Guilt Essay Sample

Sigmund Freud uses the societal function of shaping the behaviors of individuals in the society to conform to the codes of conduct and behavior. He indicates that the society in which we live seeks to restrain our aggressive impulses. While confirming that the society installs a self-control mechanism in the individuals, which he calls the superego, Freud indicate that this internal watchdog masters the desire for aggression. Sigmund Freud also indicates that individuals in the society subdue and redirect their aggression towards their own ego once they are forbidden from expressing their desire for aggression externally. In the theory of guilt, Sigmund Freud indicates that the super ego regulates the actions of the ego in the form of a conscience thereby imposing a sense of need for self-punishment and guilt on the individual.
In explaining the theory of guilt, Sigmund Freud first attempts to explain and account for the cause of guilt in the society. He concludes that guilt arises from the intention to do or doing something bad in the society. Freud indicates that the ego can sufficiently deem the actions or intentions of members of the society as bad whether or not these intentions or actions are bad in absolute moral societal terms. He further disputes the existence of a natural capacity that distinguishes the good and the bad in the society. In his opinion, Freud asserts that the threat of losing the love and trust of the members of the society is the only ‘bad’ thing in the theory of guilt. While explaining the importance and relevance of love in the society, Sigmund Freud indicates that children fear losing the love of their parents. However, for adults, the communities in which they live assume the role played by the parents, thereby governing behavior and shaping guilt.
Sigmund Freud asserts that social life as we know it commenced with the murder of a dictatorial father by his own sons. He also indicates that the memory of this event in genetically inherited. He viewed the evolution viewing the Lamarckian theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. While discussing the establishment of the superego, Sigmund also introduces the existence of bad conscience. The theory explains that the super ego is internal of the individual and omnisciently controls the thoughts and deeds of the individual. The members of the society usually submit themselves to punishment to higher authorities. Therefore, guilt indicates that members of the society who commit most irrational acts or thoughts in the society. In most cases, the guilt of committing or constructing bad thoughts in their minds. Therefore, this explains the fact that the Jews created overly strict commandments to govern the evil thoughts of the members of the society. In most cases, the bad thoughts are the resultant causes of bad deeds in the society.
Sigmund Freud further identified the cause guilt in the society and divided them into two categories. These categories included fear of the super ego, which controlled and regulated the internal interactions in the individual, and the fear of authority, which either designed behavioral conducts or exerted punishment on the wrong doers in the society. In the fear of the super ego, the renunciation of instinct does not liberate the member of the society from the sense of internal guilt, which is continuously perpetuated by the super ego. Therefore, Sigmund identifies the increasing numbers of relationships in the society with increasing civilization. He asserts that the latter reinforces the sense of guilt to maintain its stability and order, and ensures members of the society try to conform to the levels of societal codes of conduct in the dynamic community.
The theory of guilt is an interesting theoretical perspective since while discussing the super ego, aggression, the ego, and guilt, Sigmund Freud explains one of the weirdest dimensions of the lives of the members of the society. He explains that the human sense of guilt as not only entailing the things we do or have done, but also for the things we merely think of doing. Therefore, guilt entails morality. While members of the society try to ensure that they achieve their desires, they also fulfill the general needs of the society. According to Gandhi’s principle, which indicated that we need a society where there is enough for everyone’s need and not everyone’s greed, controlling behavior is very important in ensuring that the members of the society behave in a controlled manner. This principle implies that, every member of the society has an individual independent greed, which the society cannot provide. Therefore, the community super ego would control this. Additionally, people have to operate within the provisions of the community super ego and happiness in order to avoid guilt. However, due to increasing conflicts in the society, using other individuals to control behaviour would be a very difficult encounter. However, self-governance through the super ego ensures that members of the society fear the consequences of the bad things they do, especially if they are related to losing the love and trust of other members of the society.
Analysis of the phrase: "whether one has killed one's father or has abstained from doing so is not really the decisive thing. One is bound to feel guilty in either case, for the sense of guilt is an expression of the conflict due to ambivalence of the external struggle between Eros and the instinct of destruction or death" (p. 96).
Many members of the society have the guilt of committing certain bad things. However, behind the notion of committing the bad things in the society is the bad thought. People usually commit preconceived things because they construct the formations in their minds before actually weighing the options and doing the bad things. Therefore, while assuming that people who commit bad things such as killing one’s father constitutes the guilt in the individual, even abstaining from doing the act, having thought about it equally entails guilt. As earlier indicated in this paper, people fear losing love of their parents and the society for the case of minors and adults respectively. Consequently, the members of the society fear losing the trust and love of killing their father or even thinking of killing their father. Being discovered about the unspoken thoughts is even the more destroying part of the guilt.
The theory of guilt also explains the resultant tensions between the individual instinctual drives and demands of the culture in which these individuals live. Sigmund Freud further indicates that religion is an important sector in the society, which ensures that the balances between individual demands and cultural or societal demands. Religion asserts that it can redeem members of the society from sin and guilt. The individual and societal super ego develops concurrently in the individuals as they grow. While individuals strive to satisfy their personal happiness, they also ensure that they develop and fit into the community in which they live. The conformity with the happiness principle ensures that the individuals satisfy both levels of happiness in the society including the individual and community happiness. While individual happiness entails fulfilling the individual super ego, the community superego ensures that the members of the society are united in a civilized manner.
The theory of guilt generally describes the interplay between the forces governing behavior in the society. While recognizing that members of the society have individual interests, which are sometimes independent of every member of the society, there are commonly shared societal values, which every member of the society is expected to conform to them. The society ensures that every member conducts him or herself with respect for the values of other members of the society, and ensures that individual happiness is also achieved.
However, guilt arises when the individual or community super ego identifies the intention to do bad things, or actual committal of the preconceived thoughts. Freud imagined that, if members of the society would compromise their individual happiness for the fear of the authority or the super ego, then they must have the inside state that relates to the guilt of fearing that, the other members of the society would find out their bad actions or thoughts. Nevertheless, there are shortcomings to this theory since some members of the society do not seem to possess the guilt. These members of the community conduct themselves in manners that suggest that they do not care about community happiness, nor do they fear the guilt of losing the love or facing the punishment of the authority.