The Shame We Stand On – The Deeper Thinking Podcast

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

A recursive meditation on shame as epistemic ground, identity as performance, and healing as ontological disobedience.

What if shame wasn’t a feeling to overcome—but a structure we unknowingly stand on? In this episode, we explore the idea of ontological shame: a form of selfhood shaped not by momentary embarrassment but by systemic, inherited frameworks of erasure and expectation. Drawing from Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, Louis Althusser’s interpellation, and Michel Foucault’s theories of discipline, we consider how institutions, families, and cultural norms silently instruct us to disappear—and how healing begins when we refuse to obey.

This is not therapy-speak or pop-psychology. It is inquiry into how we come to mistake performance for personality, obedience for belonging, and perfection for safety. We follow shame not as symptom, but as infrastructure—asking what it means to unlearn the ground beneath our feet without losing the self we built upon it.

Reflections

Here are some reflections that surfaced along the way:

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Bibliography

Bibliography Relevance

Shame doesn’t just shape what we feel—it decides who we think we are allowed to become.

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