Posted by bob on February 17, 2000, at 16:58:24
In reply to Re: Reoccuring Dreams ... guilt and shame, posted by dj on February 17, 2000, at 3:19:23
dj, that's an interesting perspective on guilt and shame ... I disagree substantially with it, but its interesting nonetheless.
As an alternative, I'll put forward the attributional view of things. Attribution theory centers on what causes people attribute to the experiences they have and "how the world treats them." We usually don't go through any conscious process of attribution unless something bad and/or unexpected happens. What's important is not so much the specific content of the attribution, but the characteristics or dimensions of the cause of the event. (1) is the LOCUS -- is the cause inside you or outside of you. (2) is CONTROL -- was the cause controllable or not. (3) is STABILITY -- does it happen all the time or just once or erratically. Some folks also toss in a fourth dimension of GLOBALITY -- is it related to something specific or does it apply across a range of phenomena.
That all said, making a causal attribution can provoke an emotional response. Guilt is associated with an internal, controllable event. You were wrong, you have the capability not to be wrong in the future. Shame, however, is related to internal, uncontrollable events. Shame can thus lead to feelings of helplessness -- you're trapped with something bad that you can't get rid of.
It's important to know, tho, that this all comes out of social cognitive theory, so we're talking about attribution as a learned process that is framed by one's cultural context. Belching loudly may be shameful behavior to one culture, but to another (say, American adolescents) it can be a sign of high status. Go figure. (Yes, I'm bitter because I could never come up with a good belch on demand ... my dog is a better belcher than me ... but that's beside the point)
(ahem) ... since this is stuff we learn, we learn our perspectives on what is controllable and what isn't. We learn to be helpless in such situations. So, we should be able to learn NOT to be helpless.
So, Janice, whatever your take on guilt and shame, it still gets back to this being your dreams and what they represent, if not to be taken literally. I hope either dj's or my little lectures on the psychology of guilt and shame help you decode the source of this.
One thing to consider -- both views on guilt and shame put matters more as guilt vs shame. Does it feel like more of one than the other?
bob
poster:bob
thread:21950
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000209/msgs/22095.html