![]() ![]() Developmental psychology sees shame and doubt as part of that early stage of life in which children attempt to confirm their autonomy, when to the amusement of their loving, doting parents they try to stand alone and instead demonstrate their impotence by falling down. ![]() Shame is related to the feeling of being wrong. Shame, however, is linked with vision and perception, with self-understanding and self-presentation, with the whole of one’s existence. Guilt is related to actions, to what one does. Guilt is the correlate of a free decision that turns out to be wrong. Guilt presupposes freedom: a choice between what should be done and what has been done, between duty and desire, between good and evil. Such shame cannot be managed or controlled. All at once, one’s self-image and the image one wants others to believe in is proven false. Shame is the narcissistic affect par excellence. The humiliation and hurt cannot be hidden or repressed, for Abel saw everything. He has been unexpectedly abandoned by the One he depends on as a farmer and whose good favor he sought. Cain’s offering is refused, he reddens with shame. Das entflamte Kajin und sein Antlietz fiel.” And in the Einheitsuebersetzung of 1979 this passage is translated as: “…Da ueberlief es Kain ganz Heisz und sein Blick senkte sich”. The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber translated this passage differently: “Er achtete auf Habel und seine Spende, auf Kajin und seine Spende achtete er nicht. Envy makes one feel inferior a feeling that vanishes when one robs from another what one craves for oneself. The New Dutch Bible translation gives Cain’s reaction to this unexpected and random rejection as one of fury and anger: “Cain then became furious and his countenance darkened”. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4, 5). The New Revised Standard Version translates: “And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. While confirmation and recognition are sought and expected, when gratitude and dependency are expressed, the rejection is absolute, total, and devoid of compromise. The text, at any rate, provides no explanation. The rejection and acceptance are random, without reason or meaning, they make no sense. The plot is set into motion when Cain’s offering of the fruits of the field is rejected while his younger brother Abel’s offering, the fat portion of the season’s first calf, is accepted. The dynamics of meaningless violence can be investigated via the drama that consequently unfolds (Bastian and Hilgers 1990). Yet when they offer their thanks, the counterfactual expression of Man’s neediness and impotence after being driven out of Paradise, things go badly. As men with responsibilities, farming the land and breeding cattle, they each bring an offering to God, their creator and protector. One of the early chapters of Genesis (4,1–8) recounts the story of the birth of Eve’s children. When searching for an explanation for gratuitous violence, it may be worthwhile to examine more closely the event that may be regarded as prototypical of this phenomenon: the murderous encounter of Cain and Abel. ![]()
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