ODENSE AGORA: SKAM

Odense Agora: Skam - The Ego's Cancer and the Prerequisite of Power

"What is the seal of freedom? That one no longer feels ashamed of oneself." So said Nietzsche - meaning that freedom in the psychological sense is freedom from shame. Shame is a prison: a psychopathological survival strategy where one hides, tries to appear as something else, and ultimately loses oneself because one feels fundamentally wrong, different, unworthy of love.

But shame is also a social form of power. It adapts the individual to norms, rewards the "worthy" and pushes the "unworthy" into darkness. As a political tool, it regulates human behaviour more effectively than almost any other instrument of power - and it is central to all psychological pathology because it undermines our connection to others and thus our fundamental sense of security.

In this talk, Kristoffer Steensgaard explores shame's grip on both the psyche and social relations.

Odense Agora is a collaboration between Dolphin Philosophy and Teater Momentum that revives the ancient Greek agora tradition with a series of talks at the theatre about topics that concern our shared life today.