Short Course: The Full Spectrum of Shame & Humiliation ~ Jan 20, 2023

Humiliation is not just about the intent to shame and degrade, it is a part of the hidden underbelly of trauma treatment for both the patient and the clinician. While attention to the dynamics of shame experience has finally increased over the last twenty years, humiliation experience is often subsumed under the shame dynamic. The fine points of sadistic abuse and other varieties of humiliation experience are lost. Loss of status, and feeling defective are typical humiliation themes. While feeling unlovable is often the province of shame, feeling to be without possibility of redemption is more related to humiliation experience. The significance of exploring humiliation themes comes to life in an intensive psychotherapy where a deepening feeling of being understood by the clinician occurs as these areas are gently probed. In these treatments, clinicians often are preoccupied with an intense fear of shaming by the patient or humiliation in the treatment. This is a pervasive countertransference experience. Thus, a willingness to explore these areas with a patient heralds additional personal work for every clinician bold enough to inquire about or name both shame and humiliation as part of human experience. Both patient and therapist often engage in alternative experiences of responding to attachment needs vs. themes of domination or submission, a constellation I’ve dubbed “attackment.” In this presentation participants will become familiar with these themes and develop an increased consciousness for these issues and ways in which depth conversations can be opened in this delicate territory.

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. “Hear” the music of shame and humiliation experience.
2. Take the steps useful in gently opening discussion in these areas.
3. Describe the difference between “affect,” “feeling,” and “emotion” as well as the clinical utility of distinguishing between them.
4. How “attackment” describes a shift from proximity-seeking in the attachment paradigm to guaranteeing distance when domination-submission and/or power and control dynamics overwhelm the interpersonal world of a child.
5. Distinguish between shame and humiliation and describe the utility of these differences in psychotherapeutic discourse.

This program is appropriate for clinicians at all levels of experience and offers 3.0 CEs.

You will receive the instructions for connecting to Zoom a week before the event.

 About our Speaker:

Richard A. Chefetz, MD (Washington, D.C.; private practice, psychiatry) Past president, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (2002-3), and Co-Founder and Chair of their Psychotherapy Training Program (2000-8), Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. Dr. Chefetz is the listowner and head moderator for the Dissociative Disorders Internet Forum, with over 2200 members world-wide. He is faculty at the Washington School of Psychiatry, the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy + Psychoanalysis, and the Washington-Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. In 2015 he published Intensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Processes: The Fear of Feeling Real, with W.W. Norton, in their Interpersonal Neurobiology series. He recently published “Humiliation Is Not Just About the Intent to Shame and Degrade” (see References).

References:

Chefetz, R. A. (2021). Humiliation is Not Just About the Intent to Shame and Degrade. In Siegel, D. J., Schore, A. N., & Cozolino, L. (Eds.), Interpersonal Neurobiology and Clinical Practice (pp. 135-168). New York: W.W.Norton.

Chefetz, R. A. (2020). Shame and the Developmental Antecedents of Enduring, Self-Critical Mental States: A Discussion and Some Speculations. Psychiatry, 83, 25-32.

Dorahy, M. J. (2017). Shame as a compromise for humiliation and rage in the internal representation of abuse by loved ones: Processes, motivations, and the role of dissociation. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 18, 383–396.

DeYoung, P. A. (2015). Understanding and treating chronic shame: A relational/neurobiological approach. Routledge.

Leask, P. (2013). Losing trust in the world: Humiliation and its consequences. Psychodynamic Practice, 19, 129–142.

Cost and Registration:

$75    ICP+P Members
$35    ICP+P 1st +2nd Year Members, Emerging Professionals, MITs and Graduate Student Members, and Fellows
$35    Unaffiliated Students and Fellows
$90    Non-Members
$60   International Attendees (Outside US)

A refund for cancellation is available up to 10 days before the start date.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Continuing education credit:  3.0 CE credits available for full attendance. The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP+P) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. ICP+P maintains responsibility for this program and its content. ICP+P is approved by the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners to offer Category I continuing education credit. As our CE program receives oversight from a licensed social worker, the CE credits we award are highly likely to be recognized by licensing boards in Virginia and the District of Columbia. These continuing education credits meet the ANCC standards for nurses. Marriage and family therapists licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia may submit these CE credits to their licensing boards. (Marriage and family therapists in other jurisdictions and licensed counselors should inquire with their local Boards regarding continuing education credit.) Attendees from the above professional groups will earn 3.0 CE credits for attending the CE activity. Full attendance is required to receive the designated CE credit. ICP+P is accredited by MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society to provide continuing medical education for physicians. ICP+P designates this educational activity for a maximum of 3.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

* Richard A. Chefetz, MD and the planners have informed us that they do not have a conflict of interest and have disclosed that they have no relevant financial relationships with any commercial interests pertaining to this educational activity. Any references to “off-label” (non-FDA approved) use of medication, products or devices will be explicitly disclosed in the presentation.

CE Credit is granted to participants with documented attendance at the short course. Credit will not be granted to registrants who are more than 15 minutes late or depart more than 15 minutes early from a session.