unhealthy shame

Another characteristic of the shame-based person may be abusiveness. Abuse breeds shame. Abuse is learned as a child, and the person who has been abused may go on to abuse others, – (at least the tendency may be there). Of course many people who have been shamed by abuse do not go on to be abusers. They exercise responsibility. I need hardly add that sexual abuse, at whatever age the person experiences it, breeds the deepest core shame.One of the unfortunate legacies of being shamed as a child, results in the stifling of human creativity and spirituality. The new born baby is infinitely creative, and has the potential of enormous spirituality. He has the potential for wonderful growth as a human, a growth which is stunted and choked by toxic shame. Such shame dehumanises (as stated above, it leaves us more than human or less than human).