Dr. Peter Shabad will briefly describe how the origins of chronic shame emerge from chronic experiences of rejected vulnerability at the hands of one’s parents. These cumulative experiences of trauma may be viewed as the psychic loss of a physically present parent, in which one’s expectant hope for a wished-for parent is continually frustrated by the actuality of the real parent. The chronic experiences of hope and disappointments are demoralizing sources of shame and often covered over in the necessity of developing the hard defensive armor of becoming an adult.