Michael Lewis is University Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, and director of the Institute for the Study of Child Development at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Polly and Michael talk about the developmental role of the self-conscious emotions, those emotions that emerge in humans around 18 months of age. Dr. Lewis’s wide-ranging and influential research on shame is a major part of their conversation, as they come to understand how shame functions in individuals and groups. This is an extraordinary opportunity to learn from a leading researcher how and why the human self forms and grows from an emotional core of interactive patterns between children and caregivers.
Pay Attention Interviews: Michael Lewis: The Role of Self-Consciousness and Shame in Humans