Jim Duffy's Home Page

Jim's home page is full of material most of us will find more than interesting. If you click at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3162 you will find his links to Stephen Barnes' website of logical fallacies (one of the best such lists I've ever seen) and the text of one of Lloyd DeMause's most famous speeches on the nature of childhood. Both are important for lots of reasons, but I wish to call attention to deMause's work. Reading his work, it is clear that for ages, children have functioned as what I have called the "immediate inferior" for the *attack other* behavior of adults. As far as I can tell, only this current era with its attention to affect qua affect, to the responsibility of parents to act as loving modulators of childhood affect display, to recognition of the nature of selfobject function, only this approach can offer change away from the horrors of our shared world.

I became aware of deMause's work through my association with Sandy Bloom, who started the Sanctuary program (first at Northwestern Psychiatric Institute and now at Friend's Hospital, both in Philadelphia) for deeply traumatized adults. I'll check with Sandy to see if some of her stuff is on the Web; I know she's working on a book about these matters.

As far as I'm concerned, it is impossible to ignore large-scale social issues once one becomes aware of the nature of innate affect and our ways of managing it within ourselves, our families, and our social milieu. The Shame and Affect Theory Forum is a vehicle for the discussion of the affective aspects of individual life, in psychotherapy, in couples therapy, family therapy, and in society. Jim, thanks for offering this link.

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