Guilt is a complex emotion that can arise from various actions, including crimes and socially unacceptable behavior. It is important to distinguish guilt from remorse, as lack of remorse for heinous crimes can indicate a psychopathic personality. Guilt is common among perfectionists and individuals with psychological conditions, and resolving these feelings is important for healing.
The word “guilt” is used in various senses. Most people use it to describe a state of responsibility for an action such as a crime, or to describe feelings of emotional strife and upset that can arise after someone does something they shouldn’t be doing. As an emotion, guilt is extremely complex and analyzing it and the feelings surrounding it are common in psychotherapy sessions. Some psychologists believe that guilt is a very important aspect of human behavior.
Guilt comes from the Old English gylt, meaning “crime.” This origin explains the first sense of the word, that of responsibility for a crime or action. In the legal world, it is determined by processes that evaluate available evidence to decide whether or not someone has committed a crime. People may also confess to being guilty of something like taking the last cookie out of the jar or letting the water run in the bathroom. While these acts are not necessarily crimes, they are socially unacceptable in many cultures.
It is important to distinguish guilt from remorse. In a legal sense, someone can be guilty without feeling remorse, a genuine sense of pain at committing an act. In psychology, however, many people experience both emotions. Lack of remorse for heinous crimes such as serial murder is considered by psychologists to be indicative of a psychopathic personality, making the distinction between these two concepts very important.
In a psychological sense, guilt is a very difficult and complicated emotion to define. In addition to feeling this emotion for legitimately wrongful acts, people can also be conditioned to feel it for more devious actions. For example, feeling guilty about not paying your electric bill is a simple enough emotion, but feeling this way about eating a muffin is a bit more nuanced. Some people with psychological conditions struggle with guilt as part of their overall condition.
Guilt feelings are common among perfectionists, people who push themselves to be perfect. While most people want to be successful in life, perfectionism can push this common desire to a dangerous level. Some individuals with eating disorders, for example, are also perfectionists, and this trait leads them to lose weight dangerously, drive themselves to lose more, and feel guilty about actions others don’t even think about, let alone view negatively. Guilt also arises in trauma survivors, victims of abuse, and people who had difficult childhoods. Resolving these feelings, as well as remorse, is an important part of the healing process.
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