Helen Block Lewis (August 22, 1913 – January 18, 1987) was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Her work pioneered the study of the differences between

guilt Guilt may refer to: *Guilt (emotion), an emotion that occurs when a person feels that they have violated a moral standard *Culpability, a legal term *Guilt (law), a legal term Music * ''Guilt'' (album), a 2009 album by Mims * "Guilt" (The Long Bl ...

and

shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

. She founded the journal ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', taught at universities, was the psychoanalysis division president of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has ...

, and wrote several books. Her books include ''Shame and Guilt in Neurosis'', ''Psychic War in Men and Women'', ''Freud and Modern Psychology'' volume 1 and 2, ''Sex and the Superego'', and ''The Role of Shame in Symptom Formation''.

Personal life and death

Helen Block Lewis was born on Henry Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

, New York City, in 1913. She was a first-generation American and her parents were Eastern European Jews. While attending

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Col ...

at age 16, Lewis was in charge of the student newspaper and became a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

Lewis graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

with a doctorate degree. She married classicist

Naphtali Lewis Naphtali Lewis (14 December 1911 – 11 September 2005) was an American papyrologist who published extensively on subjects ranging from the ancient papyrus industry to government in Roman Egypt. He also wrote several social histories of Ptol ...

. Her daughter is psychiatrist

Judith Lewis Herman Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) is an American psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author who has focused on the understanding and treatment of incest and traumatic stress. Herman is Professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard University M ...

and Lewis encouraged her in academia while suggesting that she attend medical school to have "more power". Lewis also had a son John B. and two grandchildren. Lewis died at age 73 due to

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...

at her

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

, home on January 18, 1987.

Career

Lewis was an experimental psychologist and an instructor at Brooklyn College until the late 1940s, upon realizing that she could not receive

academic tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

due to her having once been a part of the Communist Party. In the mid-1940s, she taught psychology at the Communist-affiliated Jefferson School of Social Science.Harris, B. (1996). Psychology and Marxist politics in America. In I. Parker & R. Spears (Eds.), Psychology and society: Radical theory and practice (pp. 64-78). London: Pluto Press. Unable to be hired elsewhere so she used her father's inheritance to train as a

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...

. Lewis founded the journal ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'' along with being a practitioner, a supervisor, and a researcher. She also taught at

The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

and

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

. She was an educator at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health. After lecturing for the Graduate Training Program at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and about psychiatry at the

Yale University School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary t ...

, Lewis started her own practice in 1945. Lewis analyzed the emotions of shame and guilt in relation to

transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from ...

and

countertransference Countertransference is defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client – or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. Early formulations The phenomenon of countertransference (german: G ...

. She was the psychoanalysis division president of the

from 1984 to 1985. Her books include ''Shame and Guilt in Neurosis'', ''Psychic War in Men and Women'', ''Freud and Modern Psychology'' volume 1 and 2, ''Sex and the Superego'', and ''The Role of Shame in Symptom Formation''. Lewis' work pioneered the study on the differences between

and

. Discoveries that Lewis made as a clinical psychologist at Yale University have influenced further studies of guilt, shame, and unacknowledged shame. Researcher June Price Tangney and her colleagues were able to confirm many of Lewis' findings. They learned that "the experience of guilt leads to a focus on specific behaviors" and is "less painful than shame" while being "remorse, regret, and tension without disrupting the unity of the self or impairing the self through global devaluation". On the other side, "shame is not about one's deed", but rather the "self". The "internal command of guilt" is to stop doing something for violating "a rule or standard" and to change the behavior. Shame's "internal command" is "Stop. You are no good".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Helen Block 1913 births 1987 deaths American psychoanalysts American women psychologists Presidents of the American Psychological Association American moral psychologists Barnard College alumni Columbia University alumni Brooklyn College faculty Swarthmore College faculty The New School faculty People from Manhattan Writers from New York City Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers Jewish American journalists