Volodymyr Polehonkyi - Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theoretical and Practical Psychology. Lviv Polytechnic National University (Ukraine).
ORCID 0000-0003-1540-5476
DOI - https://doi.org/10.52363/dcpp-2025.1.10
Keywords: shame, guilt, psychoanalysis, trauma, moral trauma, Super-Ego, object relations, affect, integration, subjectivity.
The article deals with the phenomena of shame and guilt as key affective experiences in the structure of traumatic experience. The psychoanalytic understanding of these emotions as deep mechanisms that influence the integration of trauma into the mental life of an individual is presented. Shame and guilt are considered not as side effects of trauma, but as centres around which the affective dynamics of the post-traumatic state is formed. The work focuses on the theoretical foundations of classical and modern psychoanalysis, in particular the concepts of M. Klein, D. Winnicott, S. Ferenczi, J. Laplanche, R. Stolorow, and O. Kernberg, which allow us to reveal the deep mechanisms of formation and functioning of shame and guilt. The influence of internal objects, the Super-Ego, displacement mechanisms, projective identification, dissociation, and defence through the formation of a false self is analysed in detail. The phenomenon of ‘masked’ shame is revealed, which manifests itself through addictions, compulsive behaviour, psychosomatic symptoms. The author emphasises the destructive potential of shame, which leads to isolation, self-depreciation, deep internal split, as well as the constructive function of guilt, which, under conditions of mature functioning of the Super-Ego, can contribute to the integration of the Self, personal growth and restoration of connections. Particular attention is paid to the concept of moral trauma, which generalises the experience of an existential split in the context of a violation of one's moral identity. The significance of intersubjective presence as a condition for the integration of shame and guilt in the therapeutic process is determined. The article has an interdisciplinary character, combining clinical psychoanalytic thought, theories of affect, experience of working with trauma and ethical dimensions of subjectivity, which enhances its theoretical and practical significance.