TEXT D
Clinicians at a recent psychoanalytic conference brought forth interesting evidence that guilt, far from being the psychic impediment generally conceived, has the potential to inspire creativity, and enhance sensitivity.
Tests of prison inmates have shown significantly low scores on guilt scales, measured by psychologist - researcher Donald L. Mosber. The Mosher scales measure the tendency to feel guilt in three forms: sex guilt, hostility guilt, and general guilt, called morality conscience. Prisoners who had committed sex crimes scored low on sex guilt; those who were imprisoned the violent crimes scored low on hostility guilt; those incarcerated for crimes against property scored low on morality conscience.
Other studies conducted in the armed forces corroborate the findings that men accused of brutality to- ward those they command feel little or no sense of remorse or guilt, but tend to defend vigorously the "correctness" of their actions.
That guilt can be a lonely and lacerating burden, as has long been known. The ancient Greeks under- stood the redemptive feelings and cathartic benefits of watching the tragic hero struggle with guilt. Hamlet: plots to "catch the conscience of the King. "O’Neill re -creates the ancient themes and adds to them con- temporary guilt. The Judeo - Christian ethic transmits this heavy burden, commencing with" original sin" and continuing with the need for confession and atonement.
Although in the past many psychoanalysts, joined by a recent spate of authors, seem to have been dedicated to eliminating the sense of guilt, some clinicians hold that guilt is the necessary price for socialization.
Still others agree with Dr. Karl Menninger in the value of appropriate, or rational, guilt, and feel that a prime objective of therapeutic intervention should be to help the patient differentiate between guilt feelings that are unwarranted and unfounded, based perhaps on distorted perceptions of past occurrences, and those which are well -founded responses to real situations. The child, it is felt, should not be made to feel guilty a- bout exploring his body, just as the adult should not be ashamed of his or her sexuality. But this freedom must not be viewed as license. When tile individual’s desires or needs can be fulfilled without coming into conflict with societal needs, the albatross of guilt can be shed.
It is this new approach, this compromise, which we find surfacing in twentieth - century literature. Herzog and Willy Loman battle their needless guilt, and their experiences help us all to cope.
A point that the passage emphasizes concerning guilt is, by inference, that______.