Guilt, shame, and anxiety are emotional experiences that combine feelings, thoughts, and judgments or values and that drive us toward inhibiting ourselves or making choices that we did not initially wish to make. When we say to ourselves, “I should feel guilty when I do something selfish,” we are naming a feeling. We are also connecting the feeling of guilt to thoughts about how we should and should not behave. We are further making a judgment or asserting a value that it is bad and selfish to do what we are contemplating. Ultimately, this combination of feelings, thoughts,and judgments is likely to lead to a choice, such as “I won't be selfish” or “I won't think selfish thoughts.” This can lead to a specific decision, such not as to grab candy from another child or, more positively, to share candy with another child.
Our complex emotional processes can be negative, as in hatred, or positive, as in love. They can be self-suppressive, as in guilt, shame, and anxiety. They can be relatively unconscious or conscious. We are probably most effective and happiest when conscious positive emotions are motivating us.
Culled from Guilt, Anxiety and Shame by Peter R. Breggin
Abdulkareem,Taoheedah Kehinde
Comments
Post a Comment