Breaking the Shackles

Shame is an emotion that many of us don't recognize easily, and yet it's usually the basis of addiction, violence, overwork, emotional shutdown, and adopting a 'false self.' The good news is that once we recognize it for what it is, shame loses much of its toxicity. Breaking the Shackles is a revised edition of our 1995 book, Men Healing Shame, in which several dozen men write of their experience healing the effects of toxic shame. Among our chapter authors are Robert Bly and Gershen Kaufman. It's a book written by and for men--using our natural way of saying things, and yet a number of women have found it helpful. A very practical book, with occasional theoretical underpinning.