Shame Containment Theory—A New Approach to Shame

Shame is often overlooked in therapy in favour of anxiety and guilt (Lansky & Morrison, 1998; Solomon, 2021). Indeed, there is little emphasis on shame within psychotherapy training and a noticeable lack of recognition to its relationship with attachment (Solomon, 2021). And yet, shame is described as an attachment emotion by some shame theorists (Lewis, 1971; Schore, 1991). Shame is a complex emotion that is often hidden, making it difficult to work with and can leave clients feeling frustrated that they are stuck in the same relational patterns. Ultimately, unacknowledged shame in the therapy room and the understanding of how shame influences self-perception can be detrimental to therapeutic outcome. This article introduces a new theory of shame: shame containment theory (SCT). The premise being that shame is vital to self-protection and attachment. By exploring the history of shame in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and presenting current models of shame, this article will demonstrate how SCT is a needed addition to contemporary shame theory, with particular relevance to attachment theory. Using a brief case study, this article will demonstrate how SCT relates to presentations in the therapy room. This lens on shame as an attachment emotion offers therapists a new model with which to understand and work with shame.