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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 a new concept. Psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn coined this term, but the idea itself predates him. Freud referred to it as punitive guilt, while Melanie Klein discussed persecutory guilt. I prefer Fairbairn's term because, as explained in Part 1, it’s not real guilt. Regardless of the name, it’s a

"Why do I feel guilty when I've done nothing wrong?" is a common question I hear from many people especially counselling 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. Unde