“Shyness can become a serious problem when it is rooted in toxic shame.” — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self and never living your own life or knowing who you are. This… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Unfortunately, accomplishments do not reduce internalized shame. In fact, the more one achieves, the more one has to achieve. Toxic shame is… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Superachievement and perfectionism are two of the leading cover-ups for toxic shame. As paradoxical as it may seem, the straight-A student and… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Where are you, Adam? According to the book of Genesis, Adam went into hiding after the fall. By trying to be more… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“The agony of this chronic stage of being cannot be endured for long. At the deepest level, toxic shame triggers our basic… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“SHAME-BASED MARRIAGE AND PARENTAL MODELS It is obvious that a major source of toxic shame is the family system and its multigenerational… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“What a perfectionistic system creates is a “how to get it right” behavioral script. In such a script one is taught how… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Crushing the toddler’s autonomy and purposeful will is the most damaging form of shaming that can be done. When autonomy is crushed,… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“SHAME-BASED FAMILIES AND MULTIGENERATIONAL ILLNESS One of the devastating aspects of toxic shame is that it is multigenerational. The secret and hidden… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“High achievement is often the result of being driven by toxic shame. Feeling flawed and defective on the inside, I had to… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Toxic shame results from the unexpected exposure of vulnerable aspects of a child’s self. This exposure takes place before the child has… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“A person with internalized shame believes he is inherently flawed, inferior and defective.Such a feeling is so painful that defending scripts (or… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Arnold was scapegoated from the moment he set foot in the school. He was laughed at, made fun of and ridiculed by… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Toxic shame, with its more-than-human, less-than-human polarization, is either inhuman or dehumanizing. The demand for a false self to cover and hide… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Toxic shame, the shame that binds us, is experienced as the all-pervasive sense that “I am flawed and defective as a human… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“If our primary caregivers are shame-based, they will act shameless and pass their toxic shame onto us. There is no way to… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“The major problem in our lives is to decide and clarify our responsibilities. To truly be committed to a life of honesty,… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Perhaps the greatest wound a shame-based person carries is the inability to be intimate in a relationship. This inability flows directly out… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
Recovery begins with embracing our pain and taking the risk to share it with others. We do this by joining a group and talking… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Generally speaking, most of our vital, spontaneous, instinctual life gets shamed. Children are shamed for being too rambunctious, for wanting things and for laughing… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“A covert kind of sexual abuse occurs when Dad or Mom talk about sex in front of the children when the age level of… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
I know from my own clinical work that when people are beaten and hurt, they numb out so that they cant feel anymore. — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“Love-that which biologists, nervous about being misunderstood call "attachment"-fuels the bond between dog and master or mistress.” — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“(b) Boundary Violation. This involves children witnessing parents in sexual behavior. They may walk in on it because parents don’t provide closed or locked… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“A toxically shamed person is divided within himself and must create a false-self cover-up to hide his sense of being flawed and defective. You… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
I define a 'good person' as somebody who is fully conscious of their own limitations. They know their strengths, but they also know their… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“The ego defense of conversion transforms developmental needs into the need for something else. This could be food, money or excessive attention. In Max’s… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“In fact, the most paradoxical aspect of neurotic shame is that it is the core motivator of the superachieved and the underachieved, the star… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“If our primary caregivers are shame-based, they will act shameless and pass their toxic shame onto us. There is no way to teach self-value… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
