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THIS PAPER IS WRITTEN IN RESPONSE to Carr's request that I consider the question, “Is shame the central affect in disorders of the self?” and that I comment on her paper, “Wounded But Still Walking: One Man's Effort to Move Out of shame.”
The central question of this issue and Carr's presentation is posed by a colleague whose clinical work is organized from the theoretical perspective of an evolved self psychology. I, in contrast, experience my clinical work from the perspective of an evolved Freudian theory: Compromise Formation Theory.
From the perspective of self psychology, as Kohut (1977), Broucek (1982, 1991), and Morrison (1983) have emphasized, shame is the central affect of self psychology. Patients are thought to be afflicted with “disorders of the self.” Because I work from a different theoretical perspective, I think about the people I collaborate with in analytic work and our affects in a different way.
In pursuit of the goal of this paper, a review of the history of psychoanalytic ideas on shame is presented to contribute to answering the central question of this issue, “Is shame the central affect in disorders of the self?” My own understanding of shame is presented as part of that review. Then I will comment on Carr's work with Aaron from the perspective of my thinking about affects.