Shame and Its Vicissitudes

ABSTRACT

My article addresses the theme of shame and its impact on Black identity wounding. In particular, I focus in on what has often been left out of the shame discourse: a consideration of shame that emerges in Black and White relational dynamics. As such, I specifically address the historical and generational underpinnings that play a significant role in Black shame and White responses to shame, as well as the possibilities of healing shame in these contexts. To further clarify these dynamics, I offer some personal reflections on significant elements of my own childhood shame. These experiences illustrate the profound impact racialized shame can have on racial identity formation and development. I identify key therapeutic issues and themes that need to be addressed in the clinical context as well as some key challenges that can arise for White practitioners working with their own unacknowledged shame in such an intercultural analytic setting. I conclude with my reasoning for why I consider sublimation as the single most important concept in understanding the work of healing and managing shame. I end the chapter with an illustration of how the power of spontaneous expression – poetry offered as an example – can redirect negative energies and the impact of racialized shame.

KEYWORDS:

• Black
• Black identity
• generational trauma
• shame
• sublimation
• pride
• racialized shame
• racialized trauma
• White

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Throughout the article I have used the term “Black” to include people with known African heritage, who can be discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Black is also used as a political term, rooted in racial oppression that pervaded directly from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, giving birth to the civil rights movement and all subsequent organized political and social justice campaigns for change. Alongside the description of Black, I use the inclusive term “People of Color” to embrace a wide range of people who are not White or of full European heritage, i.e. racial groups whose geographical origins are from South Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including China, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritian, Pakistan, to name a few. It is important to note that in some current discourses, the term “People of Color” is seen as sitting in opposition to or set against white as not being a color. The term “race” will cover nationality, national origin, and ethnicity or ethnic origin, and I also use the term race to highlight and explain social constructs that pathologize skin color and racial attributes that are not biological fact. “Culture” incorporates broader aspects of ethnicity, religion/belief, values, behaviors, practices, preferences, styles. “White or White people” is used in the chapter as a racialized classification for Caucasian people, and as a skin color specifier for people with white skin.

² In modern usage it is most commonly used in relation to orgasm.

³ In my forthcoming book I distinguish between different forms of shame, noting specifically that shame can serve healthy functions. In the interest of space, I focus here on the toxic and archaic forms. For more on those positive elements of shame see: The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma on Black Lives by Aileen Alleyne (2022), which will be published by Karnac Books on 16th September 2022. www.karnacbooks.com.

⁴ At the time, this was one of south London’s largest and best-known department stores; it closed in the 1980s.

⁵ The impact of Black identity wounding will be addressed more widely in the aforementioned book. For reasons of space, I present here a summary of my approach to working clinically with the shame wound from Black identity wounding.

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Notes on contributors

Aileen Alleyne

Aileen Alleyne, DPsych, M.A., is a UKCP registered psychodynamic psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and organisational consultant in private practice in the UK. She is also a visiting lecturer at training institutions and a consultant on race and cultural diversity in organisations. Her clinical research examining Black workers’ experiences in three UK statutory bodies, namely, the National Health Service (NHS), Education and Social Services, makes a significant contribution to the discourse on racism as a living trauma. Highlighting the concept of “the internal oppressor,” her work offers ways of deepening understanding of Black psychological reactions to the wounding impact of racism. Aileen is the author of several book chapters and journal papers exploring themes on Black/White dynamics, shame and identity wounding, and working with issues of Difference and Diversity in the workplace. Her first book, The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma on Black Lives, published by Karnac Books, will be released on September 16, 2022.