Human shame is a feeling of distress at our deficiencies, deformities, or absurdities--real or imagined--and especially at the uncovering of these things. It is also a feeling of distress at the uncovering of our mere privacies.

As generations of Bible readers have recognized, (Genesis 3) suggests the confluence of these sources of distress with a few words of great sorrow and mystery: after they had sinned, Adam and Eve "knew that they were naked." For the first time in their lives they could not stand scrutiny. It wasn't merely that they flinched when their partner's gaze dipped southward; it was also that they had trouble looking into each other's eyes.