Summaries

Extract

Guilt and feelings of guilt play an important role in human development and behaviour and especially in the development of psychopathology. In our daily life and in our therapeutic practice we are regularly confronted with these powerful feelings and the causal role they play in producing a variety of symptoms, inhibitions or maladaptive character traits. In this paper the author differentiates between real guilt and irrational feelings of guilt. He describes how irrational and pathological feelings of guilt stem from distorted, unconscious thoughts and beliefs about having hurt or doing something hurtful to someone for whom one feels responsible. Hirsch (1997) differentiates feelings of guilt as follows: a basic feeling of guilt, b feeling of guilt coming from vitality, c feelings of guilt caused by separation, and d traumatic feelings of guilt. The different feelings of guilt are discussed and illustrated by vignettes. Finally the author describes the role unconscious feelings of guilt can play in the therapeutic process and how the therapist can help the patient to master these feelings. …