"Shame is an unpleasant emotion. At its mildest, it is a slight ache in the chest and a loss of vigour and energy. At its most potent, it physically deflates you—your head sinks into your shoulders, your shoulders slump and your body crumples. It emotionally stunts you—your brain feels foggy and sluggish, you question yourself, you lose heart, you hold back your feelings and opinions. It's an emotion which reduces your mental capacity—you draw a blank and can't think or come up with any ideas. It temporarily exiles you from the world—you feel overexposed with a desperate need to hide from others. It creates a dark, introspective, confinded space in your psyche where nothing else can enter. It brings you face to face with yourself, where you can see all your flaws and your spots up close. It makes you painfully aware of the fact that you are limited and not as god-like as you sometimes feel. It is the parent who tells you 'no' and 'go to your room'."
- from "
How to Kill a Narcissist" by J.H. Simon
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
