Presented by: Kathleen Adams, PhD
Discussion by: Robert Grossmark, PhD
In Part II of this two-part special presentation, author Kathleen Adams, PhD, discusses her book Attuned Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Non-abused, High Functioning People Living Outside of Time.

Group and individual therapists who frequently encounter patients with characters organized around melancholy, anxiety, entitlement, and rage may be caught off guard by patients who developed autistic defenses to manage terror, shame, and powerlessness. We will explore the abject self as an enacted manifestation of relentless despair. My group work centers primarily on high functioning, non-abused individuals with disorganized attachment and mild dissociation. Judith Herman suggests that along with terror, shame is linked to the development of disorganized attachment. Relentless despair and abject states are complex enactments that contribute to failed individual and group therapy experiences because they are difficult to recognize and manage effectively. We will focus tonight on abject states: a neural network which leads to enactment of worthlessness and despair about connection.