Interweaving Klein and Shame

Melanie Klein was the founding voice of object relations theory and she has a brilliant take on the feeling of anxiety.  Klein believed that defenses were erected in response to anxiety, both to avoid it and to help deal with it.  I wish I had the chance to discuss the topic of shame and "hiding" with Klein because it seems to me that shame, as a root emotion, creates an abundance of anxiety, specifically anxiety towards being seen as one really is.  My thought in combining shame with Klein is that shame creates anxiety within the individual.  Defenses are erected to protect against that anxiety.  These defenses serve to reduce the anxiety and, in addition, suppress the memory and emotion connected to the event that produced the anxiety-inducing shame in the first place.

Shame -> Anxiety -> Defenses

If shame often calls an individual into a type of hiding, a putting on of a false self so others don't see the person as they really are, it makes sense to say that while defenses are in response to anxiety, they are really in response to the trigger of anxiety, the emotion shame.  The end result being an individual who has learned to protect themselves (defenses) from feeling their shame, yet who's defenses are also inhibiting them to be close or emotionally connected to another.  

Shame -> Anxiety -> Defenses -> Managed Shame/Anxiety -> Inability to Enter Into Deep Relationships

Finally, I also want to say that I believe shame does not exist without a precursor, an event or action done to the individual.  It has an origin, I do not believe shame is a "natural" state of being.  It is incited within oneself.