Guilt Thread

[Xel]

This thread is about the emotion of guilt in all its wonderful forms. Shame, existential guilt, false guilt, deserved guilt, and the rest. How much guilt do you worry about and why?

 

[Artifice Orisit]

What's existential guilt?

 

[Eljua]

Guilt?

 

[Artifice Orisit]

You know, that bad feeling you get just before being punished.

i.e. They actually caught me, I'm so ashamed

 

[Eljua]

You know, that bad feeling you get just before being punished.

i.e. They actually caught me, I'm so ashamed

Seems like regret to me.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

...same thing isn't it?

 

[Eljua]

Depends on the subjective angle you come in from.

 

[Berkeley]

I missed my nephew's baptizism yesterday, so I feel terrible about it. I wasn't even doing anything, I just completely forgot it was yesterday.

 

[Yellow]

You know, that bad feeling you get just before being punished.

i.e. They actually caught me, I'm so ashamed

I had that a LOT as a child... I thought it was just mortal fear...

 

[Kidege]

I think it is.

Existencial guilt is... guilt for existing? I dunno, I'm only familiar with existencial anguish.

Re the OP:

Guilt sucks and I'll deny having any experience with such a sucky feeling.

 

[Ilmlas]

I can never know if it's false guilt or deserved guilt, since any guilt I feel is usually put upon me by myself. If I make myself guilty, I will always lean towards deserved guilt, but I never know if I should feel guilty or not. Self-imposed guilt is so confusing.

 

[Vrecknidj]

What is it that I heard a few years ago?

Guilt is the knowledge that you could have been better than you are.

Dave

 

[Kidege]

^

 

[Dark_Amphibian]

Hehehehe. Guilt. An old friend of many years.

Got nothing to do with getting caught. What matters is what *I* know, and when I don't meet my own (rigid? unreasonable? never!) expectations and ethical standards, it tends to drive major guilt and talking to myself becomes a Root Cause Analysis/judgment session.

*shrugs* Could just be the Irish Catholic upbringing, too. That's enough to warp anyone.

 

[Polaris]

I think guilt is/was very much something cultivated and abused by a certain religion, in order to manipulate people into submission. For example, the idea that we are all born sinners, and have to be salvaged from this congenital fault.

When I grew up I was subject to these ideas (not through family, but society), and therefore felt guilty about most things. I even felt guilty about being a female, as there was so much focus on gender roles. I felt guilty about being a non-believer (but they still managed to put the guilt into me!). Luckily I left town before I went completely mad.

Now, being older (and wiser....?), I know I was also suffering from guilt of not being true to myself.

So is guilt something in-built in the human mind, or is it mostly religion-based? I'm not so certain any more.

I have seen my cat looking awfully guilty on several occasions, so maybe it is an in-built thing. (Unless Puss has been sneaking off to church without me knowing it).

 

[Dark_Amphibian]

Oh, I think lots of religions have shamelessly wielded guilt to herd the unruly masses. [sic]

But not *exclusively* religions. Shame and guilt are useful for controlling people outside the cathedral, too. Citizens, soldiers...all malleable. Just need to find the right pressure points.