Shame, Pride and Dissociation: Estranged Bedfellows, Close Cousins and Some Implications for Psychotherapy with Relational Trauma Part I: Phenomenology and Conceptualization

Ken Benau

Abstract


It has been previously observed, both clinically and in research, that shame and dissociation tend to co-occur in survivors of relational trauma, and that individually and combined contribute to negative consequences in both psychological and interpersonal functioning. Much less has been written about pride in this context, either as emotional process or traumatic state. In Part 1 of this two-part article, I explore both similarities and differences with respect to the phenomenology of pride and shame, on the one hand, and dissociation, on the other, in survivors of relational trauma. Specifically, I discuss three broad yet interrelated phenomena, “attention”, “gazing” and “organization of mind/body” as relate to pride, shame, and dissociation both as “process” and “structure”. Under “attention”, I explore both the direction and quality of attention as relates to pride, shame and dissociation. Within the category of “gazing”, I describe distinct qualities of gazing at self and others that differentially affect greater acceptance and integration as contrasted with greater rejection and disintegration within self and in relationship. The final section, “organization of mind/body”, explores different ways the mind/body connects versus disconnects aspects of experience. Part 1 closes with a discussion of how “being” is preserved in mind/body states, using the metaphor “shards of light”. Describing these phenomena offers us novel perspectives not only in understanding some interrelationships between pride, shame and dissociation, but also informs the clinical discussion that follows, in Part 2.


Keywords


Shame; Pride; Dissociation; Structural Dissociation; Phenomenology; Trauma; Relational Trauma; Attention; Gazing, Self-states; Psychotherapy.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Barral, C. & Meares, R. (2019). “The Holistic Project of Pierre Janet: Part Two: Oscillations and Becomings. From Disintegration to Integration.” In G. Craparo, F. Ortu & O. Van der Hart, Eds. (2019). Rediscovering Pierre Janet: Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429201875

Beebe, B. & Lachmann, F.M. (1988). The contribution of mother-infant mutual influence to the origins of self- and object representations. Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol 5(4), Fall 1988, 305-337. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.5.4.305

Benau, K. (2017). Shame, Attachment, and Psychotherapy: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology, Relational Trauma, and Harbingers of Healing. Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis, 11, 1–27.

Benau, K. (2018). Pride in the psychotherapy of relational trauma: Conceptualization and treatment considerations. European Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 2, 131–146.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtd.2018.03.002

Benau, K.S. (2009). Contrasts, Symbol Formation and Creative Transformation in Art and Life. The Psychoanalytic Review. 96(1), 83-112. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1521/prev.2009.96.1.83

Blodgett, H.W. & Bradley, S., Eds. (1965/1855). Leaves of Grass. (Poem: “Song of Myself”, lines 1324-1326). New York: New York University Press, 88.

Bowen, B. (2013). The Body in Psychotherapy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4jPYKBilm4. Accessed January 17, 2020.

Bowen, M. (1978). Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson.

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1. Attachment. London: Hogarth Press.

Brach, T. (2003). Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha. New York: Bantam.

Chefetz, R. (2015). Intensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Disorders: The Fear of Feeling Real. New York: Norton. Doi: 10.1080/00332747.2016.1237710

Chefetz, R. A. (2017). Dignity is the Opposite of Shame, and Pride is the Opposite of Guilt. Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis. 11(2), 119-133.

Craparo, G., Ortu, F. & Van der Hart, O. Eds. (2019). Rediscovering Pierre Janet: Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429201875

DePrince, A.P., Huntjens, R.J.C., Dorahy, M.J. (2015). Alienation appraisals distinguish adults diagnosed with DID from PTSD. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 7(6), 578–582. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000069

Dorahy, M.J. (2010). The Impact of Dissociation, Shame, and Guilt on Interpersonal Relationships in Chronically Traumatized Individuals: A Pilot Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23 (5), 653–656. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000069

Dorahy, M. J. (2014). Scham und Täterintrojekte [Shame and the perpetrator introject]. Trauma: Zeitschrift für Psychotraumatologie und ihre Anwendungen, 12(4), 16-25. Kröning: Asanger Verlag

Dorahy, M.J. & Clearwater, K. (2012). Shame and Guilt in Men Exposed to Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Qualitative Investigation. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 21(2), 155-175. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2012.659803

Dorahy, M.J., Corry, M., Shannon, M., Webb, K., McDermott, B., Ryan, M., & Kevin F.W. Dyer. (2013). Complex trauma and intimate relationships: The impact of shame, guilt and dissociation. Journal of Affective Disorders. 147, pp. 72–79. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2012.10.010

Dorahy, M.J., Gorgas, J., Seager, L., & Middleton, W. (2017a). Engendered Responses to, and Interventions for, Shame in Dissociative Disorders: A Survey and Experimental Investigation. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 205 (11), 886-892. Doi: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000740

Dorahy, M.J., McKendry, H., Scott, A., Yogeeswaran, K., Martens, A. & , Hanna, D. (2017b). Reactive dissociative experiences in response to acute increases in shame feelings. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 89, 75-85. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.11.007

Dorahy, M.J., Middleton, W., Seager, L., McGurrin, P., Williams, M., & Chambers, R. (2015). Dissociation, shame, complex PTSD, child maltreatment and intimate relationship self-concept in dissociative disorder, chronic PTSD and mixed psychiatric groups. Journal of Affective Disorders, 172, 195–203. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.008

Dyer, K.F.W., Corry, M., Matheson, L., Coles, H., Curran, D. Dorahy, M.J., Black, R., Lenaire Seager, L., & Middleton, W. (2017). Comparing Shame in Clinical and Nonclinical Populations: Preliminary Findings. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 9(2), 173–180. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000158

Ecker, B., & Hulley, L. (1995). Depth Oriented Brief Therapy: How To Be Brief When You Were Trained To Be Deep and Vice Versa. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation. New York: Routledge.

Ekkekakis, P. (2012). Affect, Mood, and Emotion. In Tenenbaum, G., Eklund, R.C., & Kamata, A., Eds. (2012). Measurement in sport psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 321-332, and references 517-519.

Fosha, D. (2000). The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change. New York: Basic Behavioral Science.

Gendlin, E.T. (1978/2007). Focusing. New York: Bantam Dell.

Giorgi, A. (1997). The theory, practice, and evaluation of the phenomenological method as a qualitative research procedure. Journal of phenomenological psychology, 28(2), 235-260.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/156916297X00103

Giorgi, A. (2012). The descriptive phenomenological psychological method. Journal of Phenomenological psychology, 43(1), 3-12. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/10595-013

Greenberg, L. S., & Iwakabe, S. (2011). Emotion-focused therapy and shame. In: R. L. Dearing & J. P. Tangney (Eds.), Shame in the Therapy Hour (pp. 69–90). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/12326-000

Janet, P. (1901). The Mental State of Hystericals. New York: Putnam’s Sons.

Janet, P. (1935). Les Debuts de L’Intelligence. Paris: Flammation.

Johnson, T.H., Ed. (1960). The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” (Poem #1129; Originally written c. 1868). New York: Back Bay Books, 506-507.

Herman, J. L. (2006). PTSD as a Shame Disorder. Somerville, MA: Harvard Medical School.

Herman, J. L. (2007). Shattered Shame States and Their Repair. Somerville, MA: Harvard Medical School.

Herman, J.L. (2012). Shattered Shame States and their Repair. In Yellin, J. & White, K., Eds. (2012). Shattered States: Disorganised Attachment and Its Repair. London: Karnac Books, 157-170.

Kelly, V. C., Jr., & Lamia, M. C. (2018). The Upside of Shame: Therapeutic Interventions Using the Positive Aspects of a ‘‘Negative’’ Emotion. New York: Norton.

Mahrer, A. R. (1989). Experiential Psychotherapy: Basi

c Practices. Ottawa, Ontario: University of Ottawa Press.

Main, M. (2000). The organized categories in infant, child, and adult attachment: Flexible vs. inflexible attention under attachment-related stress. The Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association, 48(4): 1055–1096. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/00030651000480041801

Marsh, R. J., Dorahy, M. J., Verschuere, B., Butler, C., Middleton, W., & Huntjens, R. J. C. (2018). Transfer of episodic self-referential memory across amnesic identities in dissociative identity disorder using the Autobiographical Implicit Association Test. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 127(8), 751–757. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000377

McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and the Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. New Haven: Yale University Press.

McKeogh, K., Dorahy, M.J., & Yogeeswaran, K. (2018). The activation of shame following dissociation in the context of relationships: A vignette study. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 59, 48-55. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.11.001

Meares, R. & Barral, C. (2019). “The Holistic Project of Pierre Janet: Part One: Disintegration or Desagregation”, in G. Craparo, F. Ortu & O. Van der Hart, Eds. (2019). Rediscovering Pierre Janet: Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429201875

Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and Family Therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Pollack, W. (1999). Real Boys. New York: Henry Holt.

Porges, S. (2017). ‘‘Polyvagal Theory: Basic Principles, Experiential Learning and Clinical Applications’’ Workshop. Berkeley, CA.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. New York: Norton.

Premack, D. (1959). Toward empirical behavior laws: I. Positive reinforcement. Psychological Review, 66(4), 219-233.

Putnam, F. W. (2016). The Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence Our Identities, Personality and Potential for Change. New York: International Psychoanalytic Books (IPBooks.net).

Rilke, R.M. (1984/1929). Letters to a Young Poet (Stephen Mitchell, trans.). New York: Vintage Books (Random House).

Ross, C. (2010). Hypothesis: The Electrophysiological Basis of the Evil Eye Belief. Anthropology of Consciousness. 21(47), 47-57. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-3537.2010.01020.x

Russell, J.A, & Feldman Barrett, L. (1999). Core affect, prototypical emotional episodes, and other things called emotion: Dissecting the elephant. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 805-819. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.5.805

Russell, J.A, & Feldman Barrett, L. (2009). Core affect. In D. Sander & KR Scherer (Eds.), The Oxford Companion to Emotion and the Affective Sciences. New York: Oxford University.

Scheff, T. S. (In Press). A Social Theory and Treatment of Depression. http://scheff.faculty.soc.ucsb.edu/main.php?id=62.html (accessed December 28, 2019).

Schimmenti A. (2018b). The aggressor within: Attachment trauma, segregated systems, and the double face of shame. Paper presented at the John Bowlby Memorial Conference 2018, 22 September 2018, London, UK.

Schimmenti, A. (2012). Unveiling the hidden self: Developmental trauma and pathological shame. Psychodynamic Practice: Individuals, Groups and Organisations, 18(2), 195-211.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14753634.2012.664873

Schimmenti, A. (2018c). Five lessons on dissociation. Rivista Sperimentale di Freniatria, 142(1), 73-91.

Schimmenti, A. (September 8, 2018a). Personal communication, originally posted on the Dissociative Disorders Listserve (DISSOC). Quoted with permission.

Schimmenti, A., & Caretti, V. (2016). Linking the overwhelming with the unbearable: Developmental trauma, dissociation, and the disconnected self. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 33(1), 106-128.

Schore, A. N. (2003). The effects of relational trauma on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22, 201–269. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0355(200101/04)22:1<201::AID-IMHJ8>3.0.CO;2-9

Shengold, L. (1989). Soul murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation. New York: Ballantine.

Stern, D. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View From Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. New York: Basic Books.

Tangney, J. P., & Fischer, K. W., Eds. (1995). Self-conscious Emotions: The Psychology of Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment, and Pride. New York: Guilford.

Tomkins, S.S. (1962). Affect, Imagery, Consciousness, Vol 1. The Positive Affects. New York: Springer.

Tomkins, S.S. (1963). Affect, Imagery, Consciousness, Vol 2. The Negative Affects. New York: Springer.

Tracy, J. (2016). Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: Norton.

Wille, R. (2014). The shame of existing: An extreme form of shame. International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 95, pp. 695-717. Doi: 10.1111/1745-8315.12208




DOI: https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2154

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.