ABSTRACT
Everyday guilt is what we experience when we are aware of having broken the rules or been in the wrong in some way. Boss (1979) distinguishes between this and neurotic guilt (excessive preoccupation with something that isn’t deserving of condemnation but which our parents might not approve of) and existential guilt that comes from not having taken action when we ought to have. Heidegger argues that we have primordial guilt, because we are always in the world in a state of incompleteness – there is always something more we could achieve or complete. Existential guilt is a consequence, therefore, of the human being existing as possibility. As there is no essence to the human being, one is free to realise possibilities that are available, or one may fail to do so. As we always ‘lag behind’ (Cohn, 1997) our possibilities, our failure to realise them provokes existential guilt.
