You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame, Patricia DeYoung, a relational psychotherapist, provides a fascinating integrative right-brain approach for understanding and treating an emotion that has been eluding psychoanalytically informed clinicians for decades. She skillfully brings shame out of the hiding place it frequents and into the “light and air” (p. 116), where she declares it must be for clinicians to effect change with clients. DeYoung demonstrates how to be effective in addressing this powerful and complex emotion by placing shame in a theoretical framework and providing a way of conceptualizing treatment. She succeeds in giving shame a place of importance in clinical work.
Shame causes us to want to hide and condemn ourselves. But, we also feel shame about feeling shame. Both of these experiences interfere with processing emotions. These obstacles can cause shame to be pervasive in our lives, yet, in psychotherapy, shame can be challenging to identify and treat. It is little wonder that shame has continually gotten lost in the literature in much the same way it can be lost in the consultation room. DeYoung distinguishes herself in our field by taking shame on directly.
The author begins by unraveling the writings of major shame theorists and researchers who have contributed to our current understanding. Ultimately, she concludes that “finding theoretical coherence” (p. 35) is not something that can or should be sought after. Instead, she masterfully weaves together relevant aspects of relational theories, self psychology, object relations, attachment theory, and brain research. Along with the integration of these theories, she is able to make novel and significant contributions of her own. My own foray into the shame literature to grasp this complex emotion revealed that while many authors have contributed valuable information, their ideas stem mainly from one theoretical perspective. DeYoung deserves much credit for putting the major contributors in co