Remorse As Mental Dyspepsia

Abstract

The author writes from the perspective of bio-existentialism and his synthesis, bio-existential therapy. From this viewpoint, remorse is a disorder, capable of disrupting satisfying love, work, play, or sexuality. Remorse as a dyspepsia of the mind, an image taken from the poetry of Ogden Nash, is expanded in terms of the existential concept of the lived-body. Remorse is described as a continuing sour stomach brought about by a dour conscience. Clinical, literary, and existential analyses of remorse as seen in language-revealed body and as obsessive figure on the ground of the bio-energetic body show that remorse is a special case of guilt amounting to a kind of counterfeit guilt, made counterfeit by the absence of true humility and penitence and fueled, as it were, by anger and/or arrogance. Effective treatment of the special case of obsessiveness is detailed, with appropriate cautionary notes, and since remorse is essentially a normal clinical phenomenon, continuing coping methods are suggested.