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James Gilligan is a renowned psychiatrist and an expert on shaming whose work with prisoners and mental patients throughout Massachusetts in the 1970s produced groundbreaking evidence about the relationship between shame and violence. Gilligan observed that some inmates who were affected by traumas from earlier in their lives felt a numbness that allowed them to commit serious acts of violence. Others acted violently in order to regain a sense of control that they felt humiliation and shame had stripped away from them.
James Gilligan Quotes in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
The So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed quotes below are all either spoken by James Gilligan or refer to James Gilligan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
“Universal among the violent criminals was the fact that they were keeping a secret,” Gilligan wrote. “A central secret. And that secret was that they felt ashamed—deeply ashamed, chronically ashamed, acutely ashamed.” It was shame, every time. “I have yet to see a serious act of violence that was not provoked by the experience of feeling shamed or humiliated, disrespected and ridiculed.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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James Gilligan Quotes in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
The So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed quotes below are all either spoken by James Gilligan or refer to James Gilligan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
“Universal among the violent criminals was the fact that they were keeping a secret,” Gilligan wrote. “A central secret. And that secret was that they felt ashamed—deeply ashamed, chronically ashamed, acutely ashamed.” It was shame, every time. “I have yet to see a serious act of violence that was not provoked by the experience of feeling shamed or humiliated, disrespected and ridiculed.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
