This insightful new book sheds light directly on shame and guilt--interactive aspects of the human condition that are deeply involved in the development and treatment of alcoholism and chemical dependency. Contributors to this valuable book discuss the process of healing internalized shame within the chemically dependent client and among the family members. They explore creative techniqes that foster understanding and coping strategies--videotaping and storytelling with clay and stuffed animals. Professionals who are experienced in treating chemically dependent clients and their families explore shame and the healing of shame, while examining the culture within which both occur. A major focus is the destructiveness of shame and guilt--shame keeps the family from seeking help, erodes self-worth, and produces destructive secrets that cannot heal, and guilt may circulate freely between alcoholic and family members, so that everyone begins to feel responsible for the pain of others.

Increase your understanding of the link between alcoholism and shame and guilt with this tremendously important book that adds to our understanding of the total recovery process. This practical volume authoritatively defines the often elusive terms of shame and guilt and provides constructive suggestions to therapists for treating alcoholic clients and affected family members who are suffering from excessive quantities of shame and guilt. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism thoroughly explains to therapists the significant differences between shame and guilt as displayed by clients’experiences of failure, primary responses and feelings, precipitating events and involvement of self, and origins and central fears. Author Potter-Efron includes creative approaches to the general treatment of shame and guilt, explores the positive functions of shame and guilt, describes the conscious and subconscious defense mechanisms against shame and guilt, and highlights the very crucial family behaviors that initiate and encourage shame and guilt. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism adds immeasurably to our understanding of the total recovery process.

Explore the causes and effects of the shame/guilt/addiction cycle! Since the original edition in 1989, great strides have been made in understanding the overlapping functions of shame and guilt and the ways these painful emotions are linked with addictions. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism: Treatment Issues in Clinical Practice, Second Edition, integrates up-to-date psychological research with penetrating insight into the emotional realities of substance abuse. It provides a clear and practical model for understanding the shame/guilt/addiction cycle. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism provides constructive suggestions to therapists for treating substance-abusing clients and their affected family members. By treating destructive, inappropriate, or excessive shame and guilt, therapists can help their clients free themselves from the downward spiral of addiction and begin to build on their genuine strengths. It explores the positive functions of shame and guilt, describes the conscious and subconscious defense mechanisms against them, and highlights the crucial family behaviors that initiate and encourage shame and guilt. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism thoroughly explains the significant differences between shame and guilt, including: clients’experiences of failure primary responses and feelings precipitating events and involvement of self origins and central fears Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism adds immeasurably to our understanding of the total recovery process. It is an essential resource for therapists, social workers, psychologists, substance-abuse counselors, and educators in the field.

Since the original edition in 1989, great strides have been made in understanding the overlapping functions of shame and guilt and the ways these painful emotions are linked with addictions. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism: Treatment Issues in Clinical Practice, Second Edition, integrates up-to-date psychological research with penetrating insight into the emotional realities of substance abuse. It provides a clear and practical model for understanding the shame/guilt/addiction cycle and suggests effective ways to treat destructive shame and guilt.

Explore the causes and effects of the shame/guilt/addiction cycle! Since the original edition in 1989, great strides have been made in understanding the overlapping functions of shame and guilt and the ways these painful emotions are linked with addictions. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism: Treatment Issues in Clinical Practice, Second Edition, integrates up-to-date psychological research with penetrating insight into the emotional realities of substance abuse. It provides a clear and practical model for understanding the shame/guilt/addiction cycle. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism provides constructive suggestions to therapists for treating substance-abusing clients and their affected family members. By treating destructive, inappropriate, or excessive shame and guilt, therapists can help their clients free themselves from the downward spiral of addiction and begin to build on their genuine strengths. It explores the positive functions of shame and guilt, describes the conscious and subconscious defense mechanisms against them, and highlights the crucial family behaviors that initiate and encourage shame and guilt. Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism thoroughly explains the significant differences between shame and guilt, including: clients'experiences of failure primary responses and feelings precipitating events and involvement of self origins and central fears Shame, Guilt, and Alcoholism adds immeasurably to our understanding of the total recovery process. It is an essential resource for therapists, social workers, psychologists, substance-abuse counselors, and educators in the field.

Shame & Guilt explores the differences between these two painful but inevitable experiences. Both guilt and shame involve feeling "bad"-feeling bad about one's actions (or omissions) in the case of guilt; feeling bad about one's self in shame. The deep meaning of the word bad is "unable to fit": unable to fit into some external context in the case of guilt, unable to fit into one's own being in the case of shame. Human experience offers two different ways of discovering that one does not "fit," of feeling "bad." Each has to do with the boundaries of the human condition. But there are two kinds of boundaries, and it is important to recognize their difference, the difference between rules and goals. For though the human condition is bounded, recognizing that reality can be either a choking, tightening experience or it can lead to the discovery of a new freedom. True, shame's negative side points up failure and falling short, but shame also entails something positive: insight into the reality of the human condition. The experience of shame lays bare the essential paradox that inheres in being human: to be human is to be caught in a contradictory tension between the pull to the unlimited, the more-than-human, and the drag of the merely limited, the less-than-human. Shame's healing is to be found in the discovery of how that paradox can be lived creatively in ways that find other human beings to be not the problem in shame, but its solution.