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British Festival of Science: Shame in Medicine – The Lost Forest
The Shame and Medicine Project was delighted to be part of the 2023 British Festival of Science. We held an interactive art exhibition at St Pancras Church in the Guildhall Shopping Centre on Friday...
View ArticleNEW: GRAPHIC MEDICINE PIECES
We are delighted to share our latest Graphic Medicine pieces. Experiences of shame are powerful, deeply held, and infrequently shared; finding the words to describe them can be difficult. The Shame...
View ArticleMonsters
Post-op drifting after reconstructive surgery, in a wide-open, multi-bed recovery room partitioned by wavy muslin walls, I heard one strangled sentence above the racket of skittering curtain hooks....
View ArticleReflective Practice: A Tool to Process Shame
It was really odd starting medical school in the middle of the pandemic. Continually reminded of the pertinent reality of the career paths upon which we had embarked, we remained incredibly distant...
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Call for Patients
Do you live in England and have you felt shame or self-conscious when you’ve been to see a Doctor? Take part in our research. You’ll need to complete a short report about your experience which usually...
View ArticleHealing together after medical harm: A bittersweet journey
A peppermint candy was all I needed. Whenever I cried after making a mistake in my spelling test in first grade, my teacher, dear Madame Carty, would always give me a peppermint to soothe my feelings....
View ArticleFeeling ‘not-so-likeable’: historicising loneliness as a shamed emotion
There are all kinds of reasons why we might feel lonely. From philosophical explorations of loneliness as an essential part of being human, to political critiques of modern alienation, toxic...
View ArticleMoral Injury: a manifestation of shame in Healthcare workers
I’ve always thought that if shame were an animal it would be a box jellyfish, at times delivering its effect slowly through repeated contact with its tentacles and at other times swiftly, with a sudden...
View ArticleNEW ARTICLE: Shame, health literacy and consent
Lyons B, Dolezal L. Shame, health literacy and consent. Clinical Ethics. 2023;0(0). DOI: 10.1177/14777509231218203 Abstract This paper is particularly concerned with shame, sometimes considered the...
View ArticleFredrik Westerlund Seminar
WATCH RECORDING We are delighted to welcome to Exeter, Dr Fredrik Westerlund, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, to give the seminar: “Myself in the Eyes of Others:...
View ArticleNEW VISITING RESEARCHER: FRED COOPER
We are delighted to welcome Dr Fred Cooper, University of Bristol, to the Shame and Medicine Project as an Honorary Research Fellow until January 2025. Fred is a historian of medicine at @BristolUniLaw...
View ArticleSpeaking of Shame
My conversation with Luna Dolezal seems like a contradiction. For someone whose philosophy career has taken her deep into the emotion of shame and its powerful – sometimes troubling – effects on our...
View ArticleCall for Stories: “Uncertainty in Medicine”
Our friends at The Nocturnists are collecting stories for a new podcast series on “Uncertainty in Medicine”, a topic that “goes largely unacknowledged in medical training, as recognizing it can feel...
View ArticleWhen we hurt our patients: Shame in clinical encounters for breast cancer...
There are many reasons why shame may be experienced during treatment for breast cancer. Shame about the diagnosis, about how a lump was found (or not found) can be experienced. Shame about risk factors...
View ArticleCOVID-19 Inquiry
We are proud to see that the UKRI referenced the Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19 project, via Pandemic and Beyond, for their submission to Module 4 of the COVID-19 Inquiry.
View ArticleNew Chapter: Shame
Dolezal, L. “Shame.” In Kevin Aho, Megan Altman & Hans Pedersen (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism. London: Routledge Abstract: As a philosophical approach which takes...
View ArticleHow shame highlighted the importance of deconstructing biomedical science and...
After graduating from medical school in 2018, I had an experience that led me to feel shame upon recognising that I could not communicate with patients from their perspective. Patients with chronic or...
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‘Researching Shame’ Conference
Programme and speaker bios. Read Prof Robert Walker’s blog about the day. VIEW RECORDINGS The Shame and Medicine Project invites you to a free in-person one-day conference exploring different ways in...
View ArticleSupriya Subramani Seminar
The Shame and Medicine Project and the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health are thrilled to welcome to the University of Exeter, Dr Supriya Subramani, University of Sydney, to give...
View ArticleChronic Shame, Serious Mental Illness (SMI), Lived Experience & Audit Culture
As I write this I have just come through an acute episode of shame. I’ve been hiding from myself for days. In such panic I’ve had trouble breathing. I have a tendency to hold my breath. Not on purpose,...
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‘Researching Shame’ Conference
REGISTRATION is open and speakers are announced! WHEN: 5th June 2024, 09.30 – 17.00 (Registration from 09.30, start at 10.00) WHERE: The Assembly Room, The Exchange, Birmingham FREE attendance Visit...
View ArticleWhat is the Difference Between Shame and Stigma?
When I speak to healthcare workers about shame, and why we need to understand shame and its effects, the question I hear most frequently is: “What’s the difference between shame and stigma?” Stigma has...
View ArticleExcerpt from ‘Out of Patients’
“Excerpt from Out of Patients: A Novel is published with permission from the University of Nevada Press.” Women go to physicians more than men. Partly that’s having a uterus, because menstrual...
View Article‘Researching Shame’ conference schedule released
The final schedule for our ‘Researching Shame’ conference on 5th June 2024 is now available. Please visit the event page for further information.
View ArticleShaming people is hurting, not helping our efforts to build a more equitable...
‘Shaming people is hurting, not helping our efforts to build a more equitable world’ Luna Dolezal discusses shame with Philippa Willitts for Now Then magazine Street art by Inksurgeon, on the...
View ArticleNEW CHAPTER: “The shameful dead: Vaccine hesitancy, shame and necropolitics...
Cooper, F., Dolezal, L., & Rose, A. (2024). “The shameful dead: Vaccine hesitancy, shame and necropolitics during COVID-19”. In Knowing COVID- 19. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press....
View ArticleHow permission to have shame can be a game changer
Probably the most recognised “antidote” to shame is compassion. Paul Gilbert who developed Compassion Focus Therapy originally created the model to apply to shame. Equally, Brené Brown created Shame...
View ArticlePeter Miller Seminar
The Shame and Medicine Project and the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health are pleased to welcome to the University of Exeter, Peter Miller, Professor of Violence Prevention and...
View ArticleFred Cooper Seminar
DATE: Hybrid 27th November 24, 13.00 – 14.00 GMT WATCH RECORDING TITLE: ‘Carmita Wood in her own words: Shame, loneliness, and epistemic injustice at a speak-out on sexual harassment in Ithaca in...
View ArticleIt’s a shame about shame research
I was honoured to be invited to the Researching Shame Conference in Birmingham on 5th June 2024 on account of research published more than a decade ago exploring whether shame is a concomitant of...
View ArticlePodcasts from The British Society for Phenomenology 2022 Annual Conference
Listen now to the BSP podcasts from The British Society for Phenomenology 2022 Annual Conference hosted by the University of Exeter which featured a special shame panel sponsored by Shame and Medicine...
View ArticleCongratulations
Congratulations to Luna Dolezal awarded a James Fellowship in Social Sciences SSSHARC at the University of Sydney for 2025.
View ArticlePersonal responsibility vs social determinants of health: how us GPs can...
I’ve enjoyed The BMJ’s focus on societal causes of ill health recently and Dr Lucinda Hiam et al’s article deeply resonated with me. Mainly because as a GP, I’ve always been troubled by my colleagues,...
View ArticleNew Article: ‘Shame-Sensitive Public Health: A Post Covid-19 Challenge’
Cooper, F., Dolezal, L. & Rose, A. Shame-Sensitive Public Health. J Med Humanit (2024).*~ Open Access. Abstract In this article, we argue that shaming interventions and messages during Covid-19...
View ArticleThe courage to blush: a story of shame, healing and psychological safety in...
The song of Hiawatha marked my first encounter with shame and the accompanying hot blush that would plague me for 20+ years. It’s strange how such a mundane situation can embed itself so deeply. Only...
View ArticleIs Shame so Bad? Distinguishing shame, guilt and embarrassment
My PhD research examines the harm of shame within NHS maternity wards. What I have discovered is that misunderstandings around how shame is experienced lead some healthcare professionals to suggest...
View ArticleCongratulations
Congratulations to Arthur Rose, Engaged Research Fellow for the Shame and Medicine Project, whose book ‘Asbestos – The Last Modernist Object’ has received the European Society for the Study of English...
View ArticleWelcome to our Visiting Scholars
We are delighted to welcome two Visiting Scholars to the Shame and Medicine Project. Dr Katharine Cheston and Prof Peter Miller. Read Katharine’s blog for the Shame and Medicine Project. Prof Peter...
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Call for Papers – Shame and Medicine 2025 Conference
For all details please visit our Conference event page.
View ArticleShame in the Third Person
That morning, the shouting pertained to a scan that the senior registrar said was needed for the very poorly elderly lady in Bed 7, whom the young doctor had been looking after for several days […] The...
View ArticleNew Graphic Medicine Piece
Vilkelyte, V., Dolezal, L., Navarro-Páez, J. et al. The Room. J Med Humanit (2024).* Open Access. We are delighted to share our latest Graphic Medicine piece ‘The Room’. Experiences of shame are...
View ArticleShame and Medicine in Literature Seminar Series
The Shame and Medicine Project presents the Shame and Medicine in Literature Seminar Series, hosted by the Centre for the Cultures and Environments of Health. Shame, Elspeth Probyn tells us, ‘is a...
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Shame and Medicine Conference
We are delighted to confirm that the end-of-project Shame and Medicine Conference will take place on Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th June 2025 in the Woodbridge Suite, Reed Hall at the University of...
View ArticleReflections on my Chronic Shame
My life, like many other lives, has not always been easy. However, through sometimes painful reflection and not giving up I have managed to find satisfaction and contentment in many aspects of my life....
View Article‘Is it really an illness?’: The stigma of ‘medically unexplained symptoms’
I went for an eye test earlier this year. As the optician checked my details from my last appointment – and noticed, presumably, the words ‘PhD student’ next to ‘occupation’ – he asked what I was...
View ArticleBecoming My Own Master: Encouraging Myself, and Not My Shame, to Pull the...
The dim lights of the hospital room cast my patient in a soft glow. He was writhing on the hospital bed, crying out, “Mama, it hurts!” It was the middle of the night, and I was halfway through my...
View ArticleThe Choreographies of Tooth Shame
In September of last year, I had the privilege of presenting my initial findings on “tooth shame” at the Shame and Medicine Project and the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. This...
View ArticleFeeling shame in shame research
Shame has been labelled and categorised in many ways in the literature. As a psychotherapist and researcher, for me, the most significant aspect of shame is that it is overwhelmingly painful and...
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Hope and Humanity – a storytelling event
Storytelling is an artform that all humans participate in and forms the cornerstone of medical practice. It can bring insight, peace and healing to both storyteller and audience. Healthcare staff most...
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