People have developed a fascination with shame- other people's shame. While human beings are curious about their own shame, at the same time, people do not want to feel the pain and vulnerability it causes. It is natural to want to hide shameful feelings due to the fear of being seen differently from how we want to be, and, to want to hide our feelings of failure from others; we even hide our shame from ourselves. The potential for anonymity on the Internet and television p

"At the core of chronic shame is an absence- the absence of connectedness (DeYoung, p.120). Affective interactions between a child and caretaker shape the brain over a lifetime. When the primary caregiver is emotionally attuned and connected, the child feels understood and secure. When the caregiver has a pattern of being absent or intrusive, the child suffers what relational psychotherapist Patricia DeYoung refers to as "profound misattunement to their young affective/emot