Huh. Yeah, that is interesting, hadn’t seen that before.
What that makes me think of with respect to McLaren’s definitions is the difference between the appropriate response to authentic shame (“what must be made right?”), and the usual Obstructed response to applied/manufactured shame — what I think of first is doing a sort of “performative penance”, to assuage the social aspect and get social forgiveness without making any actual behavioral changes, probably internalizing it for a while afterward.
But McLaren does mention the exact opposite being a possible outcome too, of loudly not paying penance at all and declaring that there’s nothing to give penance for anyway, which is what your linked article sounds a lot like. I and the people around me are so used to the first Obstructed response that I wasn’t sure what the second would look like exactly, but that article is a great example. I think that’s what happens when you decide that all shame, authentic and applied/manufactured, is bad for you and needs to be thrown out all together.
Distinguishing between the types seems to be the main thing that lets you not be racked with external shame while still owning your own authentic shame. (or at least, it’s feeling like that for me so far)
(If this seems like I’m going a bit far to try applying this to everything, that’s because it’s my general strategy when given a new hammer; see what around me is close enough to a nail for it to be useful ;) )
This makes me think of IFS, and how the symbolic unburdening ritual the standard IFS procedure includes only really does anything if you’ve managed to coordinate with your Protectors well enough for them not want to jump in the way / disrupt it, and if you’ve connected with and empathized with the Exile strongly enough for the symbolism to resonate for the exile, and for the exile themself to feel ready for and want the changes an unburdening would entail.
Without all those pieces in place, it does end up falling flat and doing approximately nothing except maybe feeling nice for a brief period — because in essence you’re just doing some thing over here on the side in a way that isn’t actually interacting meaningfully with the parts it’s supposedly meant to heal.
Getting all of these pieces in place is actually quite hard and takes a lot of extended inner relationship-building and development of understanding, as far as I can tell. I’m still working on it myself, and have only had little bits and pieces of successful unburdening type results so far.