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Opening the Black Box Part 1: On Collective Shame in the German Society

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The Bright Side of Shame

Abstract

This chapter is the first of two chapters on shame in German society. It explores collective shame in the German context, thereby, opening the “black box” of shame which is often left closed and stored in the back of collective and individual minds. The chapter explores shame from different German historic and contemporary collective perspectives and provides the reader with an overview of research and state-of-the-art research and practices on collective shame in the context described. It explores how shame is experienced and developed, (re-)constructed, addressed and transformed at these different societal levels. The chapter presents conclusions and recommendations on how to transform collective shame in different German contexts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Translation by the author: “If most people are already ashamed of their poor clothing and furniture, how much more should we be ashamed of poor ideas and worldviews”.

  2. 2.

    “A strong audience effect” describes the fact that there was a huge audience to witness Germany's role in the world wars. This audience effect is created by the audience who observes and judges an action, e.g. Germany's actions in the world wars, and thereby affect and re-emphasise the (negative) judgements while feeding them back into German society. The larger, the stronger and more influential the audience (also in the reflection and the perception of “the other”), the more intensive is the effect of the audience on the observed.

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Acknowledgements

I would kindly like to thank Elisabeth Vanderheiden for awaking the interest on shame in me, for our on-going discussions about shame and culture and for emphasising the importance of exploring and transforming shame within the German society.

With regard to all my chapters in this book, I would kindly like to thank Mrs Ruth Coetzee for her professional and efficient language editing. I would also like to thank Professor Lynette Louw, Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, for her continuous support of my research activities in my position as a Senior Research Associate in the department.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Therapeutische Kommunikation und Sprachgebrauch, Europa Universität Viadrina, Logenstrasse 11, 15230, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

  2. Department of Management, Rhodes University, Drosdy Road, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

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  1. Claude-Hélène Mayer
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Correspondence to Claude-Hélène Mayer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Therapeutische Kommunikation und Sprachgebrauch, Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

  2. Katholische Erwachsenenbildung Rheinland-Pfalz, Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

    Elisabeth Vanderheiden

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Mayer, CH. (2019). Opening the Black Box Part 1: On Collective Shame in the German Society. In: Mayer, CH., Vanderheiden, E. (eds) The Bright Side of Shame. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13409-9_1

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