Shame-Humiliation Versus Contempt-Disgust: The Nature of the Response

This is a selection of passages from Silvan Tomkins's Affect Imagery Consciousness. In his chapter on shame humiliation, one of the nine basic affects, Tomkins presents the fundamental characteristics of shame, allowing us to distinguish it from other affects. He describes its basic physiological components as well as those that are linked to conscious aspects of our experience. He also highlights the particular meaning of the consciousness of the 'I' and the face, which in his opinion plays the most important role in our experience of shame.