Shame as a Mirror of Freedom: Existentialists on the Most Torturous FeelingWhen we blush with shame, we are not just experiencing discomfort. We confront the fundamental truth of our existence: we are not alone. Someone is watching us, someone is judging us, someone sees us as we do not want to see ourselves. Existentialists, these stern philosophers of freedom and responsibility, saw shame not just as an emotion, but as the key to understanding the very nature of human existence. For them, shame is not weakness, not a moral flaw, but an ontological fact that reveals our deep dependence on the Other and on ourselves. Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and other thinkers of this direction explored shame as a phenomenon that shows us who we really are.Kierkegaard: Shame as Trembling Before God and OurselvesThe Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, often called the father of existentialism, regarded shame not as a social feeling but as an existential state related to our ability to choose ourselves. For Kierkegaard, shame is not a reaction to the gaze of another person, but a reaction to an internal feeling of dissonance between who we are and who we should become. This feeling arises when we realize our finitude, our dependence on God, and our inability to fully realize our essence.In his work \"The Sickness unto Death,\" Kierkegaard writes about the \"infinite illness\" of despair, which is the inability of a person to be themselves. Shame here is closely linked to this despair: we are ashamed of our weakness, our sinfulness, our inability to achieve the ideal we have set for ourselves. But according to Kierkegaard, this shame can become a path to salvation. If we admit our shame before God, we take the first step towards genuine faith and true \"self.\" Thus, shame becomes not a curse, but an invitation to transformation.Interestingly, Kierkegaard distinguishes between shame and guilt. Guilt is a reaction to a specific act, while shame is a react ... Read more