What's the matter with "Guilt"?

 It's not uncommon for people to seek help from a therapist to alleviate the guilt that results from something(s) they have done which they do not approve. They see therapy as resembling confession to the priest and expect to be given a punishment commensurate with their "crime",  Somehow they have come to the belief that causing themselves pain (or allowing others to cause it) wipes out their slate and they will be guilt-free.

The notion that you can reduce your guilt through suffering is clearly absurd.  Whatever harm you have done to yourself or others "proves" that you deserve suffering. More suffering is better than less, and the history of religions is witness to that belief. The focus is on the reduction of the feeling itself, not on attempting to repair the damage done to self or others.

Somehow the guilty person believes that suffering and self-blame is enough to undo the bad behavior.  Is the world a better place as a result of your pain?  Exactly how does this take place?  If you take the time and trouble to consider this belief, its absurdity becomes obvious. The bad behavior is ignored. Only the relief from guilt matters. 

Guilt is the recognition that you have done something damaging to your world, combined with the belief that if you can manage to feel badly enough, your guilt will go away.This belief is clearly self-serving. You have done damage. How exactly does your personal pain take that damage away?

Following this line of thought results in the recognition that your interest is not in making the world a better place, but in a magical belief that there is somewhere a cosmic accountant who keeps track of the good and the bad that we do, and that we can bribe him/her/it with a gift of additional misery to clean our record.  Seeking help in therapy to get rid of therapy is exactly the same reasoning: a magical cleansing.

What the guilty person has not done is recognize and take responsibility for what he has done, and try his best to do enough good that the bad is countered. If you break something, fix it.  If you can't fix it, do enough good that you have more than made up for it.

If you follow this rule, you will leave the world better than you found it. Punishing yourself does not typically result in benefiting you. And it certainly does not help the people affected by your behavior. 

 And shame and guilt are not illnesses.  They are both learned and built in, and they serve a useful and valuable purpose:  to encourage people to adhere to the rules of their tribe. Don't expect your insurance company to reimburse you for feeling guilty or ashamed of bad behaviors.