Alone with the other : paradoxes of shame and recognition in psychoanalytic theory, case material and Home alone

Author

Nicholas J. Collura, Smith College

Publication Date

2014

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Psychoanalysis, Shame, Recognition (Psychology), Phenomenology, Mirror stage

Abstract

Shame and recognition co-occur in the human psyche. Phenomenologically, shame is relational: experienced in the world with the Other. Psychoanalytically, the shame affect is treated as one of the ego's defenses, for example, as a protection from exposure. Shame seems to either promote or prevent the subject's capacity to recognize otherness and difference. In this paper, I attempt to re-read these respective theories on shame and recognition, eventually placing shame in, among other places, Lacan's (1988) mirror stage and relational perspectives of human development. I turn to two cases, one clinical, one from popular culture, to elaborate on the paradoxical experience of shame and recognition.

Language

English

Comments

75 pages. Thesis (M.S.W.)-Smith College School for Social Work, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (pages 73-75)

Recommended Citation

Collura, Nicholas J., "Alone with the other : paradoxes of shame and recognition in psychoanalytic theory, case material and Home alone" (2014). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/750