Skamm

Skamm is the term used in Norwegian and Swedish (and Danish) for the emotion and social experience of shame. It denotes a feeling of discomfort, disgrace, or humiliation that arises when a person perceives themselves as falling short of social norms or moral expectations. In everyday language it can refer to personal embarrassment, a sense of being exposed, or a broader feeling of social inadequacy. In many discussions, skamm is contrasted with guilt, which concerns remorse for a specific action rather than the person as a whole.

Etymologically, skamm and its cognates in other Germanic languages trace back to a common Proto-Germanic root related to shame or disgrace. This places the Scandinavian terms in the same linguistic family as English shame and German Scham, reflecting shared historical developments in how Western European languages encode the concept of social evaluation and self-conscious emotion.

In psychology, shame is considered a self-conscious affect that involves negative evaluation of the self. It can be triggered by real or imagined judgment by others and often leads to avoidance, withdrawal, or attempts to conceal. It differs from guilt, which centers on a perceived wrongness of a specific behavior rather than the person’s overall worth. Shame can be experienced privately or publicly and may be influenced by cultural norms, social status, and interpersonal relationships.

Culturally and socially, shame serves as a mechanism for enforcing norms and can take the form of stigma or public shaming in certain contexts. Modern discussions also address the harms of online shaming and strategies to address persistent shame in mental health contexts. Therapies often focus on reducing maladaptive shame and increasing self-compassion through cognitive-behavioral and person-centered approaches. See also guilt, embarrassment, stigma.