Abstract

The primary focus of this study was to follow the phenomena of shame, guilt and intimacy. Theoretically, it was proposed that as intimacy increases, neurotic shame and guilt would decrease. This project was an introduction to a novel method of bridging empirical and phenomenological approaches to understand the meaning of these phenomena of intimacy, shame and guilt as the women participated in the five month group process. Every psychological language is based on specific philosophical assumptions that define the development of the psyche. This research was based on a theoretical framework derived from a dialogical philosophical anthropology that attempts to integrate the philosophical underpinnings of human nature with the psychological study of the human psyche. ;This study was a longitudinal, within subjects or repeated measures design. All subjects were recruited from the San Diego County areas of Southern California. All 32 women participated in a five month group process in which they were exposed to and encountered the first five concepts of the 12-Step process of recovery. It was hypothesized that exposure to the five concepts would bring to awareness a person's shame and guilt differently dependent upon the concept in which they were participating. Groups were held weekly for one hour with each month of the group process focusing on each specific concept. At the end of each month, each participant was given the Internalized Shame Scale to measure shame, the Mosher Guilt Scale to measure guilt, the Miller Social Intimacy Scale to measure intimacy, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Holmes-Rahe Recent Life Changes Questionnaire and the Self-Esteem Inventory . All subjects were given all treatments and followed the same procedures. ;Anovas indicated that there was an overall increase in intimacy and an overall decrease in neurotic shame and guilt, giving support to the theoretical proposal that neurotic shame and guilt are healed through intimacy. Planned comparisons showed that it was possible, with a good degree of reliability, to predict changes in psychological phenomena dependent upon the context in which persons were participating. Results of multiple regression analyses also show that the best predictor of the ability to be intimate was the intensity of neurotic shame