Types of Guilt
Status: #seedling
#psychoanalysis #psychology #existentialism #guilt #superego
Guilt can be defined as an emotion, sense of anguish that we did not achieve out standards of what we could be.
Existentialist guilt
When a person realizes the potential for growth and desire to be more (transcend themselves, in existentialist terms), this gap could result in the so-called ontological guilt. Often this desire is inhibited in the person's own finitude, i.e. by one's existence or situation, so the person might feel guilty because they do not live authentically to their full potential.
Superego guilt
Superego - part of a person's mind that acts as a self-critical conscience, reflecting social standards learned from parents or teachers. It is concerned with the person’s own lovableness; its motivation is self-centered, and its main objective is to guarantee him or her a sense of worth, a sense of being loved.
Superego guilt arises when we fail to meet these social standards.
Freud thought guilty feelings:
“had to be derived from the transgressions against ancient and modern taboos, against parental and social tribunals. The feeling of guilt was now to be understood as essentially only the consequence of dread punishment and censure by this tribunal, as the consequence of the child’s fear of ‘loss of love’, or at times when it was a question of imaginary guilt, as moral masochism which is complimented by the sadism of the superego” .
Conscience guilt
In contrast to the superego, one's behaviour develops out of loving concern for other people instead of one's own lovableness. If a person has certain principles they freely choose as their guide and life, and transgresses them, conscience guilt is felt.