Explorations on Disgust and Self-Disgust – POSTPONED

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND POSTPONED DUE TO THE CURRENT CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

WHEN? 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
WHERE? TICP Office & Community Clinic, 427 Vaughan Road, Toronto, ON, M6C 2P1

Christiane Martin, MSW
Explorations on Disgust and Self-Disgust

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SYNOPSIS

In this paper, I attempt to understand the emotion that some patients describe as self-disgust and attempt to answer the question: Is self-disgust a distinct and separate emotion?
I will present the scientific and psychoanalytic literature on disgust and self-disgust. My studies have shown that disgust reactions are innate and learned, that they change over a person’s life span, and that they are also universal. The psychoanalytic literature shows that disgust can be viewed as a self-protective mechanism which separates the ‘me’ from the ‘not-me’ experiences. It functions as a protection between the self and others. The same is true for self-disgust. It is viewed as a protection which helps individuals manage otherwise overwhelming affect, threats to attachment relationships, and challenges to the sense of self through repression and dissociation. I will use two clinical cases to demonstrate this. Furthermore, I will use Philip Bromberg’s theory on dissociation and self-state configuration to understand the divided self and the self that is at war with itself when self-disgust is present.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Christiane Martin Christiane Martin is a psychotherapist (MSW) in full time private practice in Toronto’s East End and a recent graduate of TICP.