No. 65 Press · Singapore · 2026
Through neuroscience, a startling reinterpretation of Genesis, and three clinical stories that stay with you long after reading, this book traces shame from infant neurobiology to its place in consciousness itself — arguing that the emotion we spend our lives fleeing is the one that makes us irreplaceably human.
Shame marks us as fundamentally relational beings. Unlike guilt, which concerns what we've done, shame strikes at who we are — our very belonging in the human community. Yet because shame hurts so acutely, we develop elaborate defences against feeling it. Fear of shame paralyses us; dissociation from shame drives addictions and perpetual conflict. We do almost anything to avoid the unbearable feeling that we don't belong.
This is shame's paradox: the very emotion that confirms our need for others becomes what drives us into isolation.
