Comment on Wright, O'Leary, and Balkin's "Shame, Guilt, Narcissism, and Depression: Correlates and Sex Differences"

Wright, O'Leary, and Balkin (1989) have laudably used an empirical approach to increase our understanding of the roles played by shame, guilt, and sex differences in depression and narcissism. However, the lack of construct validity for the guilt scale they used seriously compromises some of their conclusions. At variance with those conclusions, other studies suggest that guilt may not be less involved in depression than shame and that guilt, like shame, may be more common among women than men. Possible dynamics underlying this difference are proposed. Wright et al. also reported that men show more narcissism than women, but it is argued here that such a difference may be overstated. Theoretical implications of these findings and hypotheses are raised. Finally, clinical implications for treatment of shame-prone patients are discussed.