What Is Shame? "The greatest trick shame ever pulled was convincing the world it doesn’t have a problem with shame." This is the first installment of a 7-part series on the much feared and misunderstood S-word. The “master emotion” with ideological and evolutionary roots that go so much deeper than the dictionary definition. A few years ago I had a "shame breakthrough" that improved my life dramatically. I want to share my experience and some of the insights I learned along the way from the pioneering work of Brené Brown, Carol Dweck, James Gilligan, Alan Downs, and others.