I heard a news story on NPR this morning (or it might have been something taped from yesterday afternoon) about a policy of capping and trading carbon points, and someone being interviewed gave an argument that I've been expecting to hear: namely, that people need to change their behavior and use less energy, so a cap-and-trade system isn't a good idea.

What this argument really boils down to is: People should feel ashamed of how much carbon their lifestyles are emitting, and we should take advantage of that shame to change their behavior.

My answer, and Shadow Work's answer, is that shame is a terrible motivator and usually ends up having the opposite effect from the intended.

A person who feels shame about their behavior is much, much less likely to be motivated to change it. Why? Because shame hurts, and when we approach an emotional issue that hurts, we find it extremely difficult to think about it clearly and rationally.

A person who, on the other hand, feels no shame about their behavior can more likely look at the behavior and its consequences and decide to change it. There's no emotional "charge" around the issue that clouds the issue or obstructs efforts to change.

For proof, I really only have to point to the Catholic Church, which has used shame to motivate behavior change for centuries. And look what it has achieved: priests who sexually abuse little children. If priests are made to feel shame about their natural bodily instincts, those instincts will go underground (to use the Jungian term, they will "go into shadow"). But they will not go away because humans can't get rid of their sexual longings altogether, as much as they might like to. Those longings are part and parcel of being human. Instincts that are forced underground will eventually resurface but in a way that we have no control of, precisely because of the shame we feel about them. In other words, because the shame we feel about them hurts, we can't let suppressed instincts come out in a clean, straightforward manner, so they leak out "sideways," in icky, destructive behaviors over which we have little control. 

I guarantee you that every priest who has felt the impulse to molest a child has also wanted to control that impulse.  And that's how much good trying to control your shadow will do.