A new road to recovery for sex assault victims based on affects and emotions

By Anne Cowling on 1st March, 2018

For 20 years Anne Cowling has managed a community agency that supports disadvantaged families some of which have been impacted by sexual abuse. Over time the agency ‘Goulburn Family Support Service’ has developed a uniform practice based on Silvan Tomkins’ Affect Script Psychology. This psychology provides a biological framework for affects and understanding of emotions. The practice also incorporates Donald Nathanson’s ‘Compass of Shame’ which provides an understanding of the affect of shame, which is shared to explain how this can  motivate some pretty unhelpful behaviours.    Anne has a Bachelor of Arts Degree and is currently completing post graduate studies. Email admin@goulburnfamilysupport.com.

Jacinta* is a 31-year-old woman who was the victim of sexual abuse perpetrated by her older step-brother. The abuse began at age six and continued for five years. She didn’t even have the language to talk about what was happening until the realisation hit her at 13, after which her life took a downward spiral into abusive behaviour towards her parents and school teachers, self-harm, risk-taking behaviours and isolation from those who wanted to love her and be loved. 

Unfortunately Jacinta’s story is common and while support services and psychological interventions are available, sometimes they miss the mark. Today Jacinta is estranged from her partner and children; she’s taken to illicit drug use and unsurprisingly she has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

One approach to help Jacinta is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) which uses therapeutic approaches to adjust thoughts that then have an influence on emotions and behaviour. It can help with cognitive errors and the dysfunctional views expressed by the self. Jacinta has many negative views of herself, and she’s left a trail of hurt among those she held close. A skilled therapist would use an approach by initially forming a trusting relationship so Jacinta could begin discussing her personal issues in a safe place. The therapist would attempt to influence Jacinta’s thoughts and as a result influence her emotions and behaviour. Most people who receive CBT usually do so for an average of 16 sessions depending on the complexity of issues. 

An alternative therapy is called “Explicit Affective Practice” and has been trialled in regional New South Wales with encouraging outcomes. This approach is based on sharing a theory of affect and emotions explicitly with clients and originated in Charles Darwin’s work. Darwin’s theory was re-visited by philosopher and psychology professor Silvan S Tomkins, who proposed that an ‘affect’ is understood biologically as the physical mechanisms in the human body responsible for the expression of emotions. Consequently, biographical stories develop scripts around each affect occurring throughout life.

1 GoodTherapy.org, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (January 2018) <https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/cognitive-behavioral-therapy>.

 2 Ibid.

3 Sherryl Broderick, Pat Bazeley, Outcomes of the Explicit Affective Practice – A report of the evaluation of the family support and counselling activities provided by the Goulburn Family Support Service (Funded by The Ian Potter Foundation, 2012).

4 Charles Darwin, The expression of the emotions in man and animals (University of Chicago Press, first published 1872, 1965 ed).

 5 Silvan. S. Tomkins, ‘The rise, fall, and resurrection of the study of personality’ E. Virginia Demos (ed), Exploring Affect – Selected Writings of Silvan S Tomkins (Cambridge University Press, 1995) 324.

Professor of psychiatry Donald Nathanson’s text explores Tomkins’ nine innate affects. The positive ones were identified in ranges as ‘interest through to excitement’ and ‘enjoyment through to joy.’ The negative affects include, ‘shame through to humiliation,’ ‘distress through to anguish,’ ‘anger through to rage,’ ‘fear through to terror,’ ‘disgust’ and ‘dissmell’ an affect that “keeps the offensive other at a safe distance.” 

Nathanson reminds us that in an attempt to bring order and efficiency to experiences, Tomkins proposed we form scenes and scripts. Scripts are ‘sets of ordering rules for the interpretation, evaluation, prediction, production, or control of scenes, scenes he proposes are ‘a happening with a perceived beginning and end, and is the basic unit of analysis. 

Nathanson’s research had particular focus on shame affect, (remember this as the strictly biological part of emotion), which is triggered whenever an interruption to the positive affects occur. For example, this is our common understanding of when we say ‘oh, that’s a shame’ when something we thought was going to be good turned bad. There are many variances of shame and its stimulus. Nathanson says if we don’t take time to reflect on what’s impeded our view of the positive affects, shame affect can result in some pretty unhelpful behaviours.

Nathanson identified and suggests a scripted response whenever shame affect is triggered. He says when shame affect impedes our view of what’s positive, we can reflect on what’s been said, or respond in four polar ways, we can attack self (for example say I’m stupid), attack others, (say others are stupid), avoid (do something distracting) or withdraw (remove ourselves from the situation). These behaviours he described as The Compass of Shame which forms up if we don’t reflect and say, ‘hang on, what happened just then?’ For example when a person says something hurtful we should reflect and ask ourselves, ‘is that really true’, or ‘what were they thinking about’ or reflect on their state of mind and say ‘I know they are having a bad day, do I really need to take this on board?’ We know that another’s behaviour tells us more about them than us. To think about another’s behaviour and their words in this way indicates a good sense of pride, and steers us away from shame affect taking a firm hold, where otherwise we may take to harmful or useless behaviours, for example taking things to heart or lashing out verbally or physically. Alternatively, with a good sense of pride we may begin a productive dialogue with the person to explore their discomfort with us in an attempt to make things right.

When we think about it these behaviours have little to do with the hurt. So for example reviewing our sad story of Jacinta and life events resulting from her sexual abuse, to be able to trace this behavioural trail and see how the Compass formed up in her life will be a potential road map out of her confusing and tragic story. Separating out the behaviour from Jacinta, (i.e. where she disengaged from others and abused drugs), gives her some dignity to begin to understand her scripted shame affect responses and then work towards repairing some of her hurt and her relationships. She may need continued support, encouragement and ancillary help, but through an explicit sharing of a theory of affect and emotions as is being done through Explicit Affective Practice she will have a new vocabulary for emotions, understand the stimulus, the affect and her biographical story to review her scripting to move forward.

Additionally what Explicit Affective Practice does as a new approach is to put the abusive behaviour with the perpetrator in the eyes of the victim.

6 Donald. L. Nathanson, Shame and Pride Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self (W. W. Norton & Company, New York 1992).

7 Silvan. S. Tomkins, ‘The varieties of shame and its magnification’ E. Virginia Demos (ed), Exploring Affect – Selected Writings of Silvan S Tomkins (Cambridge University Press, 1995) 401.

8 Tomkins, above n 4, 334.

9 Nathanson, above n,5, 306.

10 Nathanson, above n, 5, 305.

While a one size fits all approach to mental health and abuse is never appropriate or adequate, an alternative therapeutic approach as discussed above may empower individuals such as Jacinta whose mental ill health can be traced back to her abuse to provide therapeutic insights into both cognition and emotion towards more wholesome and rewarding view of self and relationships.

* This is a fictitious account of a common experience.

If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexual assault or harassment support is available by calling 1800 424 017 and speaking to a qualified trauma counsellor at the NSW Rape Crisis Centre.