ABSTRACT
Stories about emotion were not privileged in the development of systemic therapy with the interest being focused instead on communication patterns, life cycle issues, transgenerational patterns and belief systems. The move from the metaphor of systems to language has re-activated attention to emotions and the ways they are expressed within relationships. Theories of emotion have trodden a long and diverse path and their elements have been much debated. Guilt and shame are often linked as experiences and so it is important to differentiate them. Shame differs from guilt in that guilt supposes an understanding that one’s behaviour can harm another or cause damage through the “violation of a valued standard”. Shame and the therapeutic relationship came to the attention of another group of psychodynamic therapists through the work of practitioners in the 1970s. Clients come to therapy with personal histories where shame may be a constitutive part of their emotional experience affecting their identity and self regard.
