Guilt

August 5, 2013  GUILT

                                                         Richard H. von Gremmler

   To me, guilt is the most debilitating and restrictive dynamic we will ever experience during our lifetime.  On the bright side though, if effectively identified, and with determination and perseverance, guilt could be utilized as an extremely positive and dynamic stimuli (motivator).

   Guilt will occur as a result of each and every infraction we commit or engage in, with the measure of guilt determinate on the gravity of the respective behavior.  And even when our thought processes are undesirable, we will still experience guilt, as guilt does not discriminate!

   And what makes this phenomenon so precarious and insidious is that, because of our latent ego-defense mechanisms, guilt will take place without conscious contemplation or awareness.  (Refer to my blog on Ego-Defense Mechanisms)

   It’s a very fascinating phenomenon; even if we were to slightly deviate from the actuality of reality while attempting to integrate and comprehend our ever-occurring emotional endeavors and challenges; we will experience some degree of guilt.  And it is absolutely impossible to manage absolute emotional stability.

   We will always be exposed to stress situations (stressors).  And there are no possible means by which to predict or identify all of the influx of stressors.  (Refer to my blog on Stress/Anger Conflicts)

   While just attempting to maintain a modicum of sanity in today’s society, with all of the emotional and physiological challenges and influences, there is no such thing as a flawless emotional existence.  And even though perfection is impossible, everyone has the potential with maintaining a healthy balance of moderation within his or her personal emotional environment.

   I visualize healthy moderation, as adequately functioning within a critical design of emotional conflicts.  The complexity here though is, possessing the emotional prowess and fortitude with accepting and challenging the reality of stress producing criteria; or, depending on our insecurity restrictions, the prospect of avoidance and denial.

    I believe that if we were to primarily function within moderation, our identities (personalities) will flourish.  Outside of this norm, we will experience varying emotional symptoms, such as confused stress related thought processes; with identification of the factors responsible becoming extremely more difficult to comprehend; to the degree of the severity of the infractions, and also the activity of our ego-defense mechanisms.

   Within the realm of moderation, we will be able to acknowledge and resolve most stressors.  If this isn’t realized, whereby denying and rebelling against critical threatening conflicts, the identification of our genuine emotions may inadvertently enter into an obscure world; a phenomenon I refer to as the unconscious inner-Self; also referred as the Psych, Self, etc.  (Refer to my blog on Consciousness/Subconscious/Unconscious inner-Self)

   The acknowledgement, or avoidance, of stress producing situations, will be dependent on our inner-security.  Whereas, with a healthy and secure consciousness and unconscious inner-Self, ego-defense mechanisms will be of no threat for us, as these mechanisms are only activated for stress we feel insecure with and are unable to consciously assimilate.  And this inner-security allows for stress producing thought processes to remain within consciousness for resolution.

   And it’s the previously resolved accomplishments, or restrictive failures, in conjunction with our previous conditioning, which will have a definite effect on our abilities when experiencing present and future life challenges.  (Refer to my blog on Subliminal and Operant Conditioning)

   Outside the margin of a healthy moderation, our emotional world will be pretty much impeded and tumultuous, which will be reflected by the levels of stress relative to our behavior.  And as commented on earlier, this will create mixed emotions, possibly resulting with our emotionally withdrawing and isolating, not only from others, but also ourselves!

   To me, moderation is being able to emotionally enjoy life within a healthy and fruitful equilibrium, with the positive reinforcement to the extent of genuineness, but yet without our becoming manic.  As when waning outside this critical realm of moderation, I believe the recovery potential to become extremely more difficult, with the degree of complexities coinciding with the extent we have accumulated more garbage (stress), and also, to the extent we have deviated from the reality of moderation.  And if this garbage is allowed to build up and not moderated, all unexplained stress situations might be repressed into the unconscious inner-Self, possibly forever!

   When referring to positive reinforcement, this reflects the emotional fulfillment when acknowledging and resolving stress-laden situations.  This reinforcement will actually stimulate our desire for emotional growth, whereby becoming genuinely motivated to seek out and challenge existing and future stressors.

   Whereas, when rebelling against accepting certain stressful criteria, this denial will generate guilt, and again, with the identification of the experiences either suppressed into the subconscious or repressed into the unconscious inner-Self, which may result with creating inhibitions.  And again, because of ego-defense mechanisms, this will also contribute to our rebelling against these inhibitions!

   Observing those individuals always scurrying about appearing to be productive and prosperous, with very little interest, if any, for emotional introspection, interestingly, are actually attempting to consume their time and energy by pursuing anything appearing fulfilling, whether financially or physically.  But the majority of them are not even cognizant as to the emotional depth of the “why” of what it is they are pursuing, yet needing to believe to be beneficial and productive for them, as long as it provides immediate gratification.

   And regardless of the objective (logical) (reason(s) they may contrive, the goals will actually be emotionally driven.  Integrating numerous variables into the equation, such as mentorship indoctrination, positive/negative conditioning and reinforcement, ego-defense mechanisms, etc., these dynamics are responsible for the creation of emotional needs.  (Refer to my blog on Emotional Needs)

   And their conquests may actually be in conflict with what it is they truly want, and not need, to fulfill their emotional desires; because of their lack of awareness as to if they are responding because of emotional, or logical rewards.  The instant gratification will be emotionally fulfilling, but short-lived.  And once the superficial high has worn off, they ill seek out new conquests for another superficial high.

   And this is where we normally get into trouble, misinterpreting the disparity between subjectivity (emotional) and objectivity (logical), whereby rationalizing their assessment.  And it is unbelievably difficult attempting to genuinely identify and understand stress challenges while being vulnerable and manipulated because of emotional needs.  (Refer to my blogs on Control and Manipulation, and Subjectivity vs. Objectivity)

   And as previously explained, if we stray from moderation, the extent of avoidance will correspond with greater intensities of stress.  And unbeknownst to most, unresolved stress will always be responsible for suppressing (inhibiting) our emotions, which can transpire as a result of not only negative, but also positive circumstances.

   Moderation is a somewhat difficult phenomenon to fully comprehend.  Whenever we vacillate or deviate from moderation, we will experience additional stress in conjunction with the existing stressor(s), as a result of guilt.  Whereby, with positive reinforcement, this will improve our emotional stability with being capable acknowledging and being receptive when accepting existing and future stressors.

   Should we ever believe we are experiencing positive reinforcement when outside of the normal (realistic) realm of moderation, we are basically rationalizing.  Thus, the undertakings responsible for our behavior were basically unreal and consciously redesigned, and therefore short-lived and never truly rewarding.  The pursuits and superficial rewards will then affect our emotions, as if riding on a roller coaster, with our feelings reflecting highs and lows.

   The only recourse for this dysfunctional experience would be to first accept the fact that we are just existing (surviving), and then search for the responsible causations; otherwise the seeking for this superficial high will repeat itself indefinitely, and to greater intensities.  And this is where some individuals become severely neurotic, chasing unknowns for the rest of their lives, yet while still appearing normal; but only to himself or herself, and also those with similar personalities.

   The self-challenging journey while exploring our emotional world can be an extremely formidable but exciting adventure.  The disclosure with understanding the basis for our emotional upheaval will expose many previously abandoned latent variables (thought processes), of which will unravel an extreme diversity of undisclosed stress-laden conflicts.

   This conquest necessitates the exploration of our suppressed and repressed emotional demons, which had been concealed within the subconscious and unconscious inner-Self domains, by which to comprehensively understand the relevant dynamics creating our guilt.

   The subconscious is irrelevant to explore at this time, since the lesser stress situations (stressors) will periodically surface from the subconscious into consciousness for review.  But within the unconscious inner-Self domain, this is where all of the more critical issues reside, whereby revealing much greater guilt.

   The only approach with identifying guilt is, feeling and experiencing our genuine internal feelings.  This entails examining the authentic feelings deriving from our emotions, and not as we may have needs for us to believe them to be.  And this requires becoming totally immersed within our feelings, with absolute and untainted focus, regardless of the stress or other internal and external influences.

   It’s the accumulation and build-up of stress situations and guilt, dependent on the extent and severity, which will have the greatest effect on our identities (personalities).  Stress situations will generate normal stress for us, but with the addition of guilt resulting because of our denial, which I believe to generate a greater severity of stress, if not resolved, the avoidance of the original stressor(s) will now be responsible for escalating the stress.  And if the stress producing situations are not monitored or resolved and contained, the discovery of the hidden dynamics may become irreversible and unattainable forever.

   Guilt will always have a direct influence on everyone’s obscured emotional dynamics that have been hidden within the subconscious and unconscious inner-Self environments, which is indirectly responsible for all complicated activity within everyone’s consciousness.  And guilt will always engender a haunting phenomenon; the automatic and involuntary conscious denial and resistance of experiencing specific stress threatening emotional challenges.

   To reiterate, guilt will transpire as a result of all undesirable emotional behavior, both overtly and subliminally.  And the severity of guilt will coincide with the scope of the negativism of each and every infraction.  And there are no conceivable logical avenues by which to avoid this phenomenon, since this unforeseen and involuntary dynamic will always involve our emotions.  And it is absolutely impossible to objectively (logically) control our subjective (emotional) feelings.

   What occurs is, should we ever display anything other than positive intentions or behavior, we will experience guilt.  All behavior will be expressed overtly and also subliminally, which will either be positive or negative, or in conflict, and if not immediately identified and resolved, will result in a degree of guilt.  And as related previously, this also includes positive stimuli, which would result because of denial or failure of the acceptance of the reality of specific positive reinforcement situations or feedback.  The only variations would entail the degrees of stress deriving from the respective conflicts.

   What makes this denial of positive stimuli so intriguing is that, as a result of previous negative conditioning, these individuals will actually feel emotionally threatened whenever exposed to positive stimuli.  And because of their previous conditioning, and depending on the severity, these individuals will reject and deny most or all positive input, and will only be responsive and receptive to negative or pseudo interaction.  Whereby, eventually they will become accustomed with and learn (conditioned) how to become comfortable only when exposed to negative stimuli, whereby, possibly eventually becoming masochistic!

   It can seem extremely lonely and isolating while attempting to examine and understand the depth of our emotional feelings.  Since everyone is conditioned, the willingness and strength to sacrifice the emotional needs for others will be the determining factor as to our capability with identifying stress situations (stressors); or, continuing living our lives as segregated emotionally empty vessels.

   As I stated before, I believe that we will experience guilt whenever we have unfavorable feelings toward others.  We’re not even required to be in their presence or openly display our feelings.  This may seem implausible, but since we will experience guilt because of faulty overt expressions and subliminal behavior, our feelings will still be negative, whereby abusing ourselves.  And again, guilt does not discriminate!

   It can become extremely difficult with being capable of differentiating between genuine emotional intentions, involving overt actions and covert behavior, except that overt expressions will be visually apparent, bur rarely reliable.  Overt behavior will almost always disguise the genuine feelings hidden (covert) within the unconscious inner-Self.

   Whereas, with covert (subliminal) feelings, these will always contain the genuine undisclosed impetus, which stimulate the intentions within consciousness, but unfortunately, not understood on a conscious level.  Consciousness will rarely allow genuine identification of the latent dynamics transpiring from within the unconscious inner-Self environment, unless having achieved a critical degree of Self-awareness.

   Basically, when referring to the dynamics when experiencing stressful stimuli and the activity of ego-defense mechanisms, there’s a transformation which takes place within consciousness, whereby creating a manipulation; altering (disguising) the genuine dynamics of the stress situation, with the criteria repressed into the unconscious inner-Self.

   And what makes this phenomenon so insidious is that; most everyone will be consciously insensitive with the understanding of the dynamics responsible for their conflicts.  And this also includes being clueless as to “if” and “when” he or she is actually experiencing or projecting negativism!

   Every aspect of an individual’s unique identity (personality) will be formulated as a result of their previous and current subliminal conditioning, which is bestowed by the unique identities of the parents, guardians and other influential mentors.  And unfortunately, no one has the option to pick or choose his or her mentors.

   In my simple little world of philosophy, as I consider myself to be extremely simple and uncomplicated, I consider guilt to be the most effective motivational instrument for gaining stress awareness; serving as a stimulus, which can be utilized as a litmus test by which to determine our behavior. 

   And again, this entails experiencing our genuine feelings as to our present emotional disposition.  The quandary here again though is, having the capacity understanding when we are experiencing guilt, and also, the additional conflict with awareness of the presence of our ego-defense mechanisms, which will always be activated involuntarily and without conscious consideration.

   Ego-defense mechanism will involuntarily and automatically activate without conscious awareness, which prevents us from consciously experiencing the presence of the respective stress situation responsible for the stress.  And again, not only will we experience stress resulting from the stressor, but also the additional stress as a result of the guilt from the denial and avoidance!

   Guilt will always result from unfortunate behavior.  Whenever we are negative, or we rebel against or deny stress situations, we will experience guilt.  Even though the conscious mind may not be 

able to identify the stressor(s) on this level, the stress will continue to exist, which will always prevail within the unconscious inner-Self, if not rectified.  And we cannot avoid the guilt unless by our resolving the stress situation personally.

                                           Editing Required