A learning experience can be almost anything, and any licensed clinician can propose one. It can be about a paper, a book or a movie. It can tackle an idea, such as field theory or dream analysis or focus on the work of a theorist. The format can be didactic or it can be a leaderless seminar or a one-hour conversation. It can be a one-off event or a series of weekly, biweekly, or monthly meetings. Currently, this program is in its pilot stage, so certain limits may apply.

Psychoanalytic Inquiry’s Learning Experiences are free.

This event will be recorded and available to watch afterward through our Presentation Vault.

In case of questions please contact: [email protected]

The purpose of this three part learning experience is to integrate a conceptual framework of chronic shame with each individual’s very personal templates of childhood shame and helplessness. More specifically, through this learning experience, we will explore how each participant’s projected images of death and favorite/least favorite animals reveal a personal template of shame and helplessness that is often covered up in the necessity to grown up. A primary purpose of this learning experience is to open up and normalize shame in a non-judgmental environment, so individuals do not always feel desperate to keep their shames hidden at all costs.

In the first class, I will describe how the origins of chronic shame emerge from chronic experiences of rejected vulnerability at the hands of one’s parents. These cumulative experiences of trauma may be viewed as the psychic loss of a physically present parent, in which one’s expectant hope for a wished-for parent is continually frustrated by the actuality of the real parent. The chronic experiences of hope and disappointments are demoralizing sources of shame and often covered over in the necessity of developing the hard defensive armor of becoming an adult.

In the second class, I will present exploratory research I have conducted over 40 years in regard to projected images of death.  These images consist of one’s personification of death, specific fears of death, and specific wishful fantasies of dying.  We also would attempt to discern one’s deep-seated wishes and fears by speaking about one’s favorite animals and least favorite animals. Most specifically, we will explore in this class how one’s particular fears would reveal idiosyncratic, developmental templates of shame and helplessness formed in the wake of one’s childhood experiences of psychic loss of a physically present parent.

In this third concluding class, we will attempt to bring together the various experiences of the participants in taking the class.  What did participants learn about themselves?  What did they learn specifically about their chronic experiences of shame? How have they historically defended against an emergence of that shame? And how have they resolved to open up and accept what was previously unacceptable to themselves?  

This experience is meant to be an intimate continues learning experience on zoom- registration is limited.