Somatic Self-Compassion Training Reduces Perceived Stress, Internalized Shame, and Bodily Shame while Increasing Coping Self-efficacy and Self-compassion

Somatic Self-Compassion® training is a newly developed trauma-informed self-compassion training that was designed to combine interoception and sensory modulation in order to teach individuals to more effectively cope with current and past stress. Thirty-two non-clinical adults across five cohorts participated in this pre-post design feasibility study. Participation in Somatic Self-Compassion® Online resulted in significant reductions in perceived stress, internalized shame, and bodily shame and significant improvements in coping self-efficacy and self-compassion. Of particular importance for moving the field of self-compassion research forward is the strengthened case for inclusion of shame as a dependent variable in order to understand the relationship between self-compassion, shame, and stress.

Female Creativity and Temporal Discontinuity: Slips and Skips of Remembrance in Nietzsche and Freud

Both Nietzsche and Freud offer accounts of temporal disturbances in the processes of cognition, whilst also “forgetting” to notice women’s contributions to the history of culture. Both writers link women’s creative incapacity to their reproductive physiology and also to bodily shame. This paper argues, however, that Nietzsche’s descriptions of cognitive delay and collective forgetfulness are useful to feminist historians and theorists, providing a resource for theorising the belated recognition of women’s forgotten cultural achievements which the Freudian account lacks. The paper distinguishes between two contrasting modes of delayed recognition in Nietzsche, and compares Nietzsche on the temporal discontinuities of the nachträglich with Freud on the slips and skips in memory that derive from trauma, Nachträglichkeit and psychoneurotic repression. Another mode of temporal slippage - that of the Hopsasa - found in Nietzsche is also considered, as is also the potential of “the filigree art” of focusing as a remedy for cultural disappearances.

Problems of Investigation of Immigrants’ Students and their Relation to Psychopathology

IntroductionThe purpose of this research was to investigate the problems of first-generation immigrant students and the linkage of these problems with the psychopathology of students.ObjectivesThe sample of this study included men and women students, that were second-generation immigrants aged from 18 to > 25 years.MethodsThe research tools used were: (a) Psychopathology Scale (Symptom Checklist 90-R - SCL-90) and (b) State - Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), (c) the orientation test life (LOT-R) d) Other As Shamer Scale (OAS), (e) Experience of Shame Scale (ESS). The statistical processing of data showedQ (a) the students immigrants have higher levels of student migrants stairways: inferior (OAS), empty (OAS), (Mistakes (OAS), Total internal shame (ESS), characterological shame (ESS), behavioral shame (ESS), bodily shame (ESS), Trait Anxiety (STAI), Somatization (SCL-90), Inter. Sensitivity (SCL-90) and Depression (SCL-90).ResultsThe results of our study found high levels of psychopathology students immigrants and students migrant and interpretative this finding is explained by the lifestyle of their parents immigrants and different cultures which have to cope and adapt and their marginalization from society and official institutions, a situation that results in their exposure to a variety of risks to their mental health.ConclusionsIn addition to increased levels of psychopathology, second generation immigrants such as students and the students in our sample suffer from violence the authorities and their fellow citizens.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The Experience of Shame in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

IntroductionIt is reported in global literature that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) may cause a wide range of psychological effects, some of them not fully explored. The aim of this study is to investigate if patients with COPD experience intense feelings of shame.ObjectivesTo find differences in shame experience between males and females, and if there is a correlation of shame with other socio-economic factors.MethodUsing the “Experience of Shame Scale” questionnaire (ESS) in 191 patients with COPD (104 men and 87 women) treated in Primary Health Care services in Greece.ResultsStatistical analysis showed relatively low scores (M 39.5 sd 14.9) for the experience of shame in COPD patients. There is no statistically significant difference of shame for marital status, education level or disease stage. Statistically significant difference shown between males and females (bodily shame P: 0.001, total shame P: 0.031), and between smokers and those who quit smoking. (characterological shame: P: 0.007 behavioral shame P: 0.030, total shame P: 0.009). Also statistically significant difference appears for bodily shame among Body Mass Index (BMI) groups (P: 009) and economic status of the patients (P: 0.008).ConclusionsPatients with COPD seem to have not heavy burden with experience of shame. Any associations of shame with some patient groups are rather expected for cultural and social reasons.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The Role of Shame in the Relation Between Peer Victimization and Mental Health Outcomes

Youth who experience peer victimization are at risk of developing mental health problems. However, little is known about the emotional causal mechanisms linking peer victimization with these negative outcomes. This study investigated whether shame mediated this relationship. At three time points (T1-T3), 396 10- to 13-year-olds completed measures of peer victimization, shame (characterological, bodily, and behavioral; shame proneness), and mental health (depression, social anxiety, and externalizing behavior). Three multiple mediation models tested the indirect effects of T1 victimization on T3 mental health through the four T2 shame-related variables. Analyses revealed indirect effects for the shame-related mediators on depression, social anxiety, and externalizing behaviors. Specifically, indirect positive effects for characterological and bodily shame on depression and social anxiety were found, with greater bodily shame linked to higher levels of social anxiety in girls but not boys. In addition, an indirect negative effect for behavioral shame on externalizing problems was found, with higher levels of externalizing problems in victimized boys but not in girls. Finally, an indirect positive effect for shame proneness and externalizing problems was found. To clarify the directionality, three additional mediation models were run with mental health symptoms as predictors of shame and subsequent victimization. Indirect effects for the shame-related mediators were found for all outcomes, specifically bodily shame and shame proneness as mediators between internalizing and externalizing symptoms and victimization. These three models were compared and contrasted with the hypothesized models. In sum, findings support the role of shame as an underlying emotional mechanism of peer victimization, and may guide intervention programs to address the mental health concerns of victimized youth.

The Body of Shame in the Circle of the Group

This paper suggests an integration of two therapeutic domains in which the author was trained and certified: group analysis and bioenergetic analysis. Bioenergetic analysis is a psychodynamic psychotherapy, which sees the individual as a psychosomatic unity and combines work with the body and the mind. The author considers the pioneering book The Group as an Object of Desire by Morris Nitsun as a facilitating environment for the ideas of this paper to be accepted. Nitsun opens up the importance, on one hand, and the neglect, on the other hand, of sexuality and the body in the discourse of group analysis. The paper brings the body to the front of group analysis. It illuminates the body as the stage on which the drama of shame occurs. The paper discusses five dimensions of shame, categorized into five degrees of pathology, having to do with the developmental stages in which it occurred. The most archaic one (degree 1) is the most malignant and inhibits the social life of the individual. The fifth degree, social shame, is necessary in order to be part of society. A bridge of understanding between group analysis and bioenergetic analysis is suggested in which social shame, the more superficial one, serves as a defence against or displacement of the bodily shame. The ultimate space for working, therapeutically, on shame is the group, provided the body is not dissociated from the arena. A clinical example of working with a group in the integrated model is described, followed by a discussion. It is suggested to consider the matrix as the group body-mind instead of only the group mind.