ABSTRACT
Because it is so often concealed from view, shame is considered a hidden emotion. It has also been hidden in a wide variety of psychological and developmental theories (Mills, 2005). An affect spectrum with “many faces” (Nathanson, 1987), shame includes feelings of inadequacy, deficiency, dirtiness, neediness, emptiness, shyness, mortification, embarrassment, humiliation, humility, and disgrace, among others. More than other affects, shame is contagious. It has an inherent tendency to spiral out of control; one is ashamed of being ashamed. In recent years, there has been a fresh focus in contemporary psychoanalysis on shame associated with dissociation, gender variance, sexuality, and clinical impasse. Relational contributions have focused on the analyst as initiator or maintainer of the shame state and on the impact of the analyst’s own shame on the analytic process (Harris, 2011c). Bromberg (2011) has highlighted how shame in the clinical situation can escalate out of control through a vicious cycle; the analyst feels ashamed for causing the patient shame, while the patient becomes increasingly ashamed of feeling so ashamed.
