Nathanson’s Compass of Shame

The Compass of Shame hypothesises four responses to the physiological and psychological experience of shame: withdrawal, avoidance, attack self and attack other. They are considered as coping scripts, a way of coping with the intense emotion and experience of shame.

An individual may deploy more than one coping script at a time – depending on the event, multiple coping scripts and defenses can be used for immediate/short term coping or long term adapted coping for internalised shame.