Fridays @ CCP Lecture Series
Peter Shabad, PhD
(Chicago, Il)
Who’s In Charge: Shame, Authoritarianism, and Freedom of Conscience
Friday October 16, 2026
7-9pm (CST)
1132 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 502, Chicago
& ZOOM
About this presentation: In this course we will explore how self-shaming emerges in the aftermath of traumatic and chronically disillusioning experiences. Self-shaming can have profound inhibiting effects on the entire course of one’s life. We will devote special attention to how human beings transform their traumatic experiences outside of their control into shameful failures, in which they “blame the victim” in themselves for being a victim. Becoming the victim of one’s own self-punitive shame also leads to character passivity and interrelated dynamics of self-pity, envy, and eventually to resentment and a sense of entitlement to feeling owed by life. We will also examine how psychological symptoms are a non-verbal attempt to communicate and memorialize one’s traumatic experiences by soliciting witness to one’s lonely suffering. In the clinical section of the course, we will critically explore how diagnostic categories objectify the people we see in therapy. We will emphasize the importance of examining one’s countertransference, with special attention devoted to one’s omnipotent wish to fix the patient. in this regard, I will highlight the importance of understanding where one’s individual boundaries end and the patient’s begin, which form a respect for the patient’s freedom of self-determination. In this regard, we will also highlight important clinical tensions between developmental determinism and freedom of will, and corresponding countertransference tensions of love versus respect in the analyst’s attitude toward the patient. Finally, I will also highlight the importance of viewing clinical work as an ongoing, continually renewable process, which enables us to help facilitate the patient’s self-healing by learning how to replace self-shaming with an ethic of curiosity, inquiry, and ultimately self-accepting understanding. This radical self-acceptance of one’s inner life is a key element in the generative process of mourning.. In addition to analytic readings, we will also read Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground and Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych.
Peter Shabad, PhD is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern University Medical School. He is on the Teaching and Supervising Faculty of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and he is on the Faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He is also Supervising and Training Analyst at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He is an Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. Dr. Shabad is co-editor of The Problem of Loss and Mourning: Psychoanalytic Perspectives (IUP, 1989) and is the author of Despair and the Return of Hope: Echoes of Mourning in Psychotherapy (Aronson, 2001). He is the author of numerous papers and book chapters on diverse topics such as the psychological implications of death, loss and mourning, giving and receiving, shame, parental envy, resentment, and regret. Dr. Shabad’s new book Passion, Shame, and The Freedom To Become: Seizing The Vital Moment In Psychoanalysis (2024) was recently published by Routledge.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to describe how the self-doubt that emerges in the wake of shame leads to the certainties of authoritarianism
Participants will be able to describe the clinical value of respect for the patient’s freedom of determination can help replace the moralisms of authoritarianism with a freedom of conscience.
This is an All Level Presentation
Fees
CCP members: free with annual $195 membership, payable at registration.
Students:free with annual $175 membership, payable at registration.
New Fellows / Ongoing: free with annual $250/$300 membership, payable at registration.
Non-CCP members, single admission: $50
Continuing Education
This program is sponsored for Continuing Education Credits by the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. There is no commercial support for this program, nor are there any relationships between the continuing education sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding that could be construed as conflicts of interest. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If the program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CCP is licensed by the state of Illinois to sponsor continuing education credits for Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Counselors and Licensed Clinical Psychologists (license no. 159.000941 and 268.000020 and 168.000238 Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation).
Professionals holding the aforementioned credentials will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits a completed evaluation form must be turned in at the end of the presentation and licensed psychologists must first complete a brief exam on the subject matter. No continuing education credit will be given for attending part of the presentation. Refunds for CE credit after the program begins will not be honored. If a participant has special needs or concerns about the program, s/he/they should contact Toula Kourliouros Kalven by October 15, 2026 at: tkalven@ccpsa.org
References/Suggested Readings
Shabad, P. (2024). Passion, Shame, and Mourning: Seizing The Vital Moment in Psychoanalysis
New York: Routledge.
Shabad, P. (2022) Owing and Being Owed: Shame and Responsibility Toward The
Other, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32:4, 389-404.
Shabad, P. (2020). The forward edge of resistance: Toward the dignity of human agency.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30 (1): 51-63.
Shabad, P. (2017). The vulnerability of giving: Ethics and the generosity of receiving.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 37 (6): 359-374.
Shabad, P. (2011). The dignity of creating: The patient’s contribution to the reachable-
enough analyst. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 21: 619-629.
Presented by
The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis/CCP Program Committee