HTM Working Papers

The Humiliation-Threat Model (HTM) is a behavioral framework developed by NAARC to explain patterns of coercive control that existing clinical and institutional models fail to adequately account for. These working papers are structured research documents intended to be tested, refined, and challenged through further research and applied case analysis.

Foundation Paper

The Humiliation-Threat Model: Core Framework

Establishes the humiliation vs. shame distinction, the five necessary-and-sufficient criteria, the harm-generative architecture, differentiation from psychopathy, and the theoretical departure from existing DSM and trauma-based models.

HTM Working Papers — Foundation Paper

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White Paper Series

The Neurocognitive Profile: Why Dysregulation Models Fail

Examines the neurocognitive architecture underlying high-functioning coercive control — including the distinction between affective and cognitive empathy, enhanced executive function, and why this profile produces institutional invisibility while victims are systematically misidentified as the problem.

HTM Working Papers — White Paper 1

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Neurodevelopmental Etiology

Examines the developmental origins of the HTM profile — early attachment disruption, environmental shaping, and the formation of humiliation-threat sensitivity as a stable behavioral architecture.

HTM Working Papers — White Paper 2

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Evolutionary Context

Situates the HTM profile within evolutionary frameworks of dominance, status, and threat response — examining why humiliation-driven control behaviors persist and under what conditions they are expressed.

HTM Working Papers — White Paper 3

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Prevention and Early Identification

Translates the HTM framework into practical identification and intervention tools for clinicians, educators, and institutions — with a focus on pre-escalation recognition.

HTM Working Papers — White Paper 4

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Institutional Failure and Policy Reform Pathways

Examines how existing institutional frameworks — legal, clinical, and governmental — systematically fail to identify and respond to the HTM profile, and what structural reforms are required to close the gap.

HTM Working Papers — White Paper 5

Coming Soon

HTM Working Papers are published by NAARC as structured research documents. They represent theoretical frameworks in active development and are intended to be tested, refined, and challenged through further research and applied case analysis.