The impact of shame on the psychoanalysis of a borderline child.

Clinical psychoanalysis has ignored shame as the source of psychopathology, despite a burgeoning literature. Here the authors present an analysis carried out with a hospitalized child diagnosed as borderline. The analyst's efforts to interpret the patient's self-concealing behaviors elicited intensified shame reactions not clearly understood at the time. Here the authors explore the evolutionary and developmental origins of shame as a primary affect modifying the interest the organism has in novel stimuli. The authors briefly explain why clinicians overlook the relationship of shame to both psychopathology and psychoanalytic technique. In this case, the illness, based largely on the child's chronic experience of humiliation, remitted in response to the supportive influence of an extraordinarily sensitive hospital setting combined with the analyst's growing willingness to accept the child's positive response to being accepted on his own grounds. These laid the foundation for a psychoanalytic process to take place. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women sexually abused as children: The centrality of shame issues and treatment implications.

Discusses the role of shame in psychotherapy with women who have reported histories of childhood sexual abuse. The dynamics of shame in the self-development of sexually abused children are discussed. A case summary with a 30-yr-old female client illustrates the treatment recommendations for identifying and treating this powerful and frequently disguised emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The shame of American education.

Recent analyses of American schools and proposals for school reform have missed an essential point: Most current problems could be solved if students learned twice as much in the same time and with the same effort. It has been shown that they can do so (a) when the goals of education are clarified; (b) when each student is permitted to advance at his or her own pace; and (c) when the problem of motivation is solved with programmed instructional materials, so designed that students are very often right and learn at once that they are. The theories of human behavior most often taught in schools of education—particularly cognitive psychology—stand in the way of this solution to the problem of American education, but the proposal that schools of education simply be disbanded is a step in the wrong direction. Teachers need to be taught how to teach, and a technology is now available that will permit them to teach much more effectively. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The widening scope of shame.

Review of book: Melvin R. Lansky and Andrew T. Morrison (Eds.) The Widening Scope of Shame. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1997, xviii = 437 pp. Reviewed by Karen J. Maroda. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet.

This article traces a program of research on the interplay between social thought and social interaction. Early investigations of the impact of perceivers' expectancies on the actions of target individuals illuminated the contribution of perceivers to the identity negotiation process but overlooked the role of targets. The research discussed here is based on the assumption that targets play an active role in the identity negotiation process. Specifically, just as perceivers strive to validate their expectancies, targets seek to verify their self-views. The nature and antecedents of the processes through which people verify their self-conceptions as well as the relationship of these activities to self-concept change and self-enhancement processes are discussed. This research suggests that perceivers and targets enter their interactions with independent and sometimes conflicting agendas that are resolved through a process of identity negotiation. The identity negotiation process therefore provides a theoretical context in which the interplay between other-perception and self-perception can be understood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experience of shame in psychotherapy supervision.

Notes that shame is a complex and powerful experience that is difficult for therapists to address. The purpose of this article is to help therapists on both sides of the supervision dyad have a better understanding of shame and its defenses. In order to elucidate the inevitable shame that arises in supervision, this article first describes the nature of shame, beginning with its early manifestations in interpersonal relationships with primary caregivers. It also includes a short section on the adaptive nature of shame. Because individuals develop characteristic ways of coping with it, it is suggested that shame may be concealed from oneself and others through withdrawal, avoidance, attack on self, and attack on others. These characteristic reactions to shame are discussed in detail because they influence how shame is manifested. Four vignettes illustrate how each defensive reaction may be manifested in supervision, and suggestions for minimizing the adverse impact of shame are proffered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Milieu countertransference in treatment of borderline patients.

Describes milieu countertransference as a collective phenomenon in which the treatment staff as a group experiences regressions in functioning that, because of the operation of the patient's ego defenses, essentially mirror the level of functioning in the patient. When properly identified and treated, the milieu countertransference can benefit treatment both as a means to better understand the patient's experience and as a tool for active intervention in remediation of the patient's pathological development. A case report, involving a 14-yr-old male, is presented to illustrate the issues and interventions involved in the milieu countertransference developed in the treatment of a borderline patient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The meanings of shame: Implications for legal reform.

Describes and critiques the recent revival of interest in shame and shaming in various contexts, including criminal punishment such as sanctions requiring defendants to wear signs in public, or to otherwise advertise their convictions. The author takes issue with culture critics who claim that Americans have become shameless in ways that undermine important social and legal goals and warns against legal reforms based on their provocative but potentially destructive call to shame. The author argues that the culture critics tend to conflate shame, shaming, and shameful and explains why separation of these terms is crucial to meaningful discussions about whether Americans have "lost" their sense of shame or should be shamed for violating social or legal norms. The author then develops the psychological and the anthropological meanings of shame to evaluate all 3 terms, and speculates about the likely individual and social consequences of official shaming techniques. Finally, the author applies these insights to the use of shaming penalties by courts in criminal cases and concludes that American criminal courts may be ill-equipped to exploit offender or audience shame vulnerabilities in a way that makes practical or moral sense. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The meaning of shame: Toward a self-affirming identity.

Considers that shame becomes inevitably bound up with the process of identity formation which underlies man's striving for self, for valuing, and for meaning. The experience of shame is a fundamental sense of being defective as a person, accompanied by fear of exposure and self-protective rage. The shame-inducing process involves one significant person breaking the interpersonal bridge with another. Original shame inducement occurs prior to language development; it is precipitated by parental failure to respond appropriately to a child's needs and by parental anger toward the child. The process of restoring the severed interpersonal bridge enables one to transcend shame and begin to develop a self-affirming identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object relations development and psychotherapy dropout in borderline outpatients.

Used Rorschach object relations measures to identify patterns of object representations in borderline outpatients that would distinguish those at risk for premature termination from those likely to continue in expressive psychodynamic psychotherapy. Existing data from the Borderline Psychotherapy Research Project (O. Kernberg et al, 1989) were used. Ss were 12 women, aged 21–39 yrs, with borderline personality disorder. Ss who dropped out showed a predominance of narcissistic themes in their Rorschach responses at the outset of treatment, as scored by the Rorschach Separation-Individuation Scale (S-I Scale), and produced almost 4 times as many narcissism as rapprochement themes on the S-I Scale as Ss who continued treatment. Overall findings lend support to the salience of developmental themes related to separation-individuation within the population of borderline patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancy–value relationships of shame reactions and shame resiliency.

This study investigated expectancy–value predictors for experiencing shame from test feedback and the possible consequences of these shame reactions. Those who experienced shame included a broader range of students than previously thought, including some high achievers who had high self-perceptions of competence. Main expectancy–value predictors of shame were lower self-efficacy ratings and higher intrinsic as well as extrinsic goal orientations. Also, although having important future goals for which the course had instrumental value was not predictive of inducing shame, such goals appeared to exert influence on whether a person would be resilient from a shame reaction with increased motivation, motivated behavior, and higher academic exam scores. If students believe they have the capabilities and are committed to a clear future goal for which the course grade or course information is relevant, then a shame reaction may be a warning signal that current actions are not in line with future goal attainment. For these students, a personal evaluation of goal commitment may result in increased motivated behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The phenomenology of false memories: Episodic content and confidence.

Three experiments investigated the phenomenology of false memories in J. D. Bransford and J. J. Franks's (1971) semantic integration paradigm using Remember–Know judgments and confidence ratings. Findings included high rates of Remember false alarms that increased with greater integrative demands, a dissociation between Remember and Know judgments in the standard Bransford and Franks condition, and similar patterns of Remember and Know judgments in a condition where semantic integrative processes were weakened. Confidence ratings were consistently higher for Remember judgments except where integrative processes were greatest. These results are discussed in terms of the phenomenology of true and false memory for episodes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Husserl revisited: The forgotten distinction between psychology and phenomenology.

Argues that as phenomenology attracts growing attention in current psychology, it is increasingly important for psychologists to understand that phenomenology encompasses much more than a mere appreciation for subjective self-report data. The ideas of E. Husserl, the so-called founder of phenomenology, are reexamined to enlighten psychologists about phenomenology's contrasting approach to the study of consciousness. Whereas psychology studies actual subjective responses to actual environmental events (empirical data), phenomenology studies the essential character of consciousness in meaning-conferring acts (essential knowledge). Husserl proposed phenomenology as a positive alternative to the experimental methods of the new scientific psychology. Husserl believed phenomenology was needed to clarify the essential, but unanalyzed, pre-understandings of mental phenomena that guide psychology's experimental investigations. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fearful symmetry: The development and treatment of sadomasochism.

Review of book: Fearful Symmetry: The Development and Treatment of Sadomasochism by Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick, 1996, 416 pp. Northvale, NJ: Aronson. Reviewed by Samuel Weiss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of existential shame in the healing endeavor.

A clinical case of a 35-yr-old male patient illustrates that the presence of therapeutic shame provides the sine qua non for a meaningful examination of the existential dilemmas of human existence by the therapeutic participants. It is argued that there is a crucial interrelationship between how the analyst uses shame and the patient's willingness to express and to work through despair. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of a relaxation exercise in the treatment of borderline personality organization.

Suggests that the use of a relaxation technique as an adjunct to the psychodynamically oriented treatment of borderline personality organization appears to hasten recovery if used at the proper time. A simplified diagnostic criterion, a key element of which is the repetitive oscillation of the personality between 2 contrasting states, is proposed. Relaxation should be introduced as closely as possible to the moment when the client is switching from one state to another. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The substitute therapist as transitional object in the treatment of borderline personality disorders.

Focuses on the use of a substitute therapist (ST) as a transitional object for a 20-yr-old female with borderline features during the temporary absence of her psychotherapist. Events before, during, and after the therapist's absence illustrate several issues of continuity and availability of treatment that lead to recommendations for the use of an ST in treating borderline individuals. A major goal of the ST was achieved in that the likelihood of the patient's acting out in some way before, during, and/or after the therapist's absence was minimized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lived body and fantasmatic body: The debate between phenomenology and psychoanalysis.

Neither the lived body, taken up by Merleau-Ponty after Husserl, nor the libidinal body theorised by psychanalysts after Freud, can be reduced to the counted, measured, physical body, apprehended only from outside. Both phenomenology and psychoanalysis set forth the priority of a global subjective lived body, approached from within. However, their perspectives seem to differ when it comes to the conception of the interiority of this lived body, which psychoanalysis deems as imaginary. This paper examines the similarities and discrepancies between the Merleau-Pontyan phenomenological body and the Freudian erogenous body. It attempts to show how the very categories of perception and imagination are reversed when moving from one discipline to the other. It concludes by proposing some lines along which the comparison could be prolonged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adjustment following sexual abuse discovery: The role of shame and attributional style.

This study examined adjustment following sexual abuse as a function of shame and attributional style. One hundred forty-seven participants (83 children and 64 adolescents) were seen at the time of abuse discovery and again 1 year later. Once adjustment at abuse discovery was accounted for, shame and attribution style explained additional variation in subsequent adjustment, whereas abuse severity did not. A pessimistic attribution style at abuse discovery moderated the relation between severity of abuse and subsequent depressive symptoms and self-esteem. The relations between abuse severity and these outcomes were significant only at high levels of pessimistic attribution style. Of note, patterns of change in shame and attribution predicted which children remained at risk or improved in adjustment. In addition, age and gender differences were found in adjustment over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of public exposure in moral and nonmoral shame and guilt.

Although scholarly traditions assume that shame results more from the public exposure of a transgression or incompetence than guilt does, this distinction has little empirical support. Four studies, using either undergraduate participants' responses to hypothetical scenarios, their remembered experiences, or the coding of literary passages, reexamined this issue. Supporting traditional claims, public exposure of both moral (transgressions) and nonmoral (incompetence) experiences was associated more with shame than with guilt. Shame was also more strongly linked with nonmoral experiences of inferiority, suggesting 2 core features of shame: its links with public exposure and with negative self-evaluation. The distinctive features of guilt included remorse, self-blame, and the private feelings associated with a troubled conscience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)