Concept
Unconscious sense of guilt
A sense of guilt that the subject does not feel as such, expressed instead in failure, self-damaging behaviour, illness that will not yield, or crime committed in order to be punished. Freud described it in Das Ich und das Es (1923) as the tension between ego and super-ego behind the negative therapeutic reaction, and in 1924 equated it, somewhat loosely, with a need for punishment, the core of moral masochism. Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (1930) makes the growing sense of guilt the price of civilisation.
- Broader concept
- Super-ego
- Introduced by
- Sigmund Freud
- Key works
- 3
- Related
- Moral masochism
introduced by
- Sigmund Freud 1907 Freud first spoke of an unconscious consciousness of guilt in his 1907 paper on obsessive actions and religious practices. In Das Ich und das Es (1923) he made it a central clinical problem, behind the negative therapeutic reaction; in 1924 he linked it with a need for punishment, and in 1930 with the discontents of civilisation.
gave rise to
- Moral masochism 1924 Freud explains moral masochism by the unconscious sense of guilt, which he reformulates as a need for punishment at the hands of a parental power, and distinguishes the super-ego's heightened sadism from the ego's own masochism, which seeks the punishment.