This is an interesting question, but I would like to read the reference you mentioned. When I looked this up, it was not an article on the subject that you are discussing.

Do you have a reference?

I did also click on the project link above.

Thanks very much,

Mary

It may not be expressly stated in the study. I think we all agree now that anxiety is about an unwanted outcome in a future event, either real or imagined.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-anxiety-brain-center.html concludes anxiety "traffic" routes to the PFC for evaluation and decision before being directed to the amygdala. What can the evaluations and decisions be about if not different possible unwanted futures, since those are the results we see. In this, shame, among other negative emotions, is how I will feel in that future.

If you use to do things that are wrong and you have earlier been caught doing them, then you are likely to pursue in your bad habits and can foresee shame. However, normally we learn from our mistakes and a deep understanding or analysis of a previous event prevents its repetition. Live as you would live for the second time and already did the stupid things you are about to do (V.E: Frankl).

The one who feels shame can also be a person who has been badly abused but was unable to defend her self.

There is a considerable literature on shame, which is the fear of social devaluation. You can experience shame – and this is important – without having done anything wrong. And if you have done something wrong, you can experience guilt, which is a sense of personal responsibility and a need to make amends, as well as or instead of shame.

I would recommend these articles as a start

Cândea, D., Szentágotai, A. (2013). Shame and psychopathology: From research to clinical practice Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies 13(1), 101 - 113.

Robertson, T., Sznycer, D., Delton, A., Tooby, J., Cosmides, L. (2018). The true trigger of shame_ social devaluation is sufficient, wrongdoing is unnecessary Evolution and Human Behavior 39(), 1 - 0. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.05.010

Sznycer, D., Tooby, J., Cosmides, L., Porat, R., Shalvi, S., Halperin, E. (2016). Shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation by others, even across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113(10), 2625 - 2630. https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1514699113

Good Afternoon Professor,

Your points are well taken.

Anxiety is the sensation we feel when we are predicting, imagining, an unwanted outcome in a future event.

Both shame and guilt are sensations we experience when we are predicting a future in which we are "outed" and social devalued.

The emotional price tag for guilt should be higher because we add personal culpability.

My belief is that in interrupting the habitual prediction at the beginning, we can avoid creating the same result, and free ourselves from unnecessary suffering.

Good Afternoon Professor Ewalds-Kvist,

I frequently wonder if every enlightened soul currently living is one that has been touched by Viktor Frankl.

His famous quote about the "space," is not just a philosophical reflection. The space actually exists, as in Libet's 0.5 seconds between stimulus and response or the 300-500 millisecond difference between attention and focus.

That Space IS the key to our opportunity to choose! Having said that, we need to know how to access it so we can make a different choice.

Recalling an incident that continues to create shame means the memory has become a habit, even in the absence of guilt.

Memories about adverse events in our lives are stories about the event, not the event itself. It is not currently happening. It is the story that is creating and perpetuating the negative emotions.

Two things must happen to free ourselves from the obligatory suffering contained in our stories. We must be able to interrupt the thinking habit that generates the feelings, and we must have a skill that empowers us to think about something else, preferably a neutral topic.

Here is the technique I teach for interrupting the negative story telling habit before it creates the usual anxiety.

Negative stories are like movies you wouldn’t want to watch because you know they will make you feel miserable.

So, use the method I call Change-The-Channel. As soon as you start feeling anxious, or negative, look around. If there is danger, run. If there is no danger, those negative feelings are just a part of your story.

Looking around for danger interrupts the anxious thinking habit and gives you the opportunity to change your thinking to a different story. Choose one of your stories that is neutral or a pleasant memory.

Focus on the neutral “Channel” for a while then switch to another neutral Channel. Do this for a total of ten minutes and it will significantly decrease the negativity stored in the old story. This part of the process is called reconsolidation.

To read about this technique and why it is so effective, here is a link to an excellent article by Bruce Ecker that dives even deeper into the reconsolidation technique. https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/reconsolidation-a-universal-integrative-framework-for-highly-effective-psychotherapy/

Trying to replace a panic attack or depression with another emotional experience is analogous to antidepressants. Antidepressants also try to manipulate the emotional state. A panic attack is just a signal about something. For example, you received a message on the phone about some bad event. When you receive a message, you begin to take action to resolve the event that you received a message about by phone. Reconsolidation is similar to the behavior when you receive a bad message on the phone, listen to good messages, or listen to stronger emotional messages, instead of eliminating the event that caused the bad message.

Good Afternoon Dr Douglas McKee,

Actually I inherited my father's books written by Frankl and I love them, and yes, I am deeply touched by them.

Your point is important: "His famous quote about the "space," is not just a philosophical reflection. The space actually exists, as in Libet's 0.5 seconds between stimulus and response or the 300-500 millisecond difference between attention and focus."

Dr Vasili Grigoriev trying to manipulate feelings with antidepressants though takes at least about 3 weeks. That is a long time and many many feelings come between stimulus and response. The thing that is manipulated is the transmitter-system and changes in feelings are only side-effects.