“To be seen as lacking in value, or of no value is shameful, and therein begins the internalization of shame” - Russell Meares(1998).
The concept of depression in earlier psychoanalytic writings pointed to its origins in narcissistic vulnerability, developmental trauma and conflicted anger which had no possibility of expression. Hostility directed inwards, childhood disappointment of healthy narcissistic strivings, loss of an important other who is ambivalently regarded, difficulties with self-esteem particularly when reliant on others for regulation of self-esteem, to traumatically un-empathic parenting resulting in chronic feelings of emptiness and depression; insecure and unstable parenting, rejecting and critical behaviour on the part of parents, leading to the developmental of internal working models of self as unlovable and inadequate and others as unresponsive and punitive, causing vulnerability to later adversity or loss, and seeing such loss as failure on one’s own part; chronic devaluation from caregivers, creating shame and depression.
In this webinar, Dr Joan Haliburn will discuss the psychodynamics and psychopathology of depression, the types of depression, role of shame and guilt, and describe an approach to psychotherapy and some of the difficulties one can encounter when treating depressed individuals.