Passion, Shame, and the Freedom to Become: Seizing the Vital Moment in Psychoanalysis
Book Announcement by Peter Shabad (USA)
Shabad, P. (2025). Passion, shame, and the freedom to become: Seizing the vital moment in psychoanalysis. Routledge.
Passion, Shame, and the Freedom to Become: Seizing the Vital Moment in Psychoanalysis examines how humans can overcome feelings of shame through self-acceptance and regain their innate passion and freedom to grow. Peter Shabad examines in detail how self-shaming and passivity are intertwined with the fatalism of self-pity, envy, resentment and, ultimately, regret for not “seizing the vital moments” in life.
From birth on, children attempt to shape themselves to belong and to contribute to human endeavor through their innate passion. Exposed vulnerability due to lack of parental receptivity leads to feelings of shame and self-consciousness; we interpret our misfortunes and limitations as punishments and reverse our passion into an inhibited passivity. Shabad envisions psychotherapy as a pathway through which individuals learn to inclusively accept all aspects of their inner lives in order to embark on their journeys of self-acceptance. He emphasizes the need for therapists to view patients as active agents in this process.
Peter Shabad, Ph.D. is on the faculties of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP) and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He is also Supervising and Training Analyst at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Dr. Shabad is an Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. He is co-editor of The Problem of Loss and Mourning: Psychoanalytic Perspectives (IUP, 1989) and author of Despair and the Return of Hope: Echoes of Mourning in Psychotherapy (Aronson, 2001).
Peter Shabad, Ph.D.
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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