Christopher Moore

So I think the message is primarily a positive message.

It's one that says that guilt is a good thing and it's good for us, good for our relationships.

Yeah, I mean, and guilt can be misplaced.

There's no question about that.

And I think in part, you know, what we have to understand is, well, first of all, that guilt is an emotional reaction.

It's more like a gut reaction.

It's not a rational process of thought, right?

We don't figure out, do we have responsibility?

And then if we do, feel guilty about it.

We just feel guilty when bad things happen.

And in part, that's because of the complex of emotions that I talked about.

In part, it's the fear of the being repercussions.

In part, it's the empathy for the person who was harmed.

So those are all the ingredients, if you like, that can lead to guilt.

But the important point is that the guilt is not a rational psychological process, right?

It's a gut reaction.

and that you know there are lots of cases of people who feel guilt when it really wasn't their fault but if the relationship was damaged anyway there still is a tendency to feel guilt and this can happen in everyday situations let's say you know just to give you an example you you were working in an office and you had a friend in the office and you got a promotion and they didn't get a promotion

Right, that's nothing to do with you, you didn't cause that.

You may still feel guilty, right?

Because in some way, your relationship with them may be impacted by the fact that you did well and they didn't.