The purpose of the present paper is to propose the self-psychological approach to shame by examining Heinz Kohut`s frameworks on his understanding of shame as a self-conscious emotion and to probe its implications for pastoral care from the approach. Kohut`s psychoanalytic theory of the self provides excellent formulations for an understanding of the experience of shame, which emphasizes the whole self in relation to shame in the narcissistic development of the self. He believes that the narcissistic self is deeply conscious of itself as defective. He suggests that shame is situated in the development of the whole self in terms of its narcissistic needs, which must be met for the development of the cohesive self. Shame arises when the needs of the narcissistic self are not adequately responded to by selfobjects; it results when a selfobject is not empathically attuned and not mirroring a self appropriately. That is, the shame experience is dependent upon the dynamics of self-selfobject relationships. Kohut`s view of shame concerns one`s defects in the self with regard to selfobject functions. Defects in the self occur due to serious empathetic failure of the selfobjects, which result from the deficits of self structure in the narcissistic development of the self. In this vein, selfobject experiences are important throughout the entire course of life, as selfobject functions are critical to the development of the total self. Therefore, selfobject functions via the caretakers` empathetic responses are central for healing the experience of shame. Kohut`s formulations concerning shame in his self psychology, with emphasis on the selfobject`s empathetic resonance in self-selfojbect relationships, provide very helpful suggestions for a pastoral care for shame. That is, it is crucial for a pastoral care to build a pastoral healing relationship through empathetic selfobject functions of mirroring, being idealized, and twinship in the Christian community, which reflect mutual self-selfobject relationships with God.