The Shame Trap: Comment on "How Minority Stress Becomes Traumatic Invalidation: An Emotion-Focused Conceptualization of Minority Stress in Sexual and Gender Minority People"

• Published in: Clinical psychology (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2022-06, Vol.29 (2), p.203-204
• Main Author: Kauth, Michael R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: At Risk Populations; Cognitive Processes; Concept Formation; Emotional and Behavioral Disorders; Emotional Disturbances; Health Outcomes; Mental Health; Minority Stress; Psychological Stress; Sexual Minority Groups
• ISSN: 0969-5893; 1468-2850
• DOI: 10.1037/cps0000061

Comments on an article by N. D. Cardona et al. (see record 2022-15346-001). Cardona and colleagues have proposed that chronic minority stress disrupts emotional processes (emotional dysregulation) of sexual and gender minority (SGM) people related to self-validation, drawing on Linehan’s (2014) biosocial theory. Accordingly, chronic invalidation related to minority stress can lead to anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and self-harm. While the authors add to our understanding of how minority stressors can result in poor health, they only briefly touch on shame and over-controlled emotional responses. Cardona and colleagues follow Linehan’s (2014) biosocial theory of borderline personality disorder (BPD) to explain the link between minority stress and poor mental health outcomes experienced by SGM people. The authors restrict themselves to explaining poor mental health, although poor physical health may stem from similar emotional processes. Cardona et al. have conceptualized ongoing minority stress as chronic and sometimes traumatic invalidation that disrupts emotion processing when the environment significantly and frequently blocks the individual’s emotional needs. Chronic invalidation increases emotional arousal, sensitivity, and avoidance. Over time the individual interprets their SGM-based emotions as aversive, dangerous, harmful, and wrong. The SGM individual concludes that something is “wrong” with them. This explanation appears reasonable and sound. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)