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THE REAL GUILT FEELING
organic basis. It may be accompanied by ideas of sin or
wrongdoing. The sufferer then assumes that his misery is the result of
his evil behaviour, whereas in fact it is the other way about.
The anguish gives life and intensity to the feelings of
selfaccusation. This matter will be dealt with more thoroughly in
a later chapter.
Guilt and Self-preoccupation
The person who knows what guilt is knows also that he is not
alone in the world. He recognises, however dimly, that every
person is a member of a greater whole. He may have great
difficulty in transferring his interest from himself to this larger
whole and so in experiencing fellowship; nevertheless his feeling
of guilt informs him that a personal reality beyond himself
makes demands on him.
In other words, awareness of guilt arises from consciousness
of relation. At times we read of criminals who were without any
sense of remorse for their crimes until they were met by a person
who was able to establish real inner contact with them. Then
these people have been moved with guilt and contrition.
Sometimes, no doubt, mere sentimentality will explain this, but not
always. In some instances, as the records bear witness, a new
consciousness of relation is awakened, and in it one’s deeds,
condition and situation are seen from a different point of
view.
This consciousness of relation may pertain only to the things
of this world, and yet be accompanied by a real, ethical sense of
guilt, having, so to speak, a ‘horizontal’ significance. We
become aware that we have betrayed the ideals we have held
concerning our attitude to other men and women or to human
nature in general.
A religious person also has a consciousness of relation that
may be described as ‘vertical’ in contrast with the other. Its
perspective includes that which is not of this world. It reaches
out to the heights and depths of spiritual reality. Consequently
the religious feeling of guilt expresses more than a sense of moral
responsibility. It is more penetrating and intense than any other
guilt feeling. The individual stands in conscious relation to God
himself. As he can experience the heights of peace and bliss so
also he can plunge into depths of despair greater than mere
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