Yes, yes, yes, all the way through. Shame/humiliation is in direct opposition to our inborn need to be closely bonded with other humans. My intuition is that in childhood, especially early infancy, being ignored or rejected can induce a non-verbal fear of death. That is why we react so intensely, even violently, when we feel insulted or demeaned. Another point is that in the recovery movement, there has been identified the three interchangeable roles of victim-persecutor-rescuer. Notably, Trump plays all three roles. I've listened to people who feel he's been unfairly picked on and can sympathize because they've felt the same way. These same people ignore or even applaud when he "gets even." And believe they can rely on him to help and protect them. This is a pathological outgrowth of what you have laid out.
No doubt the child in a stroller facing forward away from its parents experiences it as humiliation, but the (resigned) looks on some of their faces indicates it's also felt as emotional abandonment...
In his "Depression And The Body" Dr Alexander Lowen argued that childhood feelings of being abandoned are implicated in cases of adult depression...
Part 3 (p 7). Attachment and Separation: The Struggle For Identity.
'The basic right of this period is the right to exist in the world, to have a sense of one's own identity. The infant needs close contact with the skin of the mother, which forms the basis of his contact with the world. The need for recognition through being touched and looked at, so one experiences oneself as seen, is absolutely basic to a mature identity sense. The infant needs to experience himself being experienced; the mother who can delight in her child has the reciprocal joy of experiencing him experiencing her. These contact-approaches are the basis of personalization. The ability to form loving relationships as an adult absolutely depends on them. It is in this context of containment that the infant learns to define his own boundaries, learns to face himself and another human being and derives his sense of belonging in the world.
'The basic threat to attachment is annihilation through detachment and separation. The infant who is deprived of these essential contact experiences, lives in a basic and intolerable sense of dread and despair. This is the agony of the fundamental schizoid position of abandonment and desolation and being frozen out of the world.'
Yes, yes, yes, all the way through. Shame/humiliation is in direct opposition to our inborn need to be closely bonded with other humans. My intuition is that in childhood, especially early infancy, being ignored or rejected can induce a non-verbal fear of death. That is why we react so intensely, even violently, when we feel insulted or demeaned. Another point is that in the recovery movement, there has been identified the three interchangeable roles of victim-persecutor-rescuer. Notably, Trump plays all three roles. I've listened to people who feel he's been unfairly picked on and can sympathize because they've felt the same way. These same people ignore or even applaud when he "gets even." And believe they can rely on him to help and protect them. This is a pathological outgrowth of what you have laid out.
The link with Roman Christianity is helpful.
Wow. Another powerful essay. What a horror show it has been for so many genocidal centuries! Thank you for helping to show a better way!
No doubt the child in a stroller facing forward away from its parents experiences it as humiliation, but the (resigned) looks on some of their faces indicates it's also felt as emotional abandonment...
In his "Depression And The Body" Dr Alexander Lowen argued that childhood feelings of being abandoned are implicated in cases of adult depression...
https://www.energyandcharacter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/free-article-9.-INGLES-STRESS-AND-CHARACTER-STRUCTURE-.pdf
Part 3 (p 7). Attachment and Separation: The Struggle For Identity.
'The basic right of this period is the right to exist in the world, to have a sense of one's own identity. The infant needs close contact with the skin of the mother, which forms the basis of his contact with the world. The need for recognition through being touched and looked at, so one experiences oneself as seen, is absolutely basic to a mature identity sense. The infant needs to experience himself being experienced; the mother who can delight in her child has the reciprocal joy of experiencing him experiencing her. These contact-approaches are the basis of personalization. The ability to form loving relationships as an adult absolutely depends on them. It is in this context of containment that the infant learns to define his own boundaries, learns to face himself and another human being and derives his sense of belonging in the world.
'The basic threat to attachment is annihilation through detachment and separation. The infant who is deprived of these essential contact experiences, lives in a basic and intolerable sense of dread and despair. This is the agony of the fundamental schizoid position of abandonment and desolation and being frozen out of the world.'
Thanks for this. We now have the neuroscience to show what happens at the biological level too.
https://www.energyandcharacter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/free-article-9.-INGLES-STRESS-AND-CHARACTER-STRUCTURE-.pdf