ABSTRACT
The importance of addressing shame in psychotherapy is widely recognised. Shame can be regarded as a deep conviction that one is flawed and incompetent as a human being. The hidden quality of the emotion of shame makes it difficult to explore, and it is often overlooked in therapy. In the literature dedicated to psychology of displacement, shame is rarely mentioned. Any personal definition of shame will be influenced by an individual’s life experience, including their family, neighbourhood, nation, or the historical moment in which they grew up. The experience of shame is also impacted by specific displacement history. To confront the unfamiliar, displaced people risk embarrassment and the loss of mastery, thus ending up with a sense of incompetence. Shame is therefore a crucial topic to address in therapy with the displaced. On the path to a better understanding of the role shame plays in the displacement journey of their client, therapists should examine the array of strategies used to defend one from that emotion. Burgo identifies avoidance, denial, and control as the three primary defence strategies against shame. All three are common masks that displaced clients wear when entering a physical or virtual therapy room. The role of shame in the decision to leave, re-experiencing shame in displacement, and the potential of group therapy for displaced clients, are discussed and illustrated with case vignettes.
