What? guilt and shame activate our brain's reward centers? Do you mean that they release something like dopamine, and makes us addicted to it? But this is in opposition to the definition of "reward system", because guilt and shame make us feel bad and not happy, isn't it?

Also, what does make us feel guilty or ashamed in the first place? The brain is truly a mysterious organ. It controls itself, and it affects itself. So you need to control your thoughts of pride, guilt, and shame, before it becomes a habit, or to break the habit of feeling guilty. But then what generates out thought of guilt in the first place? I would assume our genes and biology have the tendency to do so.

I am not familiar with the brain's part's names and how those things affect the brain (or the brain affects itself), but I think pride has a lot to do with suffering, and I think it might be the source of guilt and shame, and indeed it is stronger. We don't want to reveal our weak self to others. (When I first joined these forums, I was more comfortable posting about my personal issues. But now, that I feel I began to know some people, more like familiarity, makes me less comfortable to post.)

Anyway, but again, back to the anatomy of the brain, and the processes of mind., those are like knowing a computer's hardware design to a computer's end-user. It is nice to know how the computer works, but that serves no help if you don't have a software interface to interact with it. This software is something flexible and can be changed and adapted to best use the hardware. We need something we can control to access our brains and minds.