Guilt: The Bite of Conscience

by Herant Katchadourian

This is the first study of guilt from a wide variety of psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, six major religions, four key moral philosophers, and the law. Katchadourian explores the ways in which guilt functions within individual lives and intimate relationships, looking at behaviors that typically induce guilt in both historical and modern contexts. He examines how the capacity for moral judgments develops within individuals and through evolutionary processes. He then turns to the socio-cultural aspects of guilt and addresses society's attempts to come to terms with guilt as culpability through the legal process. This personal work draws from, and integrates, material from extensive primary and secondary literature. Through the extensive use of literary and personal accounts, it provides an intimate picture of what it is like to experience this universal emotion. Written in clear and engaging prose, with a touch of humor, Guilt should appeal to a wide audience.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology

392 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Andrew Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book that is as deep as you'd ever want to go on the subject of guilt.

Guilt is a distinctive emotion. However, it shares many similarities to shame, embarrassment and disgust. In the view of the author, the differences among these feelings are overstated in the current psychological literature. But simplistically:

Guilt = crossing a line, felt privately, creates internal tension, cured by fessing up
Shame = falling short of a line, created publicly, leads to self loathing, cured by improving oneself

This book spends plenty of time flushing out these similarities and differences and highlights the importance of culture in determining which of these forces are more important (simplistically: West = guilt dominant, East = shame dominant). Note that I found the lack of adequate demarcation between these concepts a bit unsettling but the author does a good job explaining that they just aren't clear cut. But at the end of the day they all contribute to one common cause: making us "feel bad" for some transgression against a fellow human.

And with this backdrop we've arrived at the purpose for guilt: an internal "cheater detector". We're all better off if we can help each other out in non zero-sum ways (reciprocal altruism is the technical term). But this leaves parties vulnerable to cheating counter parties. Hence the feeling of guilt evolved to motivate the cheater to "come clean" and hence gives us more comfort that our counter party is behaving. This enables us to enjoy maximally strong relationships with our fellow humans and get on with productive lives.

And with this backdrop, such a transgression creates a feeling of guilt (via empathy with the victim's status) which in turn creates a "debt" between the two parties. This "debt" can only be settled by fessing up. Note that the author takes a slight digression during the book to explain the apparent quirkiness of different forms of guilt that don't involve any such transgressions by the one bearing the guilt. These are often cheap shots - and are used by weaker people - when one makes another feel guilty for no fault of their own.

I enjoyed the section digging into the cardinal sins, an historic attempt to identify the definitive list of motivational forces behind such transgressions: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. And I found this line particularly apt in explaining guilt: The voice of conscience is soft, but persistent. We may give up on it, but it never gives up on us.

[Ray A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide-ranging exploration of guilt from a multidisciplinary perspective, including psychology, philosophy, literature, and religion. Well reasoned and written. Accessible and practical.

[Anne Haack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive textbook on guilt. I found the lack of emphasis on the marvelousness of saving grace in true Judeo-Christianity to be a miss.

[Agata Silles · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,5- 4?)