“Abyss Calls out to Abyss”: Oedipal Shame, Invisibility, and Broken Identity1

The article derives from the experience of a double self or double reality. The abysses are often those of contradictory values and ideals, and with that opposite contents of shame or guilt, or the conflict between the sense of a deep inner hell that often is unspeakable and unnamable and that of a hollow and empty appearance. Absoluteness of judgment and its correlate, soulblindness toward the other, are the opposite to the empathy into the inner reality of the other. Soulblindness by the others creates massive shame in us. These dynamics are presented in a detailed case study.