cover image Saving Face: America and the Politics of Shame

Saving Face: America and the Politics of Shame

Stuart Schneiderman. Alfred A. Knopf, $25 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-40969-4

In a highly accessible, often provocative study, psychoanalyst Schneiderman compares Japan and the United States as examples of a ``shame culture'' and a ``guilt culture,'' respectively. A shame culture emphasizes group cohesion; good behavior is encouraged through the individual's fear of censure. A guilt culture, by contrast, stresses individual self-expression; it attempts to control behavior by passing laws and punishing transgressions. Arguing that American society has combined elements of both cultures, Schneiderman applies the shame-versus-guilt dichotomy to an analysis of a range of issues: the sexual and cultural revolution of the 1960s and '70s, yuppie greed in the 1980s, race relations, child abuse, societal attitudes toward homosexuality, family breakdown, U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the Gulf war and the trauma of Holocaust survivors. His study is full of uncommon good sense and shrewd insights. (Jan.)