ABSTRACT

Social pain is the term used by social-cognitive researchers to reference the inbuilt, neurophysiological pain response to rejection by others. Understanding these pain dynamics can help explain and resolve avoidant and aggressive interpersonal behaviors that have an intense, intractable quality, typically accompanied by loss of Adult ego state functioning. The necessarily interpersonal nature of these pain dynamics can also involve and disable the professional, which has implications for working with these affective and behavioral quandaries, especially in groups.