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For the legal use of "Guilt" see Guilt (law) In criminal law, guilt is entirely externally defined by the state, or more generally a “court of law. ...

Guilt is the emotion or belief that one has done something wrong. From a legal perspective it can also refer to the condition of having done something legally wrong, regardless of how one feels about it. Emotional redirects here. ...

Definitions of guilt

In psychology and ordinary language, guilt is an affective state in which one experiences conflict at having done something one believes one should not have done (or, conversely, not having done something one believes one should have done). It gives rise to a feeling that does not go away easily, driven by conscience. Sigmund Freud described this as the result of a struggle between the ego and the superego parental imprinting. Guilt and its causes, merits, and also demerits is a common theme in psychology and psychiatry. It is often associated with depression. Conscience is a faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral values, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was a Jewish-Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... The ego, superego, and id are the tripartite divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory compartmentalizing the sphere of mental activity into three energetic components: the ego being the organized conscious mediator between the internal person and the external identity. ...

Causes of guilt

Some thinkers have theorized that guilt is used as a tool of social control. Since guilty people feel they are undeserving, they are less likely to assert their rights and prerogatives. Thus, those in power seek to cultivate a sense of guilt among the populace, in order to make them more tractable.^{[citation needed]} Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, in terms of greater sanctions and rewards. ...

Some evolutionary psychologists have said that guilt is a rational human emotion selected by evolution.^{[citation needed]} If a person feels guilty when he harms another or even fails to reciprocate kindness, he is more likely not to harm others or become too selfish; in this way, he reduces the chances of retaliation by members of his tribe and thereby increases his survival prospects, and those of the tribe. As with any other emotion, guilt can be manipulated to control or influence others.

On the other side of the evolutionary fence, Phil Roberts, Jr. has offered a perspective in which guilt is viewed as a maladaptive byproduct of the evolution of rationality:

Guilt (the superego) is a maladaptive manifestation of our need to justify our existence, in this case by conforming to a shared subconscious theory of rationality in which 'being rational' is simply a matter of 'being objective', as exemplified in the moral maxim, 'Love (intrinsically value) your neighbor as you love (intrinsically value) yourself'. Although none of us can actually measure up to this standard, we nonetheless come to experience feelings of worthlessness (guilt) along with a corresponding reduction in the will to survive (depression) when we deviate from the standard to an unreasonable degree. In other words, a capacity for guilt (having a conscience) is a part of the price we humans have had to pay for having become a little too objective (too rational) for our own good.[1]

Another common notion is that guilt is assigned by social processes such as a jury trial, i.e. that it is a strictly legal concept. Thus the ruling of a jury that O.J. Simpson or Julius Rosenberg was "guilty" or "not guilty" is taken as an actual judgement by the whole society that they must act as if they were so. By corollary, the ruling that such a person is "not guilty" may not be so taken, due to the asymmetry that assumes one is innocent until proven guilty and prefers to take the risk of freeing a guilty party over convicting innocents. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Jury. ... Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947), commonly known as O. J. Simpson and also just by his initials O.J. and his nickname The Juice, is a retired American football player who achieved stardom at the collegiate and professional levels. ... The Rosenbergs Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (1915-1953) and Julius Rosenberg (1918-1953) were American Communists who captured and maintained world attention after being tried, convicted, and executed for spying for the Soviet Union. ... Presumption of innocence is an essential right that the accused enjoys in criminal trials in all countries respecting human rights. ... Lets talk about risk control strategies, anyone with more information and willing to share, please do so. ...

Still others -- often, but not always, theists of one type or another -- believe that the origin of guilt comes from violating universal principles of right and wrong. In most instances, people who believe this also acknowledge that, even though there is proper guilt from doing 'wrong' instead of doing 'right,' people endure all sorts of guilty feelings that don't stem from violating universal moral principles.

Collective guilt

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

See also: Collective responsibility (doctrine)

Collective guilt is the controversial collectivist idea that a group of humans can bear guilt above and beyond the guilt of particular members, and hence an individual holds responsibility for what other members of his group have done, even if he himself hasn't done this. Advanced systems of criminal law accept the principle that guilt shall only be personal. This attitude is not usually shared by primitive systems of law. Assumption of collective responsibility is common for feud. Such systems tend to judge the guilt of persons by their associations, classifications or organizations, which often gives rise to racial, ethnic, social and religious prejudices.^[1] Collective guilt is regarded by some as impossible because it seems to presuppose that collections of humans can have traits, such as intentions and knowledge, that strictly speaking are claimed to be truly possessed only by individuals.^{[citation needed]} The principle of collective guilt is totally denounced in libertarian social thinking. However, there are those who consider such judgements on collective guilt to be overly reductionistic and accept the existence of collective guilt, collective responsibility, etc.^{[citation needed]} Sometimes the idea of collective guilt can be a form of associaltion fallacy. Humans seem to have a natural tendency to attribute collective guilt, usually with tragic results. History is filled with examples of a wronged man who tried to avenge himself, not on the person who has wronged him, but on other members of the wrong-doer's family, or ethnic group, or religion, or nation, or tribe, or army. Likewise collective punishment is often practiced in different settings, including schools (punishing a whole class for the actions of a single unknown pupil) and, more transcendentally, in situation of war, economic sanctions, etc, presupposing the existence of collective guilt. Image File history File links Splitsection. ... For the British Parliamentary discipline, see Collective responsibility Collective Responsibilty is a concept, or doctrine, according to which people are to be held responsible for other peoples actions by tolerating, ignoring, or harboring them, without actively collaborating in these actions. ... Collectivism, in general, is a term used to describe a theoretical or practical emphasis on the group, as opposed to (and seen by many of its opponents to be at the expense of) the individual. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. ... In criminal law, guilt is entirely externally defined by the state, or more generally a “court of law. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata — De homines 1622. ... An association fallacy is a type of logical fallacy which asserts that qualities of one are inherently qualities of another, merely by association. ...

The idea of collective guilt, however, became popular in Western World since the 1960s, as many historical injusties, including e.g. slavery in the United States, has been perceived by intelligentsia as faults of the society requiring retribution on behalf of those who had nothing to do with them (see e.g. Reparations for slavery and White guilt).^[2][3][4][5] The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Terrorism is commonly rationalized by its practitioners on ideas of collective guilt and responsibility.^[6] Many nations have laws holding corporations, but not the individual decision-makers within them, responsible for certain kinds of acts. For example, in the United States corporations can be fined for violating pollution laws, but the individuals who actually ordered and directed the polluting activity may not themselves be regarded as having broken any laws, since they act as corporate officers on behalf of the shareholders. This is generally known as the "corporate veil". Terrorist redirects here. ... The corporate law concept piercing (Lifting) the corporate veil describes a legal decision where an officer, director, or shareholder of a corporation is held liable for the debts of the corporation despite the general principle that those persons are immune from suits in contract or tort that otherwise would only...

A recent occasion is the view of Serbs as generally guilty for the Yugoslav conflicts, most notably the Kosovo war, on which occasion the chief UN mediator in the midst of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina noted that Serbs are guilty for the conflicts in Kosovo, and that Serbia should pay it by losing Kosovo.^{[citation needed]} Languages Serbian Religions Predominantly Serbian Orthodox Christian Related ethnic groups Other Slavic peoples, especially South Slavs See Cognate peoples below Serbs (Serbian: Срби or Srbi) are a South Slavic people who live mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia. ... The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts (a civil war followed by an international war) in the southern Serbian province called Kosovo (officially Kosovo and Metohia), part of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. ... Kosovo (Albanian: Kosovë or Kosova, Serbian: Косово и Метохија, transliterated Kosovo i Metohija; also Космет, transliterated Kosmet) is a province in southern Serbia which has been under United Nations administration since 1999. ...

Cultural views of guilt

Traditional Japanese society and Ancient Greek society are sometimes said to be "shame-based" rather than "guilt-based" in that the social consequences of "getting caught" are seen as more important than the individual feelings or experiences of the agent. This may lead to more of a focus on etiquette than ethics as understood in Western civilization. This leads some to question why then we would adapt the word ethos from Ancient Greek when their norms are so different from ours. The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the years, from the countrys original Jomon culture to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America. ... The Temple to Athena, the Parthenon Ancient Greece is a period in Greek history that lasted for around three thousand years. ... It has been suggested that the section Shame campaign from the article Smear campaign be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Office etiquette be merged into this article or section. ... Ethics (via Latin from the Ancient Greek moral philosophy, from the adjective of ēthos custom, habit), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of values and customs of a person or group. ... Ethos (ἦθος) (plurals: ethe, ethea) is a Greek word originally meaning the place of living that can be translated into English in different ways. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ...

Christianity and Islam inherit most notions of guilt from Judaism, Persian and Roman ideas, mostly as interpreted through Augustine who adapted Plato's ideas to Christianity. The Latin word for guilt is culpa, a word sometimes seen in law literature, e.g. in mea culpa meaning "my fault (guilt)". The Latin word for authority assumes a high degree of responsibility, the English word "province" being a close equivalent. Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... Muslims performing salah (prayer) Kaaba and Masjid al-Haram in Mecca Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion originating with the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th-century Arab religious and political figure. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Persia is the historical and alternative name for the state of Iran in the European languages. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... “Augustinus” redirects here. ... PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Authority- is a very talented rocknroll band out of Columbia, S.C. This power rock trio has its roots in rock, funk, hardcore, and a dash of hip hop. ... A province is a territorial unit, almost always a country subdivision. ...

Guilt in literature

Guilt was a main theme in John Steinbeck's East of Eden, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," and many other works of literature. It was a major theme in all works by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is a nearly universal concern of novelists, who explore inner life and secrets. John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. ... For other uses, see East of Eden (disambiguation). ... Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, IPA: , sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, Dostoievsky, or Dostoevski  ) (November 11 [O.S. October 30] 1821 – February 9 [O.S. January 28] 1881) is considered one of two greatest prose writers of Russian literature, alongside close contemporary Leo Tolstoy. ... Crime and Punishment (Russian: Преступление и наказание) is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments in 1866,[1] and was later published as a novel. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath by Théodore Chassériau. ... Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, editor, critic and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. ... Illustration by Harry Clarke, detail from He shrieked once -once only The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, which was first published in James Russell Lowells The Pioneer in January 1843; Poe republished it in his periodical The Broadway Journal for August 23, 1845. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864) was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation). ... Secrecy is the condition of hiding information from others. ...

Dealing with guilt

Guilt can sometimes be remedied by punishment (a common action and advised or required in many legal and moral codes), by forgiveness (as in transformative justice), or by sincere remorse (as with confession in Catholicism or restorative justice). Guilt can also be remedied through cognition, the understanding that the source of the guilty feelings was illogical or irrelevant. Law does not usually accept the agent's self-punishment, but some ancient codes did so: in Athens the accused was permitted to propose his or her own remedy, which might in fact be a reward, while the accuser proposed another, and the jury chose between. This forced the accused to effectively bet on his support in the community - as Socrates did when he proposed "room and board in the town hall" as his fate. He lost, and drank hemlock, a poison, as advised by his accuser. Look up Punishment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A legal code is a moral code enforced by the law of a state. ... Forgiveness it is the mental, emotional and/or spiritual process of ceasing to feel resentment or anger against another person for a perceived offence, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution[[:Template:American Psychological Association. ... Transformative justice is a general philosophical strategy for responding to conflicts. ... People feel remorse when reflecting on their actions that they believe are wrong. ... Modern confessional in the Church of the Holy Name, Dunedin, New Zealand. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      As a Christian ecclesiastical... Restorative justice is a theory of criminal justice that focuses on crime as an act against another individual or community rather than the state. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Athens (ancient Greek: αἱ Ἀθῆναι (plural), evolving into the modern αι Αθήναι in Greek until recently, and η Αθήνα nowadays (IPA : singular see below: Origin of the name ) is both the largest and the capital city of Greece, located in the Attica periphery. ... In the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal charge of having committed a serious criminal offense. ... A bounty is often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. ... The word Accuser can mean:- Accuser (fictional Star Wars spaceship) Someone who accuses Category: ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This page is about the ancient Greek philosopher. ... Species Conium chaerophylloides (Thunb. ... The skull and crossbones symbol (Jolly Roger) traditionally used to label a poisonous substance. ...

People lacking all sense of guilt

Psychopaths typically exhibit a "lack of remorse or guilt" in the face of wrongdoing. This is seen by psychologists as part of a lack of moral reasoning in comparison with the majority of humans, an inability to evaluate situations in a moral framework and an inability to develop emotional bonds with other people. Psychopathy (pronounced in General American), not to be confused with psychosis, is a term derived from the Greek psyche (mind) and pathos (suffering), and was once used to denote any form of mental illness. ...

References

1. ^ Wright, Quincy (1949). International Law and Guilt by Association. The American Journal of International Law 43.4, 746-755.
2. ^ Thomas Sowell (2007). Aftermath of the 1960s?.
3. ^ Posner, Eric A. & Adrian Vermeule (2003). Reparations for Slavery and Other Historical Injustices. Columbia Law Review 103.3, 689-748.
4. ^ Wenger, Kaimipono D. (2004). Causation and Attenuation in the Slavery Reparations Debate
5. ^ Lilly, J. Robert & Richard A. Ball (1982). A Critical Analysis of the Changing Concept of Criminal Responsibility. Criminology 20 (2), 169–184.
6. ^ Devine, Philip E. & Robert J. Rafalko (1982). On Terror. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 463, International Terrorism (Sep., 1982), pp. 39-53.

The Columbia Law Review is a law review edited and published entirely by students at Columbia Law School. ...

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Guilt

• Catholic guilt
• Good faith
• Helpfulness
• Shame
• Conscience
• Survivor guilt
• Fear
• Learnt or innate
• Freud
• Nietzsche's critique of the "bad conscience"

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... Catholic guilt- is the idea that feelings of remorse, self-doubt, or personal conflict are created when an individual who is raised as a Catholic, engages in or having fantasies about acts that the Catholics consider sinful. ... Good faith, or in Latin bona fides, is the mental and moral state of honesty, conviction as to the truth or falsehood of a proposition or body of opinion, or as to the rectitude or depravity of a line of conduct, even if the conviction is objectively unfounded. ... In social psychology, the everyday concept of helpfulness is technically defined as (1) the property of providing useful assistance, and (2) friendliness evidenced by a kindly and helpful disposition [syn: kindliness]. For many years, social psychologists have been searching for answers to these questions: Why, and when, will people help... It has been suggested that the section Shame campaign from the article Smear campaign be merged into this article or section. ... Conscience is a faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral values, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action. ... Survivor guilt, otherwise known as survivor syndrome, is the mental condition that results from the appraisal that a person has done wrong by surviving traumatic events such as combat, natural disasters, or even surviving a lay-off in a work place. ... Fear is a powerful biological feeling of unpleasant risk or danger, either real or imagined. ... Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ...

Further reading

• Guilt in Think On These Things. Retrieved on 2006-02-16. by Gary Gilley
• The Innocent Bear the Guilt for the Guilty Ones. Retrieved on 2007-05-10. by Gerd Altendorff translation by Jochen Reiss
• Branscombe, Nyla R.; Bertjan Doosje (2004). Collective Guilt: International Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521520835.