Guilt
Guilt: Causes, Freud and why decent people feel the most guilty
Guilt: Causes, Freud and why decent people feel the most guilty
DESCRIPTION: Feelings of guilt are rarely linked to a specific act. In 1930, Freud demonstrated that the conscience develops as a result of the suppression of drives, whilst Klein and Tangney illustrate the connection between guilt and love. Causes, childhood and the distinction from shame.
Guilt without guilt: Why one’s conscience grows with self-denial
When people ask about the causes of feelings of guilt, they are usually referring to a specific experience: one feels guilty, sometimes even without having done anything, and sometimes far more intensely than the act itself warrants. Freud offered an explanation for this that still seems controversial today. Guilt grows with the suppression of drives, and it is precisely the most decent person who feels the most guilty. This post traces this idea through Freud’s writings, supplements it with the work of Melanie Klein and research on shame and guilt, and asks what it reveals about a conscience that never finds peace.
What are feelings of guilt?
Guilt is one of the secondary emotions, also known as self-related emotions. This group also includes empathy, embarrassment, pride and shame. They require an understanding of one’s own self and one’s relationship with other people. Feelings of guilt therefore emerge later than joy or fear, at the age of two to three years.
A prerequisite is at least a minimally developed sense of self. For anyone who feels guilt must perceive themselves as an independent being in relation to others. Added to this is the internalisation of values and norms. The child assesses their own behaviour against this yardstick and feels guilt when their actions fall short of it. In this way, the feeling of guilt governs behaviour, both through external standards and through one’s own internal ones.
Feelings of guilt are therefore the experience of having done something wrong or of being wrong, combined with self-reproach, restlessness and the urge to make amends. Psychology distinguishes between genuine guilt, which is based on an action, and feelings of guilt without cause. Remorse over a wrongdoing is a human and morally valuable experience. It becomes tormenting when it becomes overwhelming, cannot be alleviated by making amends, and is directed at things for which one is not to blame.
The observation: guilt before the act
In his short essay ‘Criminals out of a Sense of Guilt’ (1916), Freud describes people who commit an act because they feel guilty. The sense of guilt was already there. The act provides a pretext for it and brings relief, because the guilt is now attached to something. Freud refers to Nietzsche’s ‘pale criminal’, who was capable of carrying out his act when he committed it, but could not bear the image of it.
The reversal is the key: such a sense of guilt does not require any actual guilt. It occurs in people – for example, following childhood trauma – who feel responsible for things over which they had no control: their parents’ mood, a separation, a sibling’s illness. Anyone who tells them they are not to blame achieves little, because the feeling is not fuelled by the facts of the matter at all.
Civilisation and Its Discontents: The Price of Progress
In ‘Civilisation and Its Discontents’ (1930), Freud identifies the feeling of guilt as the central problem of cultural development. Culture demands the repression of drives. Aggression that must not be acted out against others is turned inwards and taken over by the superego, which directs it against the ego. From this perspective, the conscience represents this internalised aggression. The greater the repression, the more aggression there is within, and the harsher the conscience.
Freud describes two sources of guilt. The first is the fear of external authority, of losing love and of punishment. The second is the fear of the superego, which persists even when no one is watching. At this stage, it no longer helps to conceal what is forbidden. The conscience knows it anyway, and it is also aware of the desire that was merely thought. This is why there are feelings of guilt for thoughts, and why Freud’s paradoxical observation holds true—that it is precisely the saints who describe themselves as sinners: every act of self-restraint strengthens the superego, which demanded that self-restraint.
Freud sums up the consequence in a sentence that ranks among the core statements of his work: the price of cultural progress is paid in a loss of happiness through an increase in feelings of guilt. One might consider this thesis to be exaggerated. However, it offers an explanation as to why prosperity and security do not reduce feelings of guilt.
Where the rigour comes from
When addressing the question of childhood, Freud takes a surprising turn. According to him, the rigour of the superego is fuelled by the child’s own aggression towards the authority that restrains it. The child, who is angry at prohibitions and is not allowed to express that anger, turns it against itself. This is why even gentle parents can give rise to a strict conscience, and why people from loving families suffer from feelings of guilt that they cannot explain.
This takes the pressure off parents whilst at the same time prompting a more precise question. Conscience arises from the tension between love and aggression. Where a child is not allowed to experience anger because the parents cannot bear it, that anger remains unspoken and returns as a guilty conscience. Families in which anger is forbidden ensure that children feel guilty when they are angry.
The blog has described elsewhere how this mechanism leads to moral masochism. The unconscious sense of guilt demands punishment, and the individual organises their life in such a way that this punishment is meted out.
Neurotic feelings of guilt and self-reproach
Freud describes a sense of guilt whose source is unknown to the person affected as ‘unconscious’. In ‘The Ego and the Id’ (1923), he describes patients who feel worse when they are actually feeling better, and attributes this to an unconscious need for punishment. In this case, the self-reproach is merely the surface: it identifies a transgression that the person seeks in order to explain the feeling. Vicious cycles of rumination arise because the explanation is never sufficient. Those who constantly feel guilty scrutinise their behaviour for mistakes, always find one, and yet still feel no relief.
Klein: Guilt as an expression of love
Melanie Klein took Freud’s description in a different direction. In her works on the depressive position (1935, 1940), she describes the feeling of guilt as a consequence of love. The child realises that the mother whom they hated and attacked is the very same person whom they love and need. From this realisation arises concern for her and the desire to make amends for what was destroyed in the imagination. Guilt, in Klein’s sense, refers to the ability to see another person in their entirety and to take responsibility for one’s own aggression.
Klein thus distinguishes between two forms. Persecutory guilt is the fear of punishment by a cruel internal object. Depressive guilt is concern for the damaged object and leads to making amends. The former paralyses; the latter can bring about change. Both feel similar, but have different sources. Anyone who feels guilty after an argument and makes a phone call is acting out of the latter type of guilt. Anyone who feels guilty without being able to do anything about it falls victim to the former.
People who always blame others
The counterpart to excessive guilt is the denial of guilt. Psychoanalysis calls this process ‘projection’: one’s own unbearable aspect is seen in the other and combated there. In families, one member often takes on the role of bearing the blame for everyone, and the blog has described this as the family’s scapegoat. Constant guilt and constant blame both address the same question: where to direct the aggression.
Shame and guilt
Research into moral emotions distinguishes between shame and guilt based on their object. In 2007, June Tangney, Jeff Stuewig and Debra Mashek summarised in the *Annual Review of Psychology* that shame relates to the whole self (‘I am bad’) and guilt to a specific behaviour (‘I have done something bad’). In this literature, guilt is more frequently associated with making amends and apologising, whilst shame is more frequently associated with withdrawal, concealment and defence. The distinction dates back to Helen Block Lewis (1971). The findings stem from numerous studies, with measurement typically based on self-reports.
This distinction is illuminating when it comes to feelings of guilt without blame. It suggests that some of what is experienced as guilt is actually shame: one feels bad because one considers oneself inadequate , and the action merely provides the trigger. The relationship between these two emotions is explored in a separate text on shame and guilt.
Overcoming feelings of guilt: what helps
The first step is to examine the trigger. If there is an action that has caused harm, making amends helps: a conversation, an apology, a correction. Then the feeling has fulfilled its function and subsides. If there is no trigger, or if the feeling persists after making amends, the source lies in the superego. Arguments are of little help here, and processing the issue is advisable. Cognitive behavioural therapy works on the thoughts and beliefs that generate guilt. Psychoanalytic therapy explores what anger the conscience is guarding against and how it came to be so strict.
What the feeling of guilt means
The observation that guilt arises independently of the facts contradicts the advice that feelings of guilt are a cognitive error that can be corrected through insight. Those who feel guilty are rarely relieved by arguments. The feeling serves a function in the psychological balance: it channels aggression, it secures the connection to authority figures, and it confers a hidden sense of grandeur, for whoever is to blame for everything also has power over everything. Anyone who asks about the cause of feelings of guilt is therefore seeking the context in which they became useful.
The question of the cause in childhood thus leads to a description of relationships. In families that cannot tolerate anger, guilt becomes a substitute for its expression. In families where a child takes responsibility for their parents’ well-being, guilt becomes a duty. In societies that reward achievement and prohibit aggression, guilt becomes a permanent state for the hard-working. Freud’s idea extends beyond the individual: the guilt felt by an individual is at the same time a sign of the demands under which they live.
Key points in brief
• A sense of guilt does not require guilt; it seeks it out (Freud 1916).
• According to Freud, the conscience develops alongside the suppression of drives, and the most decent person feels the most guilty (1930).
• The rigour of the superego is fuelled by the child’s aggression; this is why even lenient parents produce strict consciences.
• Klein distinguishes between persecutory guilt (fear of punishment) and depressive guilt (concern for the damaged object, accompanied by a desire for reparation).
• Shame relates to the whole self, whereas guilt relates to a specific behaviour (Tangney 2007).
• Reparation puts an end to justified guilt. Psychotherapy helps with unconscious guilt.
• Constant feelings of guilt and constantly blaming others both address the same question: where to direct the aggression.
Sources and further reading
Degé, F. (2022): Emotions, secondary. In: Dorsch Encyclopaedia of Psychology, Hogrefe. https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/emotionen-sekundaereFreud, S. (1916): Some character types from psychoanalytic work (including: Criminals driven by a sense of guilt).
Freud, S. (1923): The Ego and the Id.
Freud, S. (1924): The Economic Problem of Masochism.
Freud, S. (1930): Civilisation and Its Discontents, Chapters VII and VIII.
Klein, M. (1935): A contribution to the psychogenesis of manic-depressive states.
Klein, M. (1940): ‘Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states’.
Lewis, H. B. (1971): Shame and Guilt in Neurosis.
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J. and Mashek, D. J. (2007): Moral emotions and moral behaviour. Annual Review of Psychology 58, 345–372. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070145
Related
DESCRIPTION: Feelings of guilt are rarely linked to a specific act. In 1930, Freud demonstrated that the conscience develops as a result of the suppression of drives, whilst Klein and Tangney illustrate the connection between guilt and love. Causes, childhood and the distinction from shame.
Guilt without guilt: Why one’s conscience grows with self-denial
When people ask about the causes of feelings of guilt, they are usually referring to a specific experience: one feels guilty, sometimes even without having done anything, and sometimes far more intensely than the act itself warrants. Freud offered an explanation for this that still seems controversial today. Guilt grows with the suppression of drives, and it is precisely the most decent person who feels the most guilty. This post traces this idea through Freud’s writings, supplements it with the work of Melanie Klein and research on shame and guilt, and asks what it reveals about a conscience that never finds peace.
What are feelings of guilt?
Guilt is one of the secondary emotions, also known as self-related emotions. This group also includes empathy, embarrassment, pride and shame. They require an understanding of one’s own self and one’s relationship with other people. Feelings of guilt therefore emerge later than joy or fear, at the age of two to three years.
A prerequisite is at least a minimally developed sense of self. For anyone who feels guilt must perceive themselves as an independent being in relation to others. Added to this is the internalisation of values and norms. The child assesses their own behaviour against this yardstick and feels guilt when their actions fall short of it. In this way, the feeling of guilt governs behaviour, both through external standards and through one’s own internal ones.
Feelings of guilt are therefore the experience of having done something wrong or of being wrong, combined with self-reproach, restlessness and the urge to make amends. Psychology distinguishes between genuine guilt, which is based on an action, and feelings of guilt without cause. Remorse over a wrongdoing is a human and morally valuable experience. It becomes tormenting when it becomes overwhelming, cannot be alleviated by making amends, and is directed at things for which one is not to blame.
The observation: guilt before the act
In his short essay ‘Criminals out of a Sense of Guilt’ (1916), Freud describes people who commit an act because they feel guilty. The sense of guilt was already there. The act provides a pretext for it and brings relief, because the guilt is now attached to something. Freud refers to Nietzsche’s ‘pale criminal’, who was capable of carrying out his act when he committed it, but could not bear the image of it.
The reversal is the key: such a sense of guilt does not require any actual guilt. It occurs in people – for example, following childhood trauma – who feel responsible for things over which they had no control: their parents’ mood, a separation, a sibling’s illness. Anyone who tells them they are not to blame achieves little, because the feeling is not fuelled by the facts of the matter at all.
Civilisation and Its Discontents: The Price of Progress
In ‘Civilisation and Its Discontents’ (1930), Freud identifies the feeling of guilt as the central problem of cultural development. Culture demands the repression of drives. Aggression that must not be acted out against others is turned inwards and taken over by the superego, which directs it against the ego. From this perspective, the conscience represents this internalised aggression. The greater the repression, the more aggression there is within, and the harsher the conscience.
Freud describes two sources of guilt. The first is the fear of external authority, of losing love and of punishment. The second is the fear of the superego, which persists even when no one is watching. At this stage, it no longer helps to conceal what is forbidden. The conscience knows it anyway, and it is also aware of the desire that was merely thought. This is why there are feelings of guilt for thoughts, and why Freud’s paradoxical observation holds true—that it is precisely the saints who describe themselves as sinners: every act of self-restraint strengthens the superego, which demanded that self-restraint.
Freud sums up the consequence in a sentence that ranks among the core statements of his work: the price of cultural progress is paid in a loss of happiness through an increase in feelings of guilt. One might consider this thesis to be exaggerated. However, it offers an explanation as to why prosperity and security do not reduce feelings of guilt.
Where the rigour comes from
When addressing the question of childhood, Freud takes a surprising turn. According to him, the rigour of the superego is fuelled by the child’s own aggression towards the authority that restrains it. The child, who is angry at prohibitions and is not allowed to express that anger, turns it against itself. This is why even gentle parents can give rise to a strict conscience, and why people from loving families suffer from feelings of guilt that they cannot explain.
This takes the pressure off parents whilst at the same time prompting a more precise question. Conscience arises from the tension between love and aggression. Where a child is not allowed to experience anger because the parents cannot bear it, that anger remains unspoken and returns as a guilty conscience. Families in which anger is forbidden ensure that children feel guilty when they are angry.
The blog has described elsewhere how this mechanism leads to moral masochism. The unconscious sense of guilt demands punishment, and the individual organises their life in such a way that this punishment is meted out.
Neurotic feelings of guilt and self-reproach
Freud describes a sense of guilt whose source is unknown to the person affected as ‘unconscious’. In ‘The Ego and the Id’ (1923), he describes patients who feel worse when they are actually feeling better, and attributes this to an unconscious need for punishment. In this case, the self-reproach is merely the surface: it identifies a transgression that the person seeks in order to explain the feeling. Vicious cycles of rumination arise because the explanation is never sufficient. Those who constantly feel guilty scrutinise their behaviour for mistakes, always find one, and yet still feel no relief.
Klein: Guilt as an expression of love
Melanie Klein took Freud’s description in a different direction. In her works on the depressive position (1935, 1940), she describes the feeling of guilt as a consequence of love. The child realises that the mother whom they hated and attacked is the very same person whom they love and need. From this realisation arises concern for her and the desire to make amends for what was destroyed in the imagination. Guilt, in Klein’s sense, refers to the ability to see another person in their entirety and to take responsibility for one’s own aggression.
Klein thus distinguishes between two forms. Persecutory guilt is the fear of punishment by a cruel internal object. Depressive guilt is concern for the damaged object and leads to making amends. The former paralyses; the latter can bring about change. Both feel similar, but have different sources. Anyone who feels guilty after an argument and makes a phone call is acting out of the latter type of guilt. Anyone who feels guilty without being able to do anything about it falls victim to the former.
People who always blame others
The counterpart to excessive guilt is the denial of guilt. Psychoanalysis calls this process ‘projection’: one’s own unbearable aspect is seen in the other and combated there. In families, one member often takes on the role of bearing the blame for everyone, and the blog has described this as the family’s scapegoat. Constant guilt and constant blame both address the same question: where to direct the aggression.
Shame and guilt
Research into moral emotions distinguishes between shame and guilt based on their object. In 2007, June Tangney, Jeff Stuewig and Debra Mashek summarised in the *Annual Review of Psychology* that shame relates to the whole self (‘I am bad’) and guilt to a specific behaviour (‘I have done something bad’). In this literature, guilt is more frequently associated with making amends and apologising, whilst shame is more frequently associated with withdrawal, concealment and defence. The distinction dates back to Helen Block Lewis (1971). The findings stem from numerous studies, with measurement typically based on self-reports.
This distinction is illuminating when it comes to feelings of guilt without blame. It suggests that some of what is experienced as guilt is actually shame: one feels bad because one considers oneself inadequate , and the action merely provides the trigger. The relationship between these two emotions is explored in a separate text on shame and guilt.
Overcoming feelings of guilt: what helps
The first step is to examine the trigger. If there is an action that has caused harm, making amends helps: a conversation, an apology, a correction. Then the feeling has fulfilled its function and subsides. If there is no trigger, or if the feeling persists after making amends, the source lies in the superego. Arguments are of little help here, and processing the issue is advisable. Cognitive behavioural therapy works on the thoughts and beliefs that generate guilt. Psychoanalytic therapy explores what anger the conscience is guarding against and how it came to be so strict.
What the feeling of guilt means
The observation that guilt arises independently of the facts contradicts the advice that feelings of guilt are a cognitive error that can be corrected through insight. Those who feel guilty are rarely relieved by arguments. The feeling serves a function in the psychological balance: it channels aggression, it secures the connection to authority figures, and it confers a hidden sense of grandeur, for whoever is to blame for everything also has power over everything. Anyone who asks about the cause of feelings of guilt is therefore seeking the context in which they became useful.
The question of the cause in childhood thus leads to a description of relationships. In families that cannot tolerate anger, guilt becomes a substitute for its expression. In families where a child takes responsibility for their parents’ well-being, guilt becomes a duty. In societies that reward achievement and prohibit aggression, guilt becomes a permanent state for the hard-working. Freud’s idea extends beyond the individual: the guilt felt by an individual is at the same time a sign of the demands under which they live.
Key points in brief
• A sense of guilt does not require guilt; it seeks it out (Freud 1916).
• According to Freud, the conscience develops alongside the suppression of drives, and the most decent person feels the most guilty (1930).
• The rigour of the superego is fuelled by the child’s aggression; this is why even lenient parents produce strict consciences.
• Klein distinguishes between persecutory guilt (fear of punishment) and depressive guilt (concern for the damaged object, accompanied by a desire for reparation).
• Shame relates to the whole self, whereas guilt relates to a specific behaviour (Tangney 2007).
• Reparation puts an end to justified guilt. Psychotherapy helps with unconscious guilt.
• Constant feelings of guilt and constantly blaming others both address the same question: where to direct the aggression.
Sources and further reading
Degé, F. (2022): Emotions, secondary. In: Dorsch Encyclopaedia of Psychology, Hogrefe. https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/emotionen-sekundaereFreud, S. (1916): Some character types from psychoanalytic work (including: Criminals driven by a sense of guilt).
Freud, S. (1923): The Ego and the Id.
Freud, S. (1924): The Economic Problem of Masochism.
Freud, S. (1930): Civilisation and Its Discontents, Chapters VII and VIII.
Klein, M. (1935): A contribution to the psychogenesis of manic-depressive states.
Klein, M. (1940): ‘Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states’.
Lewis, H. B. (1971): Shame and Guilt in Neurosis.
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J. and Mashek, D. J. (2007): Moral emotions and moral behaviour. Annual Review of Psychology 58, 345–372. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070145
Related
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