Part 1: Introduction
Part One consists of one chapter
where I explain why I have chosen to write a dissertation on this subject and
why I have chosen the Incest
Center in Vestfold as the
site for the emipircal research in this study. I also describe the
critical-hermeneutical position I have chosen in this exploration and why I
mean the existential-dialogical perspective of Søren Kierkegaard and Martin
Buber are important for this study. Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition is
explicated as being a girder for merging the existential-dialogical perspective
within the context of social work practice.
1.0 Opening words
The problem of interest which I have
chosen in this study is to explore how shame is used as a concept and how it
appears as a phenomenon within the context of sexual abuse and within the
settings of the Incest Centre in Vestfold. I have chosen to focus on sexual
abuse because this is a field of social work where I have worked for many
years, both as a social worker within child care and as a co-therapist in group
therapy of sexual offenders. The Incest Centre in Vestfold is an institution
which offers help to people who have experienced sexual abuse as children and
their relatives. I have also cooperated with 18 other Centres (appendix 18) who
work with the consequences of child sexual abuse. All of these 19 Centres have
in one way or another contributed to information in this exploration and I am
most grateful for their openhearted collaboration. I have chosen the Incest
Centre of Vestfold as the site for the empirical research in this dissertation.
The Centre is chosen because of I have known its founder and leader, Mary Ann
Oshaug, since the Centre started in July 1988. Having a trusting relation to a
contact within the research site has opened doors which otherwise might have
been difficult to open. This contact has made possible for me to come in contact
with users of the Centre, helped to evaluate who should be included in the
interviews, and helped to establish contact with the other 18 Centres in Norway.
It must be noted that other sites might produce different results than have
come forth in this dissertation.
Another reason for choosing The
Incest Centre in Vestfold is that the Centre has been the main office for a
national wide crisis telephone for child sexual abuse since August 2006.
Establishing this nationwide telephone was passed by the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) in March 2005 and the Incest
Centre in Vestfold was in December 2005 asked by the Ministry of Children and
Equality (Barne- og
Likestillingsdepartementet) to have the responsibility for the telephone. Minister
Karita Bekkemellem officially opened the crisis telephone on August 30th
2006. This telephone service, which is cost free for those who call (also from cell
phones), is operated 24 hours a day and seven days a week by two social workers.
They also offer face to face conversations with a professional social worker by
appointment. The Incest Centre in Vestfold is organized as a foundation and is
funded through both national and local governmental budgets, and through gifts
from organizations and private donators.
The goal for the qualitative
exploration has been to gain insight in the concept and phenomenon of shame by
asking for reflecting narratives (stories of shame) both from those working at
the Incest Centre and those using it. It is my pre-understanding, after two decades
as a professional social worker, that shame is often experienced by not only by
those who have suffered sexual abuse, but also by the helpers. Before I started
this study, I was convinced that telling others about ones sexual abuse is by
no means an easy matter. It takes a lot of courage and implies a feeling of
security and confidence to the person one is opening oneself up to, in order to
overcome the shame and confusion surrounding sexual abuse. The disclosure
itself seems to be encased in shame (Hydén and Överlien 2005); shame seems to
inscribe the body and becomes embedded (Kirkengen 2001); and enters the social
field as a symbolic burden since it becomes shared and both agents must live
with it as part of their relationship – the self becomes contaminated to some
extent (Marthinsen 2003). How I was to make this disclosure possible, manifested
by shame, taboo, fear and confusion, was therefore of crucial
importance.
The method used is first and
foremost qualitative, interviewing 19 men and women who either work at Vestfold
Incest Centre or are users of the same Centre about shame. Some were able to
give shame words and could speak about the concept of shame, while others spoke
of their shame experiences without mentioning shame, and others seemed to show
non-verbal markers of shame through their body language (appendix 20). Taking
ethical considerations was important in the collection of shame narratives.
Talking to people in a sensitive life situation about a sensitive subject puts
a great demand on the researcher. Using focus group interviews, as I have done
in this study, created a more natural situation within the context of the
Centre, in my opinion, for the informants by letting them speak to each other
about their shared concepts and experiences of shame, rather than speaking only
to me, being an alien in their worlds. Överlien, Aronsen and Hydén (2003) have
also shown that focus group interviews can be used for high-involvement topics
such as sexuality and sexual abuse, and conclude that this method can give a
“rich and varied set of data, in which individual opinions are formed in dialogue
with others” (2003: 342).
I have also carried out two
quantitative surveys in this exploration by using a social psychological test
(TOSCA-3) that measures the proneness to six different self-conscious emotions;
shame, guilt, externalization, detachment, and two forms of pride. These surveys
have several findings, among others that there is a high correlation (r = .68)
between shame-proneness and guilt-proneness in the group of participants who
had experienced sexual abuse as children, and a moderate correlation (r=.42) in
the group of university/college students. An interesting question which arises here is in
my opinion if the high correlation shown in Incest 2005 can be explained
because of the experiences of sexual abuse which this group has. This question
is examined further in the focus group interviews carried out in the Incest
Centre in Vestfold. Shame
and guilt have historically been used interchangeably, but research during the
last few decades has found significant distinctions between these moral
emotions (Tangney 1991, 1994; Tangney, Wagner and Gramzow 1992). It must be
noted that these studies have used university students in their research. Guilt
can in these studies be seen as an adaptive and constructive moral emotion
involving the self’s negative evaluation of some specific behavior (Tangney
1989). Shame, on the other hand, seems to involve an acutely painful experience
that is overwhelmingly self-focused and more diffuse than guilt (Lewis 1971). Individuals
who experience shame may feel a sense of worthlessness, incompetence, a
generalized feeling of contempt for themselves, and negative evaluations can
engulf the entire self (Tangney 1994).
Shame
related to sexually abused and traumatized people gives in my opinion an opportunity
to explore the concept and phenomenon of shame as: the point of breakdown of
humanity; a place of existence that might be experienced as the point of no
return for many; where the results might bed severe psychotic illness, suicide
and self harm. Shame due to sexual abuse at different times in the life course
may inflict symbolic burdens (Marthinsen 2003) in the self to such an extent
that people might exclude themselves from social relationships with others,
understood as the place for respect and dignity. People in shame might also try
to “hide from humanity” as Nussbaum (2004) expresses it. She argues that shame
is:
A way of hiding from our humanity
that is both irrational in the normative sense, embodying a wish to be a type
of creature one is not, and unreliable in the practical sense, frequently bound
up with narcissism and an unwillingness to recognize the rights and needs of
others…Shame is likely to be normatively unreliable in public life, despite its
potential for good…a liberal society has particular reasons to inhibit shame
and to protect its citizens from shaming. (2004: 15)
Social work is in my opinion an inherently moral profession, because it
is directly related to the welfare and well-being of others. Social work can be
seen as a guardian for morality (Marthinsen 2003) and as Bache-Hansen (2001)
argues; social work must be built upon an expanded basis for knowledge which is
grounded in the norms and values which are prominent in society together with
expert knowledge, and I agree with Høilund and Juul (2005) who argue that the
goal for social work should be to support human prosperity (støtte menneskelig oppblomstring). An
existential-dialogical approach to social work should seek, in my opinion, to
secure the well-being of the individual, avoids blind recourse to any given set
of rules, and serves as a reminder of the complexity of life. Social work is
not, in my opinion, about having a collection of answers that may be applied to
increasingly difficult situations. It is fundamental, in my opinion, that the
education of social workers and the practice of social work reflect this
insight.
Legal protection is important in my opinion because it has to do with
the identity of citizens and their possibility for prosperity. There are in my opinion many citizens who are not met with recognition
and a number of different areas of social work that could also have been of
interest in this exploration of the concept of shame, e.g.: poverty; immigration;
family and marriage problems; domestic violence; child abuse; clientizations
and marginalization; criminal justice; war experience; and
physical and psychiatric illness. These areas illustrate not only the possible
loss of legal protection for those involved, but also to a lack of trust towards
social institutions among citizens and social actors. The background for my
particular area of interest grew out of my work with victims of sexual abuse
and sexual offenders over many years. This has given me competence within this
form of social work and access to the field that has been essential in my exploration.
My goal has been to explore the concept and phenomenon of shame, as a
researcher with a moral voice, without being moralistic. By this I mean that my
intention has been to use a sound scientific approach, combined with the moral
responsibility of not shaming those who have shared their lives and experiences
with me further; I have aimed to treat them with recognition and respect
(Honneth 1996). I focus on shame in this dissertation so to learn from them,
because in my opinion, to focus on shame experiences which citizens have, gives
an unspoken possibility for moral growth.
My exploration of the concept and
phenomenon of shame gives a voice to sexually abused men and women through
those who have participated in my study. These voices have usually been
silenced and thus been unavailable to the general public. The contribution and
courage of the participants shows how the negative aspects of shame can be transformed
into a positive force in the lives of the sexually abused. Interviewing these 19
brave men and women has in my opinion, been a voyage to the margins of
existence, to an area of life that is not possible to comprehend without being
changed both emotionally and intellectually. Working for five years with this
dissertation has made me both humble and grateful, and I am indebted to all
those who have shared their experiences with me.
Finding my own voice and having the courage to speak out it in this
dissertation has been a personal challenge. I am indebted not only to all the
participants in the interviews, but also to among others: researchers;
psychologists; sociologists; therapists; social workers; and philosophers.
Coming out from behind their shadows and revealing my thoughts in an ocean of
light with others has at times filled me with fear and trembling, but it has
also led me to a deeper level of reflection both of myself and others.
My voice in this dissertation is characterized by existential and
dialogical philosophy, and I will discuss my findings in this light. Social
work for me involves meeting the pain, suffering and despair that humans endure
and reflects many of the profound conflicts and contradictions of human
existence. Blomdahl Frey (1988) argues in her doctoral dissertation that existential-relational
philosophy can be used in practical social work and is an expression for both a
personal and social holistic view. She argues that we can understand others
better by use of I-Thou relationship, and has showed this in her dissertation
by interviewing hospital patients. Thompson (1992) argues that existentialism,
as a philosophy of freedom, is both a way of understanding the world and a way
of tackling it; a programme for action. Sartre (1948/1973) argues that the
quest for authenticity is a primary goal in existentialism and also forms the
basis of humanism; commitment to fellow human beings and the difficulties they
face. Humanism thus characterizes both existentialism and social work. It is my
intention in this dissertation to explore if the application of existential-dialogical
philosophy to social work can offer a scope for developing a form of social
work which can, in turn, make a contribution to humanism.
Social workers deal, for the most
part, with the more vulnerable, less powerful members of our society. Very
often clients have struggled with painful and distressing circumstances for
long periods at a time and feelings of helplessness tend in my opinion to be
commonplace. An exploration into the concept and phenomenon of shame is a
journey to the edge of existence, especially for the participants in this
investigation who were sexually abused as children. It is exactly at this edge
of existence that social work in my opinion has its primary function.
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