There could be no shame in a self unless the self had some notion of how it would be without necessity for shame.

Shame is a sign that the self wants to be something. If it did not want to be something, there would hardly be any need for shame; for anything would serve. Shame therefore implies purpose.

We are ashamed because of what others think of us, or what we think of ourselves. If we are ashamed because others disapprove of us and there is no true foundation for their disapproval, we should be ashamed for being weak enough to be misled; so this kind of shame can be seen as incompleteness of self. However, if others disapprove of us, and they are right, then what they disapprove of, we should disapprove of, too: there isn’t one truth about ourselves for others and one for ourselves. True disapproval by others, therefore, implies a basis for true disapproval of ourselves by ourselves.

What is the basis for true disapproval? It is a common notion and, I think, a true one, that shame arises from not “doing our duty.” I have said, however, that our duty, or what we should do, is also what we want to do. So whenever there is shame based on fact, in some way we are not as we want to be, or are not doing as we want to do.