BENEATH THE MASK Hypocrisy and the Pathology of Shame

With the exception of Rangell’s seminal work, hypocrisy is conceptualized exclusively in terms of pathological narcissism and/or compromised superego formation. Recent psychoanalytic investigations of shame offer an alternative to this view, elucidating the motives of so-called moral hypocrites (Batson, Kobrynowicz, Dinnerstein, Kampf, & Wilson, 1997) who meet the diagnostic criteria for neither antisocial nor narcissistic personality disorder and whose behavior deviates from the ethical standards they otherwise hold. Although the shame-vulnerable individual and hypocrite ultimately are distinguished, the former offers a deeper understanding of the latter. Specifically, this analysis illuminates why and for whom the mask is worn, suggesting that shame avoidance plays a critical role in the etiology and furtherance of hypocrisy.