Mother-Infant Attachment and Psychoanalysis: The Eyes of ShameWinner of the 2004 Gradiva Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. The issue of shame has become a central topic for many writers and therapists in recent years, but it is debatable how much real understanding of this powerful and pervasive emotion we have achieved. Mother-Infant Attachment and Psychoanalysis argues that shame can develop during the first six months of life through an unreflected look in the mother's eyes, and that this shame is then internalised by the infant and reverberates through its later life. The author further expands on this concept of the look through a powerful and extensive study of the concept of the Evil Eye, an enduring universal belief that eyes have the power to inflict injury. Finally, she presents ways of healing shame within a clinical setting, and provides a fascinating analysis of the role of eye-contact in the therapeutic encounter. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 33
... or New Hypothesis of the Universe ( 1750 ) . Photo from Edward Harrison , Darkness at Night : A Riddle of the Universe ( 1987 ) Cambridge : Harvard University Press . 2.1 22 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Mother and Acknowledgements xi.
... dark , elusive and instinctually wanting to stay hidden behind many faces and voices . In order for the most primitive aspects of shame to be brought into full view for understanding , an investigation of the eye as its consummate ...
... darkness " ( p . 120 ) . Erikson ( 1950 ) theorizes that the self - exposure aspect of shame is actually rage turned against the self , which is avoided through invisibility : " He who is ashamed would like to force the world not to ...
... dark qualities . Pines ( 1995 ) notes that we also derive words for structures that protect us , for chambers and cameras , from the Indo - European root kam / kem . For example , camera is a word for room , also given to photographic ...
... darker aspect of self . Lynd concurs on the inconsequential catalysts for shame : It is the very triviality of the cause - an awkward gesture , a gaucherie in dress or table manner , “ an untimely joke " always " a source of bitter ...
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
Mothers eyes | 34 |
Mothers eyes as false mirrors | 61 |
The Evil Eye and the Great Mother | 99 |
The eyes of love | 188 |