Laura said:Maybe true shame is related to the awakening of conscience? Because it appears to me that paramoralistic efforts to induce shame on false premises are predicated on making a person feel bad because they have done or approved something vile; so that is an appeal to conscience.
If that is the case, then shame is something other than an emotion, though it can certainly trigger a cascade of emotions: fear, sadness, dread, horror, etc.
That's an interesting question. I think it can act both ways: Paramoralism can induce shame, but it can also repress shame, for example when someone justifies cruel behavior because "those Arabs hate our freedom" or something like that. Both would be a corruption of conscience, osit.
As for the awakening of the conscience, I can say that after finding this place and coming to all kinds of realizations about myself, which was a most horrible process, shame became a big part of my life for a period. I still struggle sometimes with this overwhelming sense of shame & guilt. Suddenly realizing all the bad stuff I may have caused others really was (and is) very difficult. I experienced fear, sadness, horror, anger and a feeling of loosing my mind. In hindsight, I really do think it was an "awakening of the conscience", in the sense that the knowledge gained here stripped away all the justifications and rationalisations and forced me to get in touch with my conscience, triggering a whirling cascade of confusing emotions.
I'm still reading Maté's book, and it's great. It's an extra motivation to work on the emotions and understanding the biochemical underpinning - partially at least - is relieving in itself, I think. So thanks for bringing it up.