Shame—Much Needed Private AA?

The other morning, going out the road, my walking partner scoffed loudly and observed, “I am so disgusted with myself, I ate so-o-o much last night.. .”

I had to laugh. “You aren't alone in overeating, but you may alone in being ashamed of it!”

A couple summers back, the science types, came out with a “major diet revelation.” Women who have fitness buddies, thin friends and relatives manage to stay thinner themselves.

Duh, to the science types telling us what we already know. Women, but I bet a few men as well, share both the positive and negative aspects of weight control—approval for positive acts, weight loss. and good food choices as well as the negative—expressions and disgust and shame over “falling off the wagon.” A kind of informal, private AA!

Critical Eye desperately does not want to return to a time, when the shame ruled and certain individuals (i.e. “retarded, crippled”etc. ) were secreted at home and could not appear in public—even in church. However, one can't help but wonder if the public dismantling of shame ethic over everything from private peccadilloes (think Anthony Wiener) to out-of-wedlock pregnancies, to fat has benefited American society.