Guilt And Shame

I’ve been studying emotions a little bit lately and according to one theory, guilt is a blending of the primary emotions joy and fear, while shame is a blending of the emotions fear and disgust. Also, guilt is directed outwards while shame is directed inwards. What I mean by that is that we usually feel guilt when we have wronged someone or some institution that we care about. Guilt is all about us recognizing that we have harmed that which ordinarily brought us joy and that we are afraid that we may have damaged or broken that relationship that was so important to us. Shame, however, is focused on us and we become disgusted with ourselves and afraid that we will never be comfortable or have joy in anything again. Guilt is like the godly sorrow that the scriptures speak of. It’s a motivating force to repent and repair. It’s called godly sorrow because we are sad that we have offended God. Shame, however, is not an emotion that comes from the Spirit. Shame doesn’t carry with it any motivating force because fear and disgust are both emotions that drive us to flee from or cast out the thing that frightens or disgusts us, but shame is centered on ourselves, and we can’t get away from or cast out our own self.