Hitler with regard to German warfare: soldiers and superiors who refused to carry out genocide orders were belittled and shamed as being soft or not tough to carry out the executions of Jews as ordered (Kühne, 2008).

Not only did shame play a role in military actions, but it was also relevant in terms of the implemented shame sanctions which were reinstituted (from WWI) during WWII. Shame sanctions fitted into the Nazi worldview in terms of a spirit of parade, display and humiliation (Whitman, 1998, 1085). Nazis used shame sanctions and promoted them as the Nazi punishment of choice, and the pillory and other shame sanctions were (re-)introduced in 1933/1934. However, in the end, Nazi norms did not comply with the shame sanctions and pure humiliation sanctions were rejected by the Nazi regime based on the fear that public shaming would undermine the ability of the state to control the crowd (Whitman, 1998, 1085).

Both world wars brought a strong audience effect² for Germany, restating and re-emphasising the negative traits within the German society, its culture and its past. This contributed, according to Dresler-Hawke and Lui (2006), to the strong feelings of collective shame which were increased through the long-term negative reference to the German culture, morals and warfare based on the strong focus on Germany’s wrongdoings.

1.3 Dealing with and Healing the Shame in Post-war Years

In the post-war German society, research indicates that the younger generation of Germans seemed to dissociate themselves, particularly in the years after the war, from previous generations of active perpetrators and silent acceptors of the Nazi regime (Schlink in Lickel, Schmader, Curtis, Scarnier, & Ames, 2005). One study by Bar-On (1989) established that 32% of Germans experienced guilt regarding the war in 1951, while in 1967, 62% of Germans experienced feelings of guilt.

This dissociation helped the younger generation to overcome suffering from shame during the years after the war. However, Schlink (in Lickel et al., 2005) emphasises that this dissociation did not necessary help to overcome the shame itself, but rather helped to overcome the suffering (Schlink in Lickel et al., 2005).

Heimannsberg and Schmidt (1993) point out that the shame of victims and perpetrators in WWII has been repressed in silence for several decades, in order to heal the emotional wounds caused during war time. Only after several decades of silence, victims and perpetrators and family members of both groups, could start to open up about the shameful experiences and the silence (Heimannsberg & Schmidt, 1993).

1.4 The German Split and the German and European Reunification

The split that occurred in German society in the years after WWII reinforced the shame about the world wars. Figlio (2011) concludes that the reunification of East and West Germany in particular, allowed the memory of WWII to retreat and enabled Germany to reclaim national identity and self-esteem, while consciously and actively dealing with historic shame, the societal splitting and the broken national identity.

Dresler-Hawke and Lui (2006, 135) contend that contemporary German society deals proactively with healing the shame of historic events, by, for example, playing an active role in the unification movement of Europe. The authors suggest that by focusing on the re-unification of Germany and Europe, German society’s approach to dealing with shame can be classified as reparative model of shame (Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006, 135). The collective shame is thereby transformed through reparative actions at both national and European levels, thereby making restitution for and healing the immoral behaviour of the past.

This political and unifying role which Germany plays on a political level might even counteract the strong audience effect Germany had to carry in the past (Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006). Since the end of WWII, it this war is internationally described as the most important event in recent world history, while in this context, Hitler is named as one of the most negatively described people in world history. German citizens, according to Dresler-Hawke and Lui (2006), even in the third generation after WWII, still have to cope constantly with negative images of their country and with historical comparisons which relate to shame, even 70 years after the end of WWII.

1.5 Research on Shame in Contemporary Germany: From 1990s to the Present

Most of the time, contemporary discourses on shame in German contexts refer back to the history of the two created world wars and particularly to the holocaust in WWII (Figlio, 2011; Lu, 2008; Rothe, 2012; Sullivan, 2009, 2014a, 2014b). This shows that in German research and contexts, collective shame plays an important role. This collective shame experience in the post-war generations is transmitted inter-generationally (Rothe, 2012). Rothe (2012) points out that, for example, strong experiences of shame are still transmitted from non-Jewish Germans who, as children, witnessed the deportation of Jews in 1941, to the following generations. Feelings of shame and guilt in these individuals have been transmitted through their children to their grand- and great-grandchildren (Rothe, 2012). Research thereby points out that shame is being dealt with on a collective, but also on a familial level, and is still prevalent within the contemporary society (Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006).

According to the authors, this vivid experience of shame in Germany defines German identity, correlating it strongly to a negatively viewed national identity and a problematic collective self-esteem. However, German identity is viewed in a positive light when reparations are made to make up for the past (Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006).

Bierbrauer (1992) has studied the experiences of shame and guilt in Germany in generations after the violation of legal, religious and traditional norms, and compares these experiences with other cultures, particularly Kurds and Lebanese. This research suggests that the German reactions to collective historical experiences are guilt-orientated rather than shame-orientated, and that these experiences were still vivid during the 1990s. Another study from the 1990s (Pätzold, 1995), indicates that 50 years after WWII, Germans feel the least historical pride of 23 countries researched.

However, Dresler-Hawke and Lui (2006) find that, for the third generation after the end of WWII, history is no longer a source of guilt, since to feel a sense of guilt a person must accept responsibility for a moral violation caused by their own action or inaction (Dresler-Hawke & Lui, 2006, 134), while shame is experienced when being in some way or other associated or identified with someone who has committed a guilt-involving act (Goldberg, 1991, 56). Accordingly, shame is still prevalent in this German generation, but guilt is not.

A recent study on shame and guilt with regard to the German past conducted by Rensman (2014), highlights that lower levels of perceived control of self and situations are associated with shame and higher levels of control are associated with guilt (Rensman, 2014). Therefore the feelings of shame regarding the Holocaust are higher in third-generation Germans (65%)—because individuals in the third generation of Germans feel that they can not control the past anymore—compared to the feelings of guilt (41%) which are associated with the ability to control. Lickel, Schmader and Barquissau (2004) agree with these findings, explaining that shame is rather associated with avoidance, escape, distancing and hiding, while guilt is related to reparation and apology (Baumann and Handrock, in this book).

In a survey conducted in 2003 by Langenbacher, 51% of German citizens wished to forget about the past and proceed with a focus on the future, while 41% agreed to a continued debate on the past. This shows a strong split within German society concerning how to go about dealing with guilt and shame and the uncertainty regarding how to heal the past on a long-term basis.

In parallel to these studies, a study by Conrad (2003) indicates that Germany has dealt relatively well with its difficult and challenging past in comparison to other countries. The author (Conrad, 2003) points out that Germans were able to learn more from guilt and shame then people in other countries, such as Japan and Austria. This learning from the history is based on the one hand on an internalised self-criticism which Germans experienced (Conrad, 2003) and on the other hand on the strict monitoring of Germany by other countries. Based on the audience effect described above, and on the influence of the allied international surveillance following the war, it could be assumed that Germany would have been more self-critical and more prepared to learn from its failures than would Austria or Japan. Conrad (2003) suggests that this might be the case owing to Austria in particular claiming its victim status in the context of WWII and therefore not dealing as proactively with the past as Germany.

1.6 The Transformation of Shame 70 Years After WWII

Miller-Idriss and Rothenberg (2012) argue that it is not easy to capture an understanding of German nationhood because of the ambivalence, confusion and contradictory feelings individuals experience in terms of pride and shame regarding the German nation and their national identity 70 years after the end of WWII. The authors highlight that this is still a project in progress and that Germany is still redefining its national identity while individual citizen work on the transformation of their individual identities.

Brogle (2016) points out that German citizens see themselves caught up in between feelings of shame, guilt and pride several decades after the end of WWII. These emotional entanglements lead to heated discourses on national shame and pride within the society. Further, strongly debated topics in German society revolve around guilt, questions regarding the occurrence of a new national consciousness, taboos around national shame and pride, and how to deal with the phenomena of migration, nationality, moral and ethics in the context of shame (Brogle, 2016).

In contrast to Brogle’s view, Heinrich (2017), as a political analyst, has recently concluded that Germany seems to have overcome its shame. After having disowned the past in post-war years—even to the point of making it a taboo subject, individuals internationally are now beginning to approach the Third Reich with a kind of distanced fascination, which Heinrich (2017) describes as Nazination. These contemporary political movements of right-wing extremism need to be contextualised and understood within global contexts and, for example, through the militant organisation of Aryan nations, from which new fascination with fascism is spread (Shaffer, 2017).

The new generation of Germans seems to have overcome the guilt and shame of the previous generations, and is redefining its identity, associating with cosmopolitan, bilingual and tech-savvy values. However, Heinrich (2017) also points out that this societal transformation needs to be monitored in terms of a rebranded socially acceptable Nazism which is promoted by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a new right-wing-orientated political party, which uses core tenets of race and nationalism and which has a voice in parliament in the recent 2017 German elections.

Fear of a new strengthening right-wing movement in the German context has been previously highlighted (Koopmans & Olzak, 2004), and is often based on the new, open expression of politically motivated right-wingers emphasising their pride in the German nation and their idea of exclusiveness of Germany for Germans only (Rau, 2000), often referring back to German history. These new movements are associated with neo-Nazism and with feelings of shame within the society and they are strongly counteracted by anti-right-wing groups and initiatives (Müller-Idriss, 2009).

Koopmans and Olzak (2004) note that the acts of right-wing violence in Germany are commented on in terms of being shameful for the country. Breitenbach (2011) also observes the expression of shame in the German parliament over far-right murder and the Federal President Rau (2000) has pointed out that right-wing extremism is a shame for German patriotism. Clearly, shame is an important topic in German contemporary politics, on the one hand with regard to history, but on the other hand with regard to the current flourishing of right-wing movements in Germany and the nation’s way forward in constructing a national identity.

Vollmer (2016) refers to shame not only in relation to Germany, its political structures, backgrounds or political movements, but also in terms of European politics in the context of migration. The author points out that migration and migration politics in Europe contribute to the shame of Europe, particularly highlighting the role of Germany in border and migration politics based on the irregular migration towards Europe in the years 1973–1999. According to Vollmer (2016), the shame of Europe is defined by the conceptual shift of demonising and re-labelling irregular migrants as enemies, logics of urgency, securitisation and normalisation.

1.7 Collective Shame, Migration and Foreignness

During the past years, interest in the study of emotions, and thereby shame, in the context of migration, has grown (Wettergren, 2015) and collective and individual voices on shame in German society have been taken into account. Within the context of migration and the German society, shame is rife on political, as well as individual levels and has been observed and described by individuals from different cultural backgrounds living in Germany, such as immigrants or refugees. According to Wettergren (2015), emotions and shame specifically occur in discourses of homelands and hostlands, in interactions between migrants and locals, and in the different migration statuses (legal, semi-legal and illegal). In the context of labour migration, migrants have experienced humiliation and shame during the integration process and through the media, racism and the construction of the diaspora and representations of shamed (migrating) nations.

A recent study by Stotz, Elbert, Müller, and Schauer (2015) demonstrates that refugee minors in German contexts experience traumatic stress, shame and guilt as self-conscious emotions (Womersly, in this book). The study shows that shame and guilt correlate with each other and with posttraumatic stress symptom severity. Shame can hinder the processing of the coping with the traumatic event, consequently leading to mental illness such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Muris & Meesters, 2014).

Similar findings have shown that Vietnamese immigrants in Germany experience strong feelings of shame resulting from experiences of alienation which are being reinforced through stereotyping and stigmatisation which they experience in the German society (Bui, 2003). These experiences are usually connected to the refugee status with which they have entered Germany, linked to shameful living conditions, such as the experience of being forced to life in a ghetto (Bui, 2003, 74).

Immigrants whose parents or grandparents have moved to Germany and those who have been born in Germany describe the feelings of shame they experience in German contexts owing to their cultural background. From the perspective of immigrants, shame is experienced through the experience of being different, the perceived foreignness or because they speak German with a foreign accent (Topcu, Bota, & Pham, 2012, 9).

A publication by Kroth (2010) on narrations of Turkish Muslim male immigrants indicates that these immigrants experience shame within various contexts in Germany. Some examples of these are shame about migrating without money into a rich country, shame about where they come from, shame about getting divorced and shame about being illegal in a foreign country (Kroth, 2010). Another study of Turkish immigrants in Germany concludes that value orientations of Turkish immigrants are highly gendered (Patzke Salgado, 2006). Patzke Salgado (2006) emphasises that for male Turkish immigrants, behaviour relates to the concept of honour, while female Turkish immigrants usually relate their behaviour to shame. Both concepts are associated with the question of how traditional Turkish values and norms are lived and kept while living in the German society. For male Turkish immigrants honour is associated with keeping up traditional Turkish values in the name of the family. Female Turkish immigrants bring shame to the family if they refrain from living according to traditional Turkish values and starting to live according to German societal values and behavioural norms. This potential value change brings shame to the family through the female Turkish family member (Patzke Saldago, 2006) and might even end in an honour killing (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2009).

A study of Pakistani immigrant women highlights similar findings (Zakar, Zakar, Faist, & Kraemer, 2012), in that the women experience home-based psychological violence from their intimate partners and immigration stressors. These women, however, do not make use of the German formal support and care facilities because of shame-related issues. The study suggests that this might be a consequence of the shame they might bring to the family in case they get divorced (Zakar, Zakar, Faist, & Kraemer, 2012).

A study of the African diaspora in Germany reveals that African immigrants in Germany have to deal with the collective trauma of slavery and colonialism which is strongly connected to shame (Kron, 2009). Also Russian Jews who migrate to Germany experience shame associated with historical events; they are ashamed of admitting their origin, thereby reconnecting to the collective trauma of the past (Becker, 2003).

The views of different studies of shame in cultural contexts show that individuals and members of different groups of immigrants in Germany deal with different topics and issues of shame to varying degrees, always relating to their personal and social backgrounds and the negotiation of values and norms within their social contexts in the past, as well as in the present.

1.8 Transforming Collective Shame Through International Events

Germany is involved in a steady process of transforming its shame on a global level, to such a degree that Sullivan (2014a, 2014b) suggests that other countries witness Germany’s collective transformation with regard to shame and pride as an extraordinary positive process. This development of transformation of shame towards pride or other positively experienced emotions can be viewed as a source of healing and reconstruction (Vanderheiden & Mayer, 2017).

Shame and its recent transformation within Germany’s cultural contexts has been expressed in the sphere of national sports events with Germany’s success in the soccer World Cup of 2006 (Sullivan, 2009, 2014a, 2014b). Sullivan (2014a, 112) affirms that Germany has undergone a long process of transformation of collective shame after WWII, which finally resulted in a transformational experience of a cosmopolitan national pride through football at the World Cup 2006 and other subsequent international successes.

This transformation of collective shame to pride was supported particularly by the German soccer team playing in an uncharacteristically positive, team-orientated style which was internationally acknowledged (Sullivan, 2009). According to Sullivan (2014a, 116), Germany has used international football to transform its international image and to rebrand its nation, particularly with its first world victory as a reunified nation. Sullivan (2014b) emphasises that such internationally recognised accomplishments can become indicators of international values and sources of change on a large-scale level of global societies. Germany’s transformation has been declared to be an extraordinary example of this transformation.

1.9 Shameless Germany? Political Movements and Shame in the 21st Century

During the past years, societal changes can be observed in Germany based on the increasing numbers of immigrants from different countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Perceptions of Germany, its political role in Europe and the world, the acceptance of immigrants and foreigners within the country and the image of Germany as a multicultural nation society, seem to be in a concerted process of change (Abadi, 2017).

Underlying this shift in the landscape of the German political party system and the rise of the AfD into parliament, is a major social change in perception, attitude and behaviour. This shift can be recognised in societal discourses on migration, immigration and on certain cultural groups within Germany (Ramm, 2017). There appears to be growing awareness of threat, open statements against immigrants and foreignness, particularly with regard to a rising tide of intolerance towards Muslim immigrants (Erisen & Kentmen-Cin, 2016). Further, discriminative statements including anti-semitism, sexism, cultural and religious intolerance and homophobia are on the rise, are accepted and even rewarded, as in the Echo-Award giving ceremony in April 2018 (Berliner Morgenpost, 2018). However, this shameful event has also led to strong discourses on freedom of speech, artistic expression and shame.

Based on these societal changes, processes of culturalisation of negative examples of behaviour of immigrants and refugees seem to place the question of collective historical shame in Germany and its impact on contemporary behaviour, attitude and perceptions into a new light. The new trend and reactions towards immigration and foreigners in Germany will most certainly test Germany’s new definition of shame, shamelessness and guilt.

1.10 Random Statements on Collective Shame in German Therapeutical and Counselling Contexts

Having lived and worked in (West) Germany for many years, I have been able to gradually collect direct statements on collective shame. During the past years, I have also developed a conscious recognition of the circumlocutions on shame (Scheff, 2016) for what they are, namely indirect descriptions of shame by using alternative terms such as pain, suffering, embarrassment, stigma or disrespectful behaviour, as described recently by Scheff (2016).

In the following section, I would like to present selected statements on shame which do not claim to be in any way representative of the entire German society, but which can provide impressions of contemporary ideas on collective shame within the German context. I provide only a few demographic details of the person who has given the statement, for contextualisation.

1.

Woman, 35 years old, German citizen (statement in 2008):

I grew up with my grandmother who has survived two world wars. She always talked about the difficult times and how she lost her husband in the war and how she had to rebuild the German society in the post-war years. She talked a lot about the pain and the suffering and often she described her own coping with the war experiences in such a distanced and neutral way that I wondered how this was possible. I could only understand later that this was probably due to the overwhelming emotions and the experience of shame and guilt. So, when I grew up, the war was very close to me, although I was born three decades after it had ended and still today I struggle to say out loud that I am German.

2.

Man, 70 years old, German citizen (statement in 2018):

My uncle who was in the resistance in Germany during the second world war was killed by the German Nazis. My father, the brother of this uncle, carried all of the guilt and shame that he had survived during the war without fighting the regime. This led to a complete silence about this uncle and his death in the family. Almost like a family taboo. However, I can still feel the shame which the family carried and the shame how the citizen could let things like that happen within the family and beyond.

3.

Women, 48 years old, German citizen (statement in 2017):

Do you know what the worst is? The worst is that: the ideas of the historic ideologies, you still find them in many of the German institutional structures… and during the recent elections in Germany in 2017 we can see that the Neo-Nazis are back. Or have they never been away? It is a shame for the German nation.

4.

Male, 15 years old, German citizen (statement in 2010):

I am tired of having to talk about the German history in almost every school year. I have been born over sixty years after WWII and I do not know why I should feel ashamed about the past. I have not been there and there is nothing really that connects me with this past.

5.

Male, 9 years old, German citizen of African descent (statement in 2017):

I travelled on the train the other day and the conductor said to me that I was a black rider—although I had a ticket. First, I was confused, then I had to laugh, but actually, it was a shame.

6.

Male, 30 years old, German citizen of Turkish descent (statement in 2014):

I do not know why most of the Germans are ashamed of themselves and why they hide their pride to be German. I celebrate each and every success of the German football team. And sure, I carry the German flag.

7.

Male, 19 years old, refugee in Germany from Pakistan (statement in 2018):

I am ashamed. I am so young and I struggle to find a German girlfriend. I am in this country since two years… but no German girlfriend. It is a shame. See: I am losing my hair, I am growing old and I will only be able to marry when I am white haired. It is such a shame. I am not sure what to do. Looks like I am not saying the right things at the right time to them?

After you have read through these different statements, you can use the statements for reflection on shame with regard to German cultural contexts and/or discuss them within a team. You can use the following questions to lead you through the reflection and/or discussion. It does not matter what your personal background is. You can reflect on the questions from a German or from any other perspective:

1.11 Conclusion

This chapter opened the black box of collective shame in Germany and provided a first insight into shame within German cultural contexts. It provides a state-of-the-art view into the development of collectively experienced shame from past to present. It also asks the question how the collective shame develops in contemporary Germany with special regard to collective international (sport) events and the collective (shameless?) responses to migration/immigration. Finally, I provide an application to reflect and discuss individual statements on collective shame in German contexts to further explore options of transformation.

1.12 Implications for Future Research and Practice

Further research is needed to explore the development of collective shame within different generations in Germany. This research should explore the contemporary shame experiences in Germany in terms of nationhood and collective identity, and particularly explore the transformative potential within different subgroups (gender, age-based, professional) to provide a differentiated image of collective shame experiences, developments and transformation in German contexts.

Research on collective and individual shame experiences should explore the connection of shame on both the collective and the individual level, in selected contexts. In future, the collective shame and shamelessness with regard to collective and societal challenges and how they will be responded to by different sub-collectives and on a national level, might become an important centre of defining the identity of a multicultural Germany.

Only if the taboo on shame is lifted and shame is consciously taken into account with awareness and mindfulness of German historic and contemporary events and group dynamics, then context-specific, sustainable strategies can be developed to transform shame based on transdisciplinary and transcultural approaches across societal and individual German contexts.

The black box of collective shame has been opened and can now be explored further.

Acknowledgements

I would kindly like to thank Elisabeth Vanderheiden for awaking the interest on shame in me, for our on-going discussions about shame and culture and for emphasising the importance of exploring and transforming shame within the German society.

With regard to all my chapters in this book, I would kindly like to thank Mrs Ruth Coetzee for her professional and efficient language editing. I would also like to thank Professor Lynette Louw, Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, for her continuous support of my research activities in my position as a Senior Research Associate in the department.

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Footnotes

1

Translation by the author: If most people are already ashamed of their poor clothing and furniture, how much more should we be ashamed of poor ideas and worldviews.

2

A strong audience effect describes the fact that there was a huge audience to witness Germany's role in the world wars. This audience effect is created by the audience who observes and judges an action, e.g. Germany's actions in the world wars, and thereby affect and re-emphasise the (negative) judgements while feeding them back into German society. The larger, the stronger and more influential the audience (also in the reflection and the perception of the other), the more intensive is the effect of the audience on the observed.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Claude-Hélène Mayer and Elisabeth Vanderheiden (eds.)The Bright Side of Shamehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13409-9_2

2. Opening the Black Box Part 2: Exploring Individual Shame in German Research

Claude-Hélène Mayer¹, ²  

(1)

Institut für Therapeutische Kommunikation und Sprachgebrauch, Europa Universität Viadrina, Logenstrasse 11, 15230 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

(2)

Department of Management, Rhodes University, Drosdy Road, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa

Claude-Hélène Mayer

Email: [e-mail]

Abstract

This chapter is the second part of two chapters on shame in German contexts. It explores research which focuses on shame in individuals. The question addressed is the following: Which aspects of shame does research highlight with regard to shame in individuals in German contexts? Individually experienced shame in German cultural and contemporary research is explored and reflected on, to provide readers with an insight into shame research in Germany, which is often published in the German language. Practical applications are added with regard to the selected research areas on individual shame. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations for future research and (therapeutical) practice are given.

Keywords

Individual shameGerman researchScienceEducationBody shameCareClinical conditionsShame

Claude-Hélène Mayer (Dr. habil., PhD, PhD)

is a Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, an Adjunct Professor at the Europa Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology (University of Pretoria, South Africa), a Ph.D. in management (Rhodes University, South Africa), a Doctorate in political sciences (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany), and a Habilitation with a Venia Legendi (Europa Universität Viadrina, Germany) in psychology with focus on work, organizational, and cultural psychology. She has published numerous monographs, edited text books, accredited journal article, and special issues on transcultural mental health, salutogenesis and sense of coherence, shame, transcultural conflict management and mediation, women in leadership in culturally diverse work contexts, constellation work, coaching, and psychobiography.

Der Tag kennt mehr Scham

als die Nacht.¹

Roman-German idiom from the Middle Ages

2.1 Opening the Black Box of Individual Shame

After having focused on the collective shame in past and present in Germany (Mayer part 1, in this book), this chapter provides an insight into research on individually experienced shame in German contexts.

Research, theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted in German contexts particularly with regard to shame from psychological and therapeutical perspectives (see Hilgers, 2006; Marks, 2017; Wurmser, 2013), but also from anthropological (Lietzmann, 2007), philosophical, sociological and social science (Simmel, 1986; Landweer, 1999) perspectives. These publications touch on issues such as shame and the body (see Gröning, 2013a), as well as shame and conflict, shame and clinical conditions (Grabhorn & Overbeck, 2005; Rüsch et al., 2007; Scheel, Bender, Tuschen-Caffier, & Jacob, 2013), shame and the healthcare system (Gröning, Feldmann, Bergenthal, Lebeda, & Yardley, 2016; Immenschuh & Marks, 2014) and shame and status (Neckel, 1993).

The insights provided here do not claim to be a complete overview of shame research in German contexts; rather, they offer an indication of the focus and trend of shame studies in this specific cultural context.

This chapter feeds into Scheff’s (2016) idea of actively reclaiming shame studies, since shame is one of the less explored and discussed emotions. Studies discussed here are those that have addressed shame directly as shame and not as a circumlocution (Scheff, 2016, 3; see Mayer, Part 1).

This chapter describes selected major foci of German research on shame, specifically shame in science and scientists, in education, in the context of the body, in care, and with regard to clinical conditions. It also includes applications for reflection, a conclusion and a recommendation for future research.

2.2 Shame in Science and Scientists

Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, cultural critic and poet, pointed out early in his hermeneutics of shame that shame is a form of a practical pre-understanding of the world. According to Nietzsche, as understood by van Tongeren’s (2007), a philosopher needs to be shamelessly fearless on one hand, and characterised by honour, shame and depth on the other. The same might be said about contemporary scientists.

Nedelmann (2006) explores shame in the context of science. To the author, shame is inherent in the management and handling of science in past and present Germany. He refers to the fact that psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought in sciences was forced out of Germany during WWII, and is in the process of rapprochement. This process needs to take German cultural traditions and Jewish thoughts into account, to transform the painful process of dealing with shame when scientists of psychoanalysis lead a discourse. This process of rapprochement is associated with feelings of anger, shame, guilt and sadness (Nedelmann, 2006) and is reflected in the scientific discourse.

2.2.1 Reflection

2.3 Shame in Education

Shame is not only a topic in science, but also in educational contexts and schools (Haas, 2013; Marks, 2013). Marks (2013) explains that when shame is experienced, the brain retracts into a survival mode (Geldenhuys, in this book), therefore educational contexts in particular need to help students to develop tools and mechanisms not to avoid shame, but to deal with shame constructively within their contexts. In order to achieve this, students and teachers need to trust each other and trust the environment in which school and education is experienced, as non-shaming (Marks, 2013; Boness, in this book).

Frenzel, Thrash, Pekrun, and Goetz, (2007) have conducted cross-cultural research on shame in the context of educational achievement and parental achievement expectations, success and failure. In their research, they show that German students experience lower levels of shame and anxiety when it comes to achievement in Mathematics, but they show higher levels of anger in comparison to Chinese students (Frenzel et al. 2007).

Wertenbruch and Röttger-Rössler (2011) state in their research on shame and shaming in German schools that often shame is experienced based on the violation of norms of the peer group of students. According to the authors, shame and shaming are important emotional dimensions in German school routines. Adolescents are primarily affected by feelings of shame because they are in the process of learning how to comply with the social and cultural norms (Wertenbruch & Röttger-Rössler, 2011). The authors further highlight that shame experiences differ based on the socio-cultural background of the individuals in German educational contexts, and on how they define their values and norms in the German school system. Shame becomes an important factor of processes of inclusion and exclusion. Its role also needs to be increasingly recognised in the context of mental health, achievement and coping in multicultural school contexts in Germany (Boness, in this book).

2.4 Shame, the Body and Family Contexts

Studies in Germany have focused on shame and the body and shame in family relations. The Federal Agency for Health Education (BZGA, 2005) has published a foundational study on shame in childhood and on the regulation of shame in families, highlighting the value of shame. According to the study (BZGA, 2005), the perceived value of shame is dependent on the professional status of the father: the higher the father’s professional status, the more feelings of shame are valued as impacting positively on the way people live together and as a protective factor for the self and for others. In a study, mothers in German contexts usually judge shame as positive (BZGA, 2005). In addition, it has been pointed out that shame is often associated with sexuality, as well as with nudity in the context of the body (BZGA, 2005, Silverio, in this book).

2.5 Shame in the Context of the Body

Body shame has often been distinguished from research on psychological and mental shame, as well as from social shame (see Hilgers, 2006; Gröning 2014) in German research. In his texts on shame, Simmel (1986), a German sociologist, philosopher and classical shame researcher, highlights that shame is strongly connected to the body, and to the experience of inferiority and nakedness, since the body represents nature, the flesh and the fleeting moments of life.

Köhler (2017) points out that although bodies often touch in post-modern life situations such as in an overcrowded tram, individuals usually do not feel ashamed by this touch because of the framing of definitions of shame within contexts. However, nakedness is still shameful in German contexts, although people are used to see naked bodies (Köhler, 2017). Shame is still connected to eroticism and sexuality, to puberty, body contact, distance and violence (Köhler, 2017).

Ko (2010) has studied the role of body shame in social appearance anxiety, body-checking behaviour and body dissatisfaction, as well as disordered eating behaviour. The author compared German and Korean students, and found that Korean females had higher scores in all of these shame areas than did German females and males. In both cultures, body shame predicted bulimia symptoms, but it did not predict a drive for thinness in either of the female groups. Body shame predicted body dissatisfaction in both cultures.

Another culture-comparative study (Hong, 2011) compared German, Korean and Chinese female students’ attitudes towards body shame and intention to change appearance. Findings showed that in the German group of female college students, the body mass index (BMI) was the highest, while scores in public self-consciousness, socio-cultural pressure, ideal appearance attitude, body shame, and appearance change intention were lowest in Germany, highest in Korea. The variables that affected body shame were powerful in the order of appearance internalisation, appearance awareness, socio-cultural pressure, and public self-consciousness in Germany and different from the Chinese and the Korean findings in which socio-cultural appearance was the highest variable that affected appearance change intention. Appearance change intention was powerful in the order of sociocultural pressure in Korea and China in the first place, while the order was appearance internalisation, body shame, and BMI in the German group (Hong, 2011).

Hahn (2016) discusses the impact of the social memory of the body by referring to appearances and perception and memory of shame from a sociological perspective. The author points out that the memory plays a central role in managing social and individual shame: shame can be avoided by keeping it secret and by forgetting. The author interprets social fights regarding the public memory as fights about the question of who can deal with shame and shaming.

2.5.1 Reflection on Body Shame

If you would like to explore your attitude towards body and body shame within your social and cultural context, reflect on the following aspects:

2.6 Shame in the Context of Care

With regard to the German demographical structure and the growing number of Germans above the age of 65 years, shame becomes a specific topic in the context of care of individuals of old age (Gröning, 2014). Hayder-Beichel (2016) points out that patients with urological illnesses—here especially men—experience the treatment of these illnesses and conversations about it as shameful. However, Marks (2011) comments that not only patients in care experience shame, but also their carers (Veit and Bahrs & Henze, in this book). In German contexts they experience shame, because they cannot care for the people in need in the way they want to, owing to time pressure and other work-related restrictions (Marks, 2011).

Several recent German studies refer further to shame in the context of care, care institutions and psychiatric contexts (Gröning et al., 2016). Shame is not only a topic which is generally relevant for Germans in care (Immenschuh & Marks, 2017), but seems also to be particularly relevant with regard to Muslim patients (Von Bose & Terpstra, 2010) and Turkish patients (Ulusoy & Grassel, 2010) in German care and hospitals. According to Ulusoy and Grassel (2010), shame is associated with overestimation of the self and with language barriers in Turkish migrants, and according to Von Bose and Terpstra (2010), with honour in Muslim migrants.

Generally, shame is strongly linked to nakedness and challenging care situations in gender-specific care, especially with regard to hygiene and shame (Heusinger & Dummert, 2017). However, Gröning (2013b) points out that shame and anxiety are the basic emotions experienced in old age with special regard to shame of dependence, shame of the changing body, and the shame of being blamed.

2.6.1 Reflection

Please reflect on the question of shame in the context of care, either on your own or in a group, in terms of these questions.

2.7 Shame and Clinical Conditions in German-Based Research

In German settings, shame is usually researched in individuals with clinical conditions (Grabhorn, Stenner, Standier, & Kaufhold, 2006; Rüsch et al., 2007; Rummel-Kluge, Pitschel-Walz, Bäuml, & Kissling, 2006), since shame is a meaningful self-reflexive emotion in the context of the exploration of mental disorders (Kämmerer, 2010). Only a few such selected studies are presented in this chapter. Hilgers (2006) provides an extensive overview of shame in terms of singular psychological problems such as social phobia, schizophrenia, suicidal syndromes, depression, borderline personality disorders, eating disorders, hysteria, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or psychophobia. Hilgers (2006) also offers insight into conflicts based on shame in somatic illnesses, and with regard to managing shame conflicts in therapy, and in counter-transfer situations between therapist and client/patient in individual therapy settings. The author also gives advice on how to deal with shame in group-psychotherapy.

Research focusing on a sample of German native speakers shows that shame-proneness and self-report of