Embarrassment, shame and guilt

The three amigos of implosion.

There are a lot of articles detailing the differences between embarrassment, shame and guilt.

They typically define guilt as the feeling that arises from the perception or belief that you’ve done something wrong. Shame emerges as a belief that the whole self is wrong, or that you are rotten or broken somehow and this experience exists unrelated to a specific event.

Others define shame as a feeling that comes up when you or someone else does something dishonourable, improper or ridiculous.

Brene Brown is emphatic about separating shame from guilt. She insists that guilt is a pro social experience that is corrective and helps people align with and understand the implicit limits of a group. Shame, Brown contends, is linked to our sense of self and value to exist on a fundamental level.

The issue I have with all of these turkeys? All of these definitions are subjective. In the case of guilt as a feeling arising after doing something wrong, I’m left questioning:  wrong for who and in what cont…