"Guilt"

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer."
- William Shakespeare

Guilt is something we are all familiar with. When we do something that we consider to be wrong, we experience a short bout of guilt.

And this is not necessarily a problem. There is a name for people who don't feel guilt: "sociopaths."

Sometimes, however, we experience more than a "short bout" of guilt; it's more like something we carry on and on . . . and on and on . . . year after year, as not a temporary, passing emotion but more as a chronic condition. Psychologists of old have referred to a "guilt complex."

What is this? What causes it, and what can be done about it?

This is what we, your brave LiveReal Editors - with your help - intend to explore here.

Psychological Perspective

Many in the field of psychology view guilt as something that is closely tied with anger.

Specifically, they view it as something that anger changes into when it is not expressed. The way ice "naturally" turns into water or the way bread gets stale if you leave it out too long - guilt is like old, "stale," unexpressed anger that, all too often, weighs us down, becomes part of our character - and because we don't know what to do with it, we just carry it around for far too long.

"Guilt is anger turned inward.
Another way of saying this is that guilt is anger that has not been identified as the result of some specific hurt. If the anger were associated with a particular injury, it would make sense and would have been expressed with the hurt. Guilt is anger that could not be justified and therefore was not expressed."

"The greatest guilt is caused by condemning yourself for being angry and inhibiting the natural expression of your hurt and anger."
- David Viscott, Emotional Resilience

Manipulated Guilt (guilt artificially induced by others):

Guilt can come from having high expectations and then falling short of them. These expectations can be set by someone else, such as a boss, and also by yourself. When this happens consistently and repeatedly over time, we start to generalize the events and "feel like a failure" most of the time, as if we're always letting someone down.

"The esoteric reason for not criticizing or scolding is that any time a person feels guilty, he is in a posthypnotic state. If someone yells at him or tells him negative things at that time, he absorbs them as hypnotic suggestions into his subconscious mind. These negative words then control his attitude about himself and can ruin his life. When a person does something bad, he knows it, and when he is made to feel more guilty in your presence, his consciousness is blocked. He cannot go beyond that guilt. But if you start respecting him, you remove that blockage in his consciousness and bring him into a higher consciousness. Then he can understand you, and you can understand him, and there is no danger of hypnotism.

. . . If you criticize or speak negatively to people who feel guilty, you make them hide deeper and reject any advice. Then their consciousness is blocked against finding solutions because they think you hate them. They feel guilty already. When they feel guilty, they are ready for posthypnotic suggestions. This vulnerability is used by lawyers, by politicians, and by dard forces.

Your guilt is manipulated by those who want to use tyou, your money or your vote. When you feel really guilty, your logic and reasoning do not wmy si MArcumy nsiork any more. Then the manipulators put suggestions in your head and words in your mouth . . . Be careful of people who are manipulating you into feeling guilty."
- Torkom Saraydarian, Sex, Family, and the Woman In Society 300-302
(Note: Saraydarian describes how to overcome guilt, pages 303-304)

the attitude is "what did I do to deserve this?" - as opposed to, for example, blaming someone else, life, etc.

"But this guilty feeling is not good. Deep down you are feeling as if you are doig something wrong - that's why it hurts. You have a wound inside; you may have covered it, but the wound is there. And if you understand me, uncover the wound. Only when you uncover the it can it be healed. Let the sun heal it and the wind heal it. Uncover it!"
- Osho