Prologue

OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS there has been a resurgence of interest and thoughtful scholarship within the psychoanalytic community concerning shame affects and the concepts of self and self disorders. This has in many ways altered the psychoanalytic landscape and influenced both discourse on theory and clinical practice. This issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry continues this tradition and hopes to expand understanding of shame and disorders of the self, as well as to explore the convergence of the two topics.

This issue had its genesis at a conference held in Washington, DC, which had as its topic Is Shame the Central Affect in Disorders of the Self? The conference was sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy, a professional organization with a focus on self psychology and other contemporary models of psychoanalytic therapy. The goal of the meeting was to bring together experts in the field of shame to address the question, from their particular theoretical perspective and from the perspective of a case presentation. At that conference I gave the clinical presentation, a version of which is included in this issue. Leon Wurmser and Andrew Morrison served as discussants. The conference was greeted enthusiastically and generated a lively exchange of ideas. Following this, an expanded discussion of this topic in an issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry seemed a very good idea. We have been very fortunate to add to the list of shame experts the names of Arnold Rothstein, Melvin Lansky, Benjamin Kilborne, and Barnet Malin. Each provided a discussion of the question posed in this issue as it related to the case material and to their theoretical and clinical positions. After these discussions, Sydney Pulver and Joe Lichtenberg agreed to review the clinical presentation and the papers by the shame experts and provide a synthesis and discussion of the question raised in this issue.

I present the case of Aaron, a man who comes to psychoanalytic therapy with an overwhelming sen