Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self - Psychology Book on Emotions & Identity Development for Self-Discovery and Personal Growth

Did you know that shame is a dampener to happiness and excitement and that it is triggered when we desire and expect something and that something that we want is interrupted? Neither did I!I first started reading this book a year ago and put it down because it was so long and drawn out. I recently picked it up again and I am 70% of the way through the book. I will say that the book is verbose and sometimes eloquent, but it is also filled with brilliance and a deep understanding of what underlies shame, which keeps me turning the page. I value my time and I tend to avoid books that are flowery and unnecessarily wordy. I want the book to get to the point. While I find this book to be wordy, I endured and continued reading because there were so many deep insights into shame that very much deepened my understanding of the roots of shame and how it affects all of us, often unknowingly. I think that this book is a hidden gem of insight and knowledge. It is a long read, but worth the time. It's amazing how shame is at the root of so many behaviors from anger, to shyness, to narcissism, to co-dependence, to avoidance, to depression and to our unwillingness to explore our unconscious (which is a storehouse of shame that we have refused to deal with).