The issue of shame has become a central topic for many writers and therapists in recent years, but it is debatable how much real understanding of this powerful and pervasive emotion we have achieved. The Eyes of Shame argues that shame can develop during the first six months of life through an unreflected look in the mother's eyes, and that this shame is then internalized by the infant and reverberates through its later life.

Tags: mother infant attachment and psychoanalysis