Most of us have felt shame because, as mentioned, it is perhaps an inevitable Human Experience. We have all suffered feelings of:
- incompetence
- inadequacy
- inferiority
- failure or defect
- being scorned
- unacceptable to another
Shame is among the most painful of human feelings. If we were to listen to it all the time, we might be driven to take desperate action or just give up in despair. This shame often seems too painful to endure, which helps us to understand why it often goes underground to our unconscious. We can defend against our shame so well that we are literally unaware of its existence.