Toward a queer psychology of affect: restarting from shameful places

Abstract

The affective turn that has emerged in academia problematizes the previous dichotomous conceptualization of essentialism and social constructionism. It also points toward a new direction for the study of human—and beyond human—experience. Situating this paradigm shift within broader social scientific inquiry, this paper engages with psychologist Silvan Tomkins’s and queer theorist Eve Sedgwick’s theories of affect. In doing so, it employs shame as a critical concept for queer psychology that is distinct from the sexual minority framework dominating North American LGBTQ psychology. The author proposes moving toward a concept of shame that identifies it as a curious engagement beyond disciplinary boundaries and movement that circulates through different sexualized and racialized bodies. In moving toward this concept and away from one of shame as a problem and an undesirable object to be rid of, we can work toward a queer psychology of affect that breaks open the binarism of pride and shame.