Brad Blanton's workshop method for burning off shame by saying what you are hiding, and what you resent, to the person it concerns.
Jon Ronson's framework, from So You've Been Publicly Shamed, pp. 93 to 105.
Tell the group a secret
Say something you do not want the others to know.
Take the Hot Seat
Speak to an empty chair as if the person were in it.
Use an angry voice
Say 'I resent you for' and let the anger out.
Say it to their face
Set a time to tell the actual person.
Stay until it fizzles
Remain with the person until the resentments run out.
From chapter: 8. The Shame Eradication Workshop, pp. 93–105
Ronson attends Brad Blanton's Radical Honesty workshop in Chicago, where strangers confess secrets, take a Hot Seat and voice resentments loudly. He finds it mostly people yelling, and the course turns on him when he declines the Hot Seat. Alongside this runs his own shame about a failed disguise assignment, and David Buss's finding that murderous fantasies are triggered by humiliation. The workshop is a failure for him but confirms that internalised shame can be agonising.
