ABSTRACT
The major benefit of the shift away from a persecutory guilt culture, with its emphasis on punishment, towards a depressive guilt culture, is that a kinder relationship to the self has become possible. In recent times, guilt has been, in its dispositional form, freed from ‘sin’. Transformed from a moral phenomenon into an ontological one, it has become an attribute of being, or identity.
Since 1980, the balance that characterized the civilized guilt culture of the period 1660 to 1800 has been re-established, although in adapted forms. Four main areas display the modern achievement: the companionate marriage, the work ethic, liveable cities, and universal human rights.
However, the shadow side of a depressive guilt culture continued to weave its malign threads through the social and political life of the West. Such a culture has the weakness of fostering a brittle fragile self, easy to take offence; and of supporting the indulgent, cossetting society needed by such a self – symbolically, the over-protective mother.
