ABSTRACT
Much of what is written about shame has been framed to help therapists deal with the shame that clients bring into the office. The psychoanalytic literature refers to clients speaking about historical shame—that is, experiences they have had outside the therapy hour. When it speaks of shame experienced in the course of the therapy hour, such literature examines the historical antecedents of this shame that is being experienced in the present and offers models for working with shame as a transference phenomenon. In this context, shame is conceptualized as an intrapsychic event.
