Guilt: the internal brake that saves civilization from a heavy price

Source: Freud on the price of civilization

"The sense of guilt... is the most severe problem of the development of civilization... The price we pay for the advancement of civilization is the loss of happiness as a result of the increase in the sense of guilt."

(Sigmund Freud, "Civilization and Its Discontents", Chapter 8, 1930)

Explanation: The inner cop: how civilization produces guilt

Freud makes a revolutionary claim: guilt is not the voice of God, but the voice of the inner cop. To live in society, we suppress our violent and sexual instincts, and that energy turns inward and transforms into guilt. Civilization is a factory for mass-producing guilt in order to maintain order. This feeling, Freud argues, operating under the authority of the super-ego, censors pleasure and thereby deprives the ego of its happiness.

Perspective: The brake between human and psychopath

The temptation to break free from guilt is immense, but the result is suicidal. Guilt-free societies didn't become paradise; they became hell. Without the internal brake of guilt, we don't get Nietzsche's "Übermensch"—an ideal of noble, continuous spiritual growth—but an "Übermensch" in the form of Robespierre (the Frenchman), Hitler (the German), Stalin (the Georgian), or Pol Pot (the Cambodian)—mass murderers acting in the name of sacred causes, entirely free of guilt. Guilt is the only brake against barbarism. The psychopath is the only one free from Civilization and Its Discontents (Freud's book), and he is the most dangerous creature on earth. Better to be neurotic and tormented than "sane" and devoid of conscience.

Going Deeper: Guilt as a survival mechanism: between evolution and altruism

In evolutionary biology, Robert Trivers developed the theory of "reciprocal altruism." According to it, the sense of guilt evolved to keep us from cheating fellow tribe members. If I cheat you and feel no remorse, I'll do it again, and then I'll be ostracized from the group and die. Guilt is a survival mechanism designed to repair damaged relationships. Guilt isn't a Freudian "bug," but the "glue" holding human society together. On the other hand, in other evolutionary theories, altruism in nature isn't driven by guilt or any calculation of gain at all, but by pure altruistic impulse. In his book The Price of Altruism, Prof. Oren Harman shows that animals, even down to the level of bacteria, are willing to die for others, even those outside their species. Guilt is replaced by compassion.

Culture: Batman: turning guilt into justice

In the film Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005), young Bruce Wayne carries a heavy burden of guilt over his parents' death, gunned down outside the opera because of his fear of bats. His mentor, Ra's al Ghul, teaches him that guilt and fear are weaknesses only if they aren't channeled. Bruce turns personal guilt into social justice. The bats he once feared, the reason his parents were killed, become his source of power. His strength comes not just from his vast wealth, but from the fact that he embraced his demons and turned them into a weapon against evil.