Meeting of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York

April 30, 1973. THE MEANING AND VICISSITUDES OF HUMILIATION—SOME TENTATIVE METAPSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. Julian L. Stamm, M.D.

Considering humiliation as an affective derivative of the loss of self-esteem, Dr. Stamm explored its pathogenesis, its relationship to various types of self-espresentations in the ego, and its function as a signal affect analogous to anxiety. A distinction was drawn between humiliation and shame. The latter was seen as a forerunner of humiliation accompanied by feelings of self-reproach and related to a conflict between ego and superego. Humiliation was viewed as a later derivative of lowered self-esteem which more frequently develops when there is believed to be an unjustifiable attack made on the self-representation from the external world and/or when there is a conflict between ego and ego ideal. Many factors may induce humiliation. It is a universal phenomenon that can be triggered by realistic experiences in the healthy individual. But it is experienced more often by those individuals who, as a result of heightened narcissistic cathexis, become more vulnerable to narcissistic injuries. This can be seen in psychotic individuals, in highly narcissistic infantile characters, in borderline states, and in some narcissistic creative individuals.

In discussing the relationship between humiliation and narcissism, Dr. Stamm postulated that humiliation performs a signal function crucial to our understanding of the narcissistic disorder and is analogous to the nuclear role of anxiety in the transference neurosis. Dr. Stamm suggested that there may be a hierarchy of humiliation in relation to various self-representations within the ego; that the various defenses utilized to ward off humiliation may result in symptom-formation; and that the narcissistic rage may be turned inward and lead to depression or masochistic syndromes. Antisocial acting out may be another vicissitude of humiliation. Several case histories were presented to illus