"Shame" written by Ali Morgan and Steve McQueen staring Michael Fassbender, a wonderful actor who you may know from "X-Men", Inglorious Bastards" and "Hunger". It gives an accurate picture of how deep scar tissue from past trauma leads to sex addiction resulting in the deep emotional pain, shame and destruction of one's life. You leave feeling how important it is to get early intervention and at the same time how a person may not seek intervention due to extreme shameful feelings about oneself. It is a very vulnerable and private shame one suffers. You get a sense of the covert and overt sigma society places on deviant sexual practices without really understanding its etiology. Getting this film out into mainstream theaters can help those in need to seek out help and allows your own clients to understand their own sexual conflicts and they are not alone.
It has won a number of awards at different film festivals. Here is a blurbfrom the movie's official website: "Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a New Yorker who shuns intimacy with women but feeds his desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his wayward younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment stirring memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's insular life spirals out of control." The movie website is http://www.foxsearchlight.com/
Perhaps this film will assist us in getting the word out that help is here and de-stigmatize the idea of sexual addiction.
One caveat - A colleague posted the following on a list serve...
I've heard from one of my clients who attended a screening last month that it's NOT for people in early recovery. He has four years in SAA and works a strong program so I trust his judgment. I think as clinicians we must use utmost discretion and proceed with caution when recommending a film like this to our clients.
content.foxsearchlight.com
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