Positive and Negative: a Rose by Any Other Name

• Introducing Shame Language to Clients by Brett Schur - Havertown, PA - bschur@msn.com, 3/12/96
  • A heuristic comment by blynch, 3/20/98
    • Why we call them positive and negative affects by Don Nathanson, 3/20/98
      
      

In reply to "Why We Call Them Positive and Negative Affects." Basic to life as humans know it, is the physical human body. Without it a person is in death. The "positive" affects nurture the connection between his/her self and body. The "negative" affects seek to prevent its separation, in connection with the "positive" affects. The "negative" affects alone, however, lead to its separation and death. Whatever the name of the group of affects-- "positive" or "negative" or other, the effects of the affects will be the same. A basic clue lies in Nathanson's citation of the body's own autonomic nervous system (Shame and Pride, 271, 312. 1992.). The "positive" affects express the parasympathetic mode and the "negative" affects the sympathetic mode of the person's autonomic nervous system. These work together. Health, the ability to recover, is when "positive" affects direct the "negative" affects. The affects, I believe, have an innate capacity to right themselves and their relationships to each other, in a safe environment. When the affects balance themselves, I believe that a person experiences a calm, flexible soberness, in which she/he can switch easily to the appropriate affects for the situation. Inherent to this are developmental goals. A person grows up in symbiosis and onto independence (separation- individuation). And then, when led by an empathic caregiver, a person moves onto rapprochement or inter- dependendence (per the late Margaret Mahler. Psychological Birth of the Human Infant, 6, 10, 76-78, 97-98, 205. 1975.). This is the goal for which affects exist, their sharing in empathy and compassion and community. The task is the development of the "empathic wall" or, as I call it filling "empathic deficit," a need expressed by intense unabated shame affect. The Rev. Dr. Charles G. Yopst, One North Main Street Mt. Prospect, IL 60056 D.Min. in Group Pastoral Care, M.A. in Dance/Movement Therapy, Chaplain, Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington heights, Illinois

• affect vs. script by Don Nathanson, 6/19/98
  • Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall by Charles G. Yopst, 6/22/98
  • Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall by Charles G. Yopst, 6/22/98
    • Where affect fits in psychotherapy by Don Nathanson, 6/25/98
      • Thank You: To Strike a Pose by Chuck Yopst, 6/25/98
  • Shame necessary for negative affect? by (No author), 9/22/98
    • The independence of affective reactions by Don Nathanson, 9/23/98
    • The independence of affective reactions by Don Nathanson, 9/23/98