Dissociation : Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 160-164 : Non-rational guilt in victims of trauma
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Date
1990-09
Authors
Price, Gail M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation
Abstract
The guilt many victims of physical and psychological trauma experience in response to their victimization often contains non-rational content which, when analyzed, is more appropriate to the perpetrator. This non-rational perpetrator guilt is imposed on the victim under two primary conditions: 1) attribution, in which the perpetrator disavows guilt and blames the victim for the victimization; and 2) terror, which results in the victim's rapid incorporation of essentially the entire world view of the perpetrator, including the perpetrator's guilt. Guilt results when some aspect of a moral system is transgressed. There are four aspects of a moral system reflecting different level of guilt and four basic components of guilt within each level. The perpetrator's violation of one aspect of a moral system may be processed by the victim at the level of another aspect, making resolution difficult. Resolution involves careful analysis of the content of the guilt to enable the victim to identify its source.
Description
p. 160-164