Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2013, Side 166

contemporary discourse where the victims of abuse have come forward and
told of violence and shame that they had to endure as children.
The main conclusions of the article are that shame is connected to the
moral ideas on right and wrong and surfaces in a situation characterized by
what can be termed as misbehavior. Aristotle and scholars that adhere to his
philosophy emphasize that shame is the fear of losing others respect. Most
therapeutic professionals agree that shame as a moral emotion has evolved
with man and has an important role for, both the individual, and the
community. Shame can be positive as well as negative; it is individual as well
as cultural, in the sense that it is connected with the morality of a specific
community, or cultural unit. Negative shame is a paralyzing feeling, the
therapeutic professionals maintain, and point out that the victims, especially
children, isolate themselves as the result of violence. Their integrity has been
violated and this leads to anger and bitterness that stop the children in their
normal maturation. Negative shame is thus a sense of powerlessness often
connected to self-accuse, the feeling of alienation and worthlessness. It can,
in severe cases, lead to mental stupor and death.
Shame and guilt are not easily separated, according to therapeutic profess-
ionals trained in treating the victims of sexual abuse and similar violence.
Some of them emphasize that guilt is more connected to an act, whereas
shame is connected to the individual in question. However, a person and his
or her actions are hard to understand separately. An important aspect of this
article was to understand why the victims, especially children, accept guilt
for what happened but for which they had no responsibility. The answers of
the therapeutic professionals are unanimous: This is a tool for survival. They
accept guilt to save themselves from the terror of having been betrayed as
children. These children’s feelings of guilt arises from a terrible experience
where it seems that it is less hard to accept having a part in what happened,
than to confess to total helplessness and betrayal. Psychologically there is
less threat in accepting to have a part in what happened rather than facing
the fact that they were victims that had no escape.
Key concepts: shame, guilt, sexual violence, children, moral emotions
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