In Defence of Shame is a notably short book, rounding out at just under 100 pages, including afterword, even despite a font and typeset which does favours for length.
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Coming from the notable conservative publisher Connor Court, it is a central position of the book that "traditionalism and collectivism [are] a force for good". The titular defence of shame identifies many of the psychical and social malaises of modernity and seeks to link their causes and potentially their solutions with shame and its decay in modern Western society.
Author and psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed presents his research in a clear and digestible form, which he then translates with personality into his own terms and towards his own conclusions.
It is interesting and varied material which promises insights into the subject and its reverberations in the modern world. However, it is not comprehensive, and the propensity for the author's arguments to become veiled and difficult to isolate from background information disguises the controversy of some conclusions. For example, the absence of material on gender, which has for good historical reason been at the centre of much analysis of shame as a social phenomenon, omits some of the theory behind a stance opposed to shame.
The claim, for instance, that "Countries like Australia are probably the least racist in the world but are open enough to have the most heated discussions about racism" would surely have to be tested against at least the evidence of recent history, such as the Cronulla riots and the ongoing marginalisation of Indigenous Australians.
None of this is to say that the author is uninteresting, dogmatic or catechistic, but there is discussion which appears missing, and which complicates, and indeed, necessarily qualifies the author's case.
Ultimately, if you are looking for a brief foray into some of the academic literature on shame, and some conjecture as to its societal and sociological implications, this book will grant some pleasing food for thought. It is an entertaining light read, and there is good information here on the state and place of shame in modern day. But as the length of this book attests, it can hardly be called a comprehensive treatise.
