Psychoanalysis An Experience Of Guilt Or Shame - Essay Example

Psychoanalysis An Experience Of Guilt Or Shame Psychoanalysis, as depicted by Sigmund Freud, is the process through which an investigation is taken of the mental processes, virtually undeterminable through any other method, enabling a remedy for neurotic disorders (International dictionary of psychoanalysis 2005, p.1362). I have chosen the topic of psychoanalysing an experience of guilt or shame which I have experienced, as I am highly interested and fascinated by the processes that determine human behaviour and responses. What I have attempted to put down in this paper analyses the vast experiences of guilt that I have, or may have not experienced during my lifetime. However, I have conducted extensive research into guilt, also easily interchangeable with shame, that may apply to us even if we have never realized it yet. The processes and findings have been truly fascinating, from a psychological standpoint. Experiencing a moment of guilt or shame is no big phenomenon, since all humans would experience such emotions at some point in their lives. What I am particularly interested in, is the responses and behaviour of an individual, as well as the body language signs they give off which would enable me, as well as other, with a decent amount of accuracy, to determine whether that individual feels guilt or shame, and what I could do to help such people overcome such an intense state of mind if guilt has been aroused through unnecessary means. Guilt and shame The feeling of guilt can manifest within you in many ways. You may feel guilty in negative circumstances where you feel responsible for what has happened, either to you, or others. You may have committed a few misdeeds, and now the regret of such deeds have created guilt within you (Understanding Guilt). The effects of guilt which may range from mild uneasiness to deep anguish, function as an alert mechanism, that focuses our mind to set things right (Herant 2009, 4). A simple example of myself having experienced such variations in uneasiness, when refusing friends who plan an outing, only to join another group of friends with whom I have a relatively much less acquaintance history. Guilt is also classified as shame by psychologists, as they are based on moral social judgements as to whether once should behave in one way or the other (Herant 2009, p. 7). Herant states that guilt and shame do not arise within an individual until about the age of three, and the state of being in guilt or shame is quite dissimilar to other emotions such as fear. For example, fear may help a person to avoid danger, but guilt, which is a self conscious emotion would manifest in those situations to achieve more complex social goals (p.7). Guilt can arise out of numerous behaviours such as lying, stealing, cheating, causing pain and many more. The term “sense of guilt” was introduced by Freud in his article, “Obsessive actions and religious practices” (1907b). He distinguished guilt into two categories, that is, the fear of authority and the fear of the superego. Guilt would be created as ones ego would submit to the superego’s demands, or else one would lose their close relatives’ love and protection, which I will point out later. Grinberg (1965, p. 29,2-3) has also be able to distinguish “persecutory guilt” from “depressive guilt”. This in turn produces a clearer understanding of the dynamic sense of guilt, and allows us to link object relationships and reactions, linking different stimuli to the various levels of mourning. Persecutory guilt manifest quite early on in life, where ones ego is rather immature and weak, or in the simple abstinence of depressive guilt. This form of guilt does indeed play an extremely vital role in moulding our subsequent psychology, ambitions and behaviours (Grinberg). The state of being in a depressive guilt exists when mourning, where more concern is placed on the self and objects. An even more in depth look into guilt would be leading into unconscious guilt, where there is a struggle between the ego and the superego. Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis (1973) implied this state of mind, where, in extreme cases, there is absolutely no presence of any conscious guilt. Body Language. When experiencing guilt or shame, our body can give out various indicators of uneasiness. For example, when being lied to, the guilty would normally make little or no eye contact. The body itself of the deceiver would become stiff and near motionless, and any attempt to appear relaxed would result in shrugs (Lieberman 1998, p.1). Gestures would not match up with the words being spoken, with a delay, indicating some form of guilt on behalf of the speaker. Shame can be experienced in other people through psychological profiling as well (Lieberman). A deceiver would be more interested in appearing innocent to you, in order to hide their guilt, rather than attempting to make you understand their position. A guilty person would also normally take a defensive stance to any accusation, whereas, an innocent individual would go on the offensive. In such cases, there may even be objects placed between the two parties, or even the folding of arms. What can guilt or shame do to you. The effects of guilt seem to be a counter to the effect of an anti-social behaviour, and invoke a more pro social behaviour within an individual. This provides for a compensatory activity in order to repair social bonds, that may have been previously damaged. However, in the event of an absence of such compensation, guilt may induce self punishment through self denial, in a widely held conviction that self punishment would lead to absolution, known as the Dobby Effect (Marcel et al. 2009, pp. 118-122). The understanding of guilt manifests not from a singular dependant source, rather it comes from a mixture of instincts, hereditary, biological, social and other variations, which are wired into our intuitions (Roberto 2004, p. 56). Thus, our reaction towards an instance of shame would lead us into leaking out various emotional stressors as different levels, unique to each individual, indicating others to believe that we may be concealing an inconvenient truth. Overcoming guilt For certain religious people, confession could be one way of overcoming guilt. For example, Christians would confess to priests. Although it may seem to provoke anxiety from a third persons perspective, people do claim that it is worth doing (Carrell 2008, p. 155). Confession of a misdeed and its acceptance does indeed lead to liberation. I myself have experienced this, when I confessed to my friend about ignoring him because I needed to spend time with another friend. After he completely understood my situation and taking this as if nothing happened did relieve me off such great stress of lying to someone trusted me. Unexpressed emotions are responsible for the rise in guilty feelings, as well as others such as depression and anxiety (Carell p. 156). Which is why, when expressed to another person would result in liberation of some form. Your confessor could be anyone, from your parents to your best friend. Another approach to overcoming guilt would be in learning to claim your own emotional territory (Carell p. 163). The initial process would be to realise a healthy sense of self, where your own needs are equally important to that of others. Language plays an important role here, in illuminating yourself to others in protecting your emotional boundaries. There are various times where a guilty sense may enter ourselves when we refuse to help others when requested. This may be due to our cultural background, where responding to requests are obligatory. However, if we have grasped a strong sense of our emotional boundaries, we are able to suppress such unnecessary guilt states, where in fact, people might simply take advantage of you, as they expect you to deliver each time a request is made. Conclusion The guilty conscience is truly a remarkable state of mind to experience. It most certainly is not the most pleasurable one. It is more similar to a sense of urgency to relieve yourself of some past fallacies. Guilt ranges in its intensity, with the greater the misdeed leading to the greater guilt. From my experience, when in a guilty mode, my senses to the external world would concentrate on appearing innocent no matter what the subject matter of any conversation is. I believe, that guilt is a form of a defence mechanism, to protect oneself from the repercussions of a wrong action, but also embeds an emotional state within the inner memory of the sub conscious, causing a stronger resistance towards actions of similar nature or effective in the future. We all can overcome the effects of guilt, at varying degrees, with the best approach simply being in living a “clean and healthy life”. References Allain de Mijolla (Editor in Chief). International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, 2005. Print. David J Lieberman. Never be lied to again, 1998. Print.. Grinberg, Leo´ n. (1965). Deux sortes de culpabilite´: leurs relations avec les aspects du deuil normal et pathologique. Revue franc¸aise psychanalyse, 29, 2–3. Herant A Katchadourian. Guilt: The bite of conscience. Stanford university press, 2009. P.4. Laplanche, Jean, and Pontalis Jean-Bertrand. (1973). The language of psycho-analysis (Donald Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia. Understanding Guilt, 6 May 2012. Web. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). W. W. Norton: New York. (Original work published 1971) Nelissen, Rob M. A.; Zeelenberg, Marcel. When guilt evokes self-punishment: Evidence for the existence of a Dobby Effect. Emotion, Vol 9(1), Feb 2009, 118-122. Roberto Speziale-Bagliacca . Guilt: Revenge, Remorse and Responsibility after Freud. Psychology Press, 2004. Print. Sigmund Freud. Obsessive actions and religious practices. SE, 9: 115–127. Susan Carell. Escaping Toxic Guilt.: Five proven steps to free yourself from guilt for good. McGraw Hill Professional, 2008. Print. Read More