ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the depressive aspect of guilt rather more strongly than the retributive or persecutory aspect because the ill-effects of parental harshness in increasing the child's sense of guilt are so well known. The psycho-pathologist is in a position to place into a frame of reference the various theories of guilt and its relation to the dynamics of psychological disorder. Most, psycho-pathologists regard guilt as a manifestation of tension existing within the individual but arising, from the interplay of the person with the environment: from absorption of a part of the environment into the self. Anxiety is as important as guilt in the formative influences on the growth of personality, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish clinically a pang of guilt from the persecutory anxieties which also limit the freedom of action of the individual, and inhibit his social and personal growth.
