On the Analyst’s Shame

2 CE credits for Licensed Psychoanalysts and Social Workers

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Although it is common to discuss the dynamics of a patient’s shame, what is often not discussed is the analyst’s shame, which remains secret and taboo. Doing so would reveal vulnerability and risk the judgment of others, yet it is the very thing we encourage in the consulting room. When shame is evoked in the analyst, it brings the analyst’s own developmental history into the transference-countertransference matrix. It can affect praxis and the treatment frame, altering the course and boundaries of the therapeutic alliance. The intense emotions may be almost unbearable, partly because the analyst feels it would be inappropriate to share them with the patient. Mills discusses the shame he experienced when idealized by a child patient who felt deep shame about having been physically abused, which resonated with the analyst’s own abuse history. The evoked feelings led to an intervention that was interactive and paternal, helping the patient to transcend his idealization of the analyst.

Jon Mills, PsyD, PhD, ABPP, is a Canadian philosopher, psychoanalyst, and clinical psychologist. He is on the faculty of the Adelphi University Postgraduate Programs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis at the Adler Graduate Professional School in Toronto. The recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship, including four Gradiva Awards, he is the author and/or editor of 25 books. In 2015 he was given the Otto Weininger Memorial Award for lifetime achievement by the Canadian Psychological Association. He runs a mental health corporation in Ontario.

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