Exclusion and Shame

Programme:

Wouter Gomperts: Embarrassed silenced? On ethnic differences in the psychoanalytic treatment room

Ethnic differences are often either shamefully hushed up or grossly expressed in a modern society like ours. For more than a hundred years, psychoanalysts have been looking for ways to deal with difficult thoughts, feelings and impulses in a different, better way than getting rid of them or living them out destructively. Now we face the challenge in the therapy room of looking for ways to talk with some boldness about the embarrassing feelings that ethnic differences can bring. So what might we encounter? Wouter Gomperts uses three clinical vignettes (‘Aziza’, ‘David’ and ‘Els’) to explore what can occur in and between the patient and therapist when they differ in ethnicity, and how to deal with it as an analyst.

Maggie Eybrechts: Looking shame in the eye.

On shame and shamelessness in power relations in ethnic differences. Shame, if bearable, can keep us in check, lead us to more humanity and empathy. Shamelessness, on the other hand, can incite sins, unscrupulousness and uninhibited behaviour. Vibrant lively hubris gets in the way of self-reflection. Which, in turn, can actually feed deep (unconscious) shame. So is the weight of shame to face it too great? Maggie Eybrechts, with a psychoanalytic perspective, explores the destructive sides of shame and shamelessness in contact between people at the societal level.

With Valentijn de Heer, Hava Güveli and Martine Groen (moderator).

About the guest speakers:

Dr Wouter Gomperts (1951) worked for many years at the University of Amsterdam and the Dutch Psychoanalytic Institute. Now working as a psychoanalyst, learning therapist and supervisor in his own practice.

Maggie Eybrechts studied both organisational psychology, clinical psychology and trained as a psychotherapist. She gained work experience in psychodiagnostics and addiction care. She is currently training as a psychoanalyst with the Dutch Psychoanalytic Association.

Valentijn de Heer (1986) obtained his PhD with a thesis on identity delusions in marine animals. He went no further. However, his love for language and devising has always remained. Nowadays, he writes columns and short stories and has published in Literair Nederland, De Optimist, Papieren Helden and Het Parool, among others. His debut novel Dear Ms Eva was published on 5 September 2023 by Uitgeverij Pluim and has been very well received by the national press.

Hava Güveli (Deventer, 1980) writes prose poetry. She won the El Hizjra Literature Prize in 2006. Her poetry is expressive and melodious. Her Turkish-Dutch background shines through the content. In 2019, she graduated from the Academy for Writing Teachers, Dactylus in Amersfoort. Teaching adults and children is something she enjoys. In late 2020, she published her collection Everything I forget is beautiful, released by Uitgeverij Van Groningen. She is currently working on her next collection titled Soft Fists.