987167

research-article2021
NSQXXX10.1177/0894318420987167Nursing Science QuarterlyAlanizi

Article

Nursing Science Quarterly

The Humanbecoming Concept

2021, Vol. 34(2) 178­–182
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
Inventing Model: Feeling Ashamed sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0894318420987167
https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318420987167
journals.sagepub.com/home/nsq

Amal W. Alanizi, RN; MS1

Abstract
The scholar in this paper presents a concept inventing model of feeling ashamed. It consists of a literature review across
many disciplines, an exploration of many artforms, dialoguing with others, and a distinctive description of feeling ashamed.
With the humanbecoming concept inventing model, the scholar explored shame and created a novel idea that could
develop approaches in the advancement of nursing knowledge. This exploration advances nursing knowledge within the
humanbecoming paradigm. With the use of humanbecoming concept inventing model, the now-truth of feeling ashamed for
the scholar was raised as unbearable stillness with desired escape arising with isolating affiliations. The ingenuous proclamation as
a theoretical statement was communicated in the humanbecoming sciencing language as languaging the powering of connecting-
separating with the artform of Shame by Rosa Gunasingha.

Keywords
concept inventing, feeling ashamed, humanbecoming, Parse

The humanbecoming concept inventing model (see Figure 1)
is a unique method created by Parse (1997, 2006, 2018) to
guide scholars in the exploration of different universal huma-
nuniverse living experiences. The conceptual and theoretical
foreknowings arise from scholars’ experiences with concept
inventing. The creative phases of the model advance schol-
ars’ knowledge of a phenomenon of interest from their per-
sonal perspective. Parse (2018) called the distinctive
scholars’ description of a concept an ingenuous proclama-
tion, “an assertion that incarnates the meaning of the concept
for the scholar” (p. 157).
Unfolding the Concept
The exploration of feeling ashamed as a concept began while
the author immersed herself thoroughly in the meaning of
shame. It became very clear that shame is a universal huma-
nuniverse experience filled with meanings that people avoid
talking about as it is an unbearable painful emotion. The
most influential part of this scholar’s journey was learning
that living experiences are choices that differ from person to
person. Sartre (2003) considered shame a choice of life when
he said, “pure shame is not a feeling of being this or that
guilty object but in general of being an object; that is, of rec-
ognizing myself in this degraded, fixed and dependent being
which I am for the Other” (p. 312). To feel ashamed is to
accept the judgment of others. It is to become an object for
another subject. Thus, the scholar decided to explore more
about the concept of shame with Parse’s humanbecoming
concept inventing method. According to Parse (2018),
“concept inventing unfolds with the all-at-once immersing
with explicit-tacit knowings, exploring with pattern prefer-
ences, and explicating with pondering possible” (p. 157).
Each of these three components of the humanbecoming con-
cept inventing model (Parse, 2018) is described here with the
universal humanuniverse living experience of shame.
Immersing with explicit-tacit knowings uncovers the
meaning from the scholar’s theoretical foreknowings that
include experiences and value priorities. Immersing with
explicit-tacit knowings is “an intense deep dive, engaging
intently with the illimitable,” “drifting playfully with the
unbounded,” and “journaling carefully with deliberation”
(Parse, 2018, p. 157). The scholar’s deep immersing with the
concept creates the valued knowledge that is “recorded by
the scholar over time, as journaling carefully with delibera-
tion preserves the meaning moments of the emerging now
with the unfolding concept” (Parse, 2018, p. 157). When the
scholar immerses deeply, unique ideas surface that require
more exploration. As a result, the scholar recognizes “the
significance of the immersion” (Parse, 2018, p. 157).
Engaging intently with the illimitable originates from the
scholar’s unlimited personal experiences and value priorities
that develop with life experiences. This scholar started to
engage and dive deeply in the phenomenon of feeling
ashamed after immersing with literature about self-stigma
with mental illness. Stigma can be defined as shame and
disgrace; thus, the interest in the concept of shame arose as
1
PhD Student, Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Binghamton
University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, USA
Alanizi
Figure 1. The Humanbecoming Concept Inventing Model.
Reprinted with permission from Parse (2018).
significant. As the scholar progressed with time in engaging,
the experience of feeling ashamed became more clear. It was
surprising that shame was an emotion that all people experi-
ence but preferably do not talk about because it is not a desir-
able feeling to share with others and is still considered a
taboo in most societies.
The meaning of feeling ashamed has emerged after the
scholar drifted playfully with the unbounded. Shame as a
concept has different personal perspectives from one person
to another, and for this scholar; it is a choice in life and a
personal experience. This scholar has journaled carefully
with deliberation, recording the valued knowings of feeling
ashamed in the emerging now. According to Parse (2018),
“the reflective-prereflective deep dive in immersing with a
concept is piercing the depths of valued knowings” (p. 157).
For this scholar, shame is a mortifying disgrace surfacing
with a sense of embarrassment and humiliation. Shame is a
threat to dignity. When feeling ashamed, the scholar feels
exposed to others’ evaluation and judgment. Shame is a per-
sonal-evaluation that arises after failing to meet personal and
others’ standards and expectations. For this scholar, shame is
an unbearable troubling disclosure. People experience a feel-
ing of shame as being exposed and unable to move. They
have the desire to hide and disappear from the eyes of others.
Being trapped and incapable of moving develops a constant
pressure to be unseen.
After immersing with explicit-tacit knowings, the schol-
ar’s personal meaning of feeling ashamed unfolded. Unique
ideas regarding the concept of shame required further explo-
ration. Therefore, this scholar continued immersing to explore
pattern preferences and discern the significance of the immer-
sion. Parse (2018) stated that “discerning significance is
structuring the meaning of the emerging now” (p. 157).
The understanding of shame as a universal humanuni-
verse experience can be advanced through exploring with
pattern preferences. To explore with pattern preferences is to
“traverse the known with precisely scrutinizing the concept
179
in dialoguing with others, interpreting with artforms, and
dwelling with printed material” (Parse, 2018, p. 157). It is a
way to explore what is known and not known about a con-
cept. Pattern preferences allow scholars to select a variety of
ideas from multiple media sources.
Since shame is a universal humanuniverse experience,
exploring it arises from dialoguing with others, interpreting
artforms, and dwelling with printed material. Dialoguing
with others presents the scholar with different perspectives
of the concept. It is significant to ponder deeply and explore
to discover the distinct meaning of a concept. This scholar
dialogued with others to convey what it is to feel ashamed.
An 11-year-old child (anonymous, personal communication,
February 2019) said, “Shame means to me when you do
something that you regret.” A 34-year-old man, a full-time
student with two children (anonymous, personal communi-
cation, February 2019), stated that “feeling ashamed is to
feel bad about myself that I did something wrong and unable
to change.” Another adult, who is a 46-year-old woman
(anonymous, personal communication, February 2019),
stated that “to feel ashamed is to feel embarrassed like if I am
naked and people are staring at me.” A 48-year-old woman
doctoral student (anonymous, personal communication,
March 2019) said, “Feeling ashamed is a combination of
feelings of inadequacy and nonacceptance.”
Additional exploration of the concept of shame can be
found in interpreting artforms such as paintings, movies,
music, and books. According to Parse (2018), interpreting
with artforms is “engaging with various paintings, films, the-
atrical performances, movements, musical compositions,
and other media that reflect the meaning of the concept for
the scholar” (p. 158). This scholar chose several artforms
that reflect the meaning of feeling ashamed for her. Examples
of these artforms are the song “I Won’t Be Ashamed,” by
Robby Busick (2017), and the sculpture “Martin, Into the
Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself,” by Martin
Kippenberger (1989). These artforms helped this scholar to
180
find emerging meanings of shame. According to Parse
(2018), “during hours and days of being with chosen art-
forms, the scholar cocreates the personal meaning of the con-
cept with what is shown by the artists” (p. 158).
In addition to dialoguing with others and interpreting art-
forms, dwelling with printed material is a unique way to
explore scholars’ pattern preferences. In dwelling with litera-
ture from various disciplines, more meanings of shame were
uncovered. Dwelling with printed material assisted this
scholar to identify themes that are “phrases stated at an
abstract level of discourse, reflecting the meanings of the
concept from many printed sources and others” (Parse, 2018,
p. 158). Literature from several disciplines was included:
philosophy, sociology, psychology, and nursing. From
exploring with pattern preferences, three themes on feeling
ashamed were crafted. The themes are as follows: shame is a
threat to dignity; shame arises with unfavorable disclosure;
and shame emerges with mortifying disgrace. All of these
themes illustrate the scholar’s conceptual foreknowings
about feeling ashamed.
After immersing and exploring, this scholar explicated
with pondering possibles by “exposing the rare distinctness”
(Parse, 2018, p. 158) of the living experience of feeling
ashamed. With explicating, the scholar clarified webs of
ambiguity as a novel conceptualization of feeling ashamed.
Parse (2018) elaborated, “With explicating, the scholar is
clarifying the webs of ambiguity that were present before the
concept was born as a novel conceptualization” (p. 158).
Additionally, unfolding the concept of feeling ashamed
evolved into “explaining the now-truth” (Parse, 2018, p. 158).
The now-truth for this scholar was the following: Feeling
ashamed is unbearable stillness with desired escape arising
with isolating affiliations.
Unbearable Stillness
With feelings of shame, the unbearable stillness grows with
a desire to disappear. Believing that one has lost honor and
respect makes the experience of shame so painful. When
shame surfaces, dignity is threatened. Peoples’ everchanging
personal knowing is what shapes their honorable way of
being and highlights any failure of fulfilling valued goals.
Therefore, the stillness arises from not tolerating the now
moment, hoping for the time to stop, and not getting another
chance to fix the situation. In shame, the unbearable stillness
extends to the desire to escape.
Desired Escape
Individuals experiencing shame are aware of disclosing to oth-
ers. People expose and do not expose in mysterious ways.
Others’ evaluation and acceptance are important to them.
When people choose to recognize their unworthiness in the
eyes of others, the desire to escape arises. The embarrassment
Nursing Science Quarterly 34(2)
and disappointment that follow are present with the experi-
ence of shame, and it creates a pressure to leave the place to
save face in light of preserving dignity. The face here is
described as a mixture of many aspects, including social stand-
ing, reputation, and honor. Saving face allows people to be in
a more comfortable position personally and with others.
Isolating Affiliations
Isolating affiliation is attending-distancing with others. It
surfaces when the person is being with and apart from others
at the same time. The attempt to isolate and be away from
others arises with feelings of inadequacy. It emerges with the
feeling of being trapped and powerless. Isolation emerges
whether from others’ or from personal choices. The ashamed
individual expresses isolating attempts with overwhelming
aloneness. Shame surfaces with a wish to disappear or even
to die. Individuals confine activities to hiding and conceal-
ment. Isolation and hiding could symbolize the shameful
feeling. Lindsay-Hartz, De Rivera, and Mascolo (1995) elab-
orated, “we wish to hide in order to get out of the interper-
sonal realm and escape our painful exposure before the
others” (p. 278).
Ingenuous Proclamation
Ingenuous proclamation is “shapeshifting the novel concep-
tualization from immersing, exploring, and explicating”
(Parse, 2018, p. 158). The scholar’s theoretical statement,
and chosen artform, is presented as the ingenuous proclama-
tion. Feeling ashamed was demonstrated at the highest sci-
encing level in the ingenuous proclamation and was written
at the level of humanbecoming paradigm as feeling ashamed
is languaging the powering of connecting-separating. For
the scholar, the painting by Rosa Gunasingha (2014) named
Shame (see Figure 2) best illustrates the universal humanuni-
verse experience of feeling ashamed.
Languaging
Unbearable stillness, as an essence of feeling ashamed, can
be connected with languaging from the first principle of
humanbecoming. The first principle of humanbecoming is
“structuring meaning is the imaging and valuing of languag-
ing” (Parse, 2014, p. 37). Languaging is “signifying valued
images with speaking-being silent and moving-being still.”
(Parse, 2014, p. 40). Unbearable stillness is linked with lan-
guaging as valued images that ashamed individuals show in
their living quality as they fortify their wisdom with discern-
ment and as they live penetrating silence. With languaging,
individuals symbolize their feelings of shame with speaking-
being silent and moving-being still. Not only moving and
speaking are symbols to express meaning, but also being
silent and being still are shown with feelings of shame. It is a
Alanizi
Figure 2. Shame.
Reprinted with permission from Rosa Gunasingha (2014).
choice of being quiet and motionless to alleviate the experi-
enced unbearable shame. Parse (2014) elaborated, “being
still is a near motionless stance that appears to be like tread-
ing water in one place, yet it is not” (p. 41).
In the artform, the subject is shame and the figure repre-
sents an individual experiencing shame. The languaging val-
ued images of the figure reflect unbearable stillness. The
individual shows some symbolic expressions that are fea-
tures of the paradoxes of languaging, which are speaking-
being silent and moving-being still. The figure seems unable
to move or speak. The individual in the painting seems to be
trying to move but is stuck with apparent controlled stillness
yet is not still. The attempts of moving create an unclear and
vague picture of the figure. The intolerable experience is
noticeable in the covering of the face with both hands to hide
and avoid saying a word. Silence as a choice is beyond words
and a language of shame. In the context of this painting, not
speaking is part of languaging, “languaging is not just the
content of what an individual says with words, but it is how
the whole message is uncovered in the context of the situa-
tion” (Parse, 2014, p. 41). The appearance of the figure in the
painting is barely seen with no clear shape. At a distance, the
picture discloses part of an individual trying to conceal the
face but at the same time does not disclose all the features of
the face. Losing face is a threat to dignity and honor and low-
ers individuals in the eyes of others, while saving face
momentarily raises worth and respect. The need to save face
181
arises with the preference of being concealed from others’
views and not being seen. The unbearable moment of feeling
ashamed cocreates the desire to be still and without speech.
Powering
In shame, people feel their honor and respect are threatened,
and they become mortified from being disgraced. Anguish
arises after being negatively evaluated as dishonored and
unaccepted. Thus, shame surfaces with a desire to escape.
This may be connected with the paradoxes of “pushing-
resisting of affirming-not affirming and being-nonbeing”
(Parse, 2014, p. 48) of powering. Powering is a concept of
the third principle of humanbecoming, “cotranscending with
possibles is the powering and originating of transforming”
(Parse, 2014, p. 47). Powering is defined as “the pushing-
resisting of affirming-not affirming being in light of nonbe-
ing” (Parse, 2014, p. 48). The potential loss of dignity merges
with the desire to escape nonbeing. Being viewed as less in
the eyes of others is an incarnation of nonbeing. Being-
nonbeing surfaces with shameful feelings as in paradoxical
apposition. Shame is cocreated as a personal choice that indi-
viduals experience from their eyes and the eyes of others.
Others’ recognition matters. To escape, people develop a ten-
sion that creates a wish for leaving the situation to run away
from others. Parse (2014) stated, “pushing-resisting patterns
emerge with humanuniverse and are present in every engage-
ment, creating tension and sometimes conflict” (p. 48). When
people experience shame, the struggle to not be present at the
moment is often obvious and visible.
The being-nonbeing tension in the painting of shame is
recognized as the figure is pushing-resisting with the becom-
ing visible-invisible becoming of the emerging now. The fig-
ure appears to be trying to escape by hiding. The face is
hidden to avoid the glares of others. Apparently, the figure
wants to hide by pushing away unwanted feelings of power-
lessness and unworthiness. The intensity of the shameful
expression is shown with the deep red flames surrounding
the head of the figure. The fire in the figure-head calls the
viewer to recognize the pain and suffering of shame in this
artform.
Connecting-Separating
The connecting-separating concept flows from the second
humanbecoming principle of “configuring rhythmical patterns
is the revealing-concealing and enabling-limiting of connect-
ing-separating” (Parse, 2014, p. 43). Parse (2014) stated that
connecting-separating is “living being with and apart from
others, ideas, objects, and situations all at once” (p. 45).
Connecting-separating associated with isolating affiliations
that surfaces with rhythmically engaging with others while
separating from them all-at-once. Individuals who feel
ashamed when engaging with others, ideas, and situations may
182
experience humiliation, dishonor, and unworthiness. They
may prefer being separated and isolated from others, but at the
same time, they are connected in a different way. In this way,
the isolating affiliations as an essence of feeling ashamed are
linked to the connecting-separating paradox, attending-dis-
tancing. The isolating affiliations arise from the painful expe-
rience of not meeting others’ expectations. Feeling ashamed is
an individual choice of living. Parse (2014) explained that
“paradoxical living rhythms ]are[ recognized as humanuni-
verse pattern preferences” (p. 44).
In the painting, the isolating affiliations are apparent and
reflect the concept of connecting-separating. The figure appears
to withdraw from all others and surroundings yet in plain view.
Feeling ashamed is a chosen experience to be away from the
now moment, while the individual still exists with others. The
figure knows of others’ recognition of shame and that is a way
of connecting that is incarnated with each expression. The con-
necting-separating surfaces with the becoming visible-invisible
becoming of the emerging now. Shame surfaces with isolating
affiliations. The figure in the painting looks to be experiencing
isolation, being away from others, objects, and ideas at the
same time, yet is still being with others in the pain and suffer of
shame that “enable and at once limit the opportunities and
restrictions inherent in all choosings” (Parse, 2014, p. 34).
Possibilities are enabled-limited with isolating affiliations by
showing ways of revealing-concealing that create opportunities
to live with the feeling of shame.
Conclusion
The humanbecoming concept inventing model was the
method used to explore shame as a universal humanuni-
verse living experience. With the humanbecoming concept
inventing model, the scholar explored shame and created a
novel idea that could develop approaches in the advance-
ment of nursing knowledge. This exploration advances
nursing knowledge within the humanbecoming paradigm.
The now-truth of feeling ashamed for this scholar was
raised as unbearable stillness with desired escape arising
with isolating affiliations. The ingenuous proclamation for
feeling ashamed was communicated in the humanbecoming
Nursing Science Quarterly 34(2)
sciencing language as languaging the powering of connect-
ing-separating with the artform of Shame, by Rosa
Gunasingha (2014).
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the authorship and/or publication of this review.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the authorship and/
or publication of this review.
ORCID iD
Amal W. Alanizi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0069-9088
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