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    %PAIN SELF REJECTION GUILT SHAME RESPONSIBILITY 880901

     Guilt   with   shame  is  self  rejection  which   is
essentially disintegrative.  Guilt with shame cannot be an
integrative   process   because  it   is   essentially   a
disintegrative  process.   In guilt with shame  self tears
self apart out of a perverted sense of responsibility to a
disintegrative ideal.  Guilt is with  shame  psychological
hari-kiri,      psychological    dis-embowelment;      the
psychological  throwing away of part of  self  by  another
part of self.  Hari-kiri is not an integrative process, it
is a disintegrative process.  People who promote guilt all
substitute  guilt  with shame,   are  guilty  of promoting
personal   and communal  disintegration.   Why do they not
feel guilty for promoting disintegration?  Because they do
not recognize  disintegration  as a sign of  perversion of
values  and  ideals.    They  do not  feel  any  sense  of
responsibility  to  promote  either personal  or  communal
integrity.

     People who  promote  guilt  are  willing to sacrifice
both  personal  and communal integrity in the  service  of
other ideals and values.  They do not recognize that it is
impossible  to openly and publicly defend such  sacrifices
in  any  reasonable  way.  The  promotion of guilt must be
through indirect and tacit means, so that the absurdity of
the  promotion is not evident.   If the dynamics of  guilt
are  recognized as disintegrative,   then  self  rejection
which leads to  personal  and  communal  disintegration is
undermined.     Promoters   of   guilt   undermine   clear
recognition  of  the  dynamics  of guilt  as  a  means  of
promoting guilt as a manipulative tool of their collusion.

     Collusions  show no respect for personal or  communal
integrity,   for collusions cannot survive where there  is
personal  and communal integrity.   Guilt and the fear  of
genuine  guilt are potent tools of collusions in  games of
mutual self deception.

     People who lack self confidence and lack self  esteem
seek  to  avoid fearful situations;  they  run  away  from
challenges.  They do not have the courage to face reality.
Rather  than  face reality honestly,  they play  games  of
mutual self deception, and require each other to help each
other in games of mutual self deception.  They do not have
the  courage to do violence to truth by themselves;   they
need help to violate truth.  To successfully run away from
truth, they lay on each other the responsibility to reject
themselves and each other person who fails to reject those
of them who fail  to  help  each other deceive themselves.
The disintegrative consequences of the deal are hidden  as
part  of  the  game of  mutual  self deception.    Through
rationalizations the game of mutual self deception appears
to  be  a reasonable process;  one worthy of  respect  and
institutional support.

     When  institutions promote guilt it is more difficult
to  deal  with guilt in integrative ways  than  when  only
isolated  individuals promote  guilt.    Institutionalized
guilt  plays a central role in many processes of  personal
and communal disintegration.   The process of personal and
communal disintegration is well advanced when institutions
of liberation promote guilt as a manipulative tool.    All
too  often religious and educational institutions  promote
guilt.    Such promotions are part of collusive  processes
which  do  violence to truth,  and so do violence to  both
personal  and  communal  integrity.    Such   institutions
undermine the integrities upon which they depend for their
survival.  They commit institutional hari-kiri.

     Religious,   political and  educational  institutions
often resort to  collusive  games of mutual self deception
to defend their convictions  against attack.  They require
members  of  the organizations to  reject  themselves  and
others who call into question any of the "truths"  of  the
organization.     Policies   of   excommunication,    dis-
fellowship, rejection, banishment are sometimes formalized
in  efforts  to  defend  disintegrative  beliefs.     Such
policies  are  parts  of collusive games  of  mutual  self
deception.  They promote feelings  of  guilt  in the lives
of   members   who    dare   to   consider   calling   the
institutional "truths" into question.

     Guilt  is  the  tool by which collusions  police  the
private lives of their membership.   Guilt is the  process
by  which  collusions  undermine  the  integrity  of   the
participants  and the communities which fall victim to the
dishonesty  which  is essential to apparent success  in  a
collusive community.

     In   collusive   communities  appearances  are   more
important  than realities,  and appearances are traded for
realities  until  people  no longer  know  the  difference
between appearances and realities.  Those people who excel
in appearing respectable are regarded as successful,  even
as they and their community are internally disintegrating.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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