Guilt and Neurosis

Some people have developed psychiatric problems from an excess of guilt. But an abnormal show of guilt does not prove that there is no normal guilt at the basis and foundation. A woman once came to see me about her brother. She told me he had been under psychiatric help for three years and had wasted away to about one hundred pounds. He looked almost like a ghost when he came to see me. He was so thin. I asked him to talk to me for about forty-five minutes and promised not to interrupt him.  At the end of forty-five minutes I asked him, 'How much did you steal?' He replied, 'I didn't steal anything.' I persisted, 'How much did you steal?' 'I didn't tell you I stole.' 'How much was it?' He gave in and confessed, 'Three thousand dollars. How did you know I stole?' I replied, 'You told me that you always wiped off whatever money you put into the collection box.  I thought perhaps you were involved with dirty money.' Three years of psychiatric treatment had failed to uncover the real problem, guilt, resulting from thievery.