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In Part 1 , I explained the difference between True Guilt   and Moral Defence . Now, we’ll explore where this painful, false guilt comes from and why it persists. The Moral Defence isn’t new. Psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn   coined this terms but the idea itself came before. Freud called it punitive guilt and Melanie Klein talked about persecutory guilt . I prefer Fairbairn's term because—as explained in part 1 — its not a real guilt. Whatever the name, it’s a common root o

"Why do I feel guilty when I've done nothing wrong?" is a common question I hear from many people especially psychotherapy clients. This split state of feeling guilty for no reason is a confusing and often stems from the fusing of two distinct psychological processes—one I call True Guilt , the other a pseudo-guilt we’ll call the Moral Defence . In this first part we’ll compare and contrast them both and in part 2 we’ll dig into what is Moral Defence  and where it comes from