Page No 209-220
Rituporna Borgohain and Priya Saxena
LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam
Shame is a socio-cultural phenomenon, recognized as a self-conscious emotion that
involves self-devaluation and concerns of social-devaluation. While it is extensively
studied in Western contexts, its expression and effects in India remain underexplored.
This narrative review includes 22 relevant studies, with the aim of exploring ways shame
is conceptualized, contextualized and culturally manifested in India. The review highlights
dominant conceptual frameworks and limited contextualization in existing research.
Findings suggest that shame is associated with negative effects such as, reduced
well-being and self-esteem, while cultural manifestations like lajjâ reveal the socialmoral
significance in India. Majority of cross-cultural studies support the universal
adaptive function of shame, but also acknowledge culturally varied expressions shaped
by cultural orientations and related self-construal. A notable lack of qualitative research
limits experiential and interpretive insights. The review calls for culturally grounded and
context-sensitive approaches that move beyond simplistic positive-negative and universalcultural
binaries.