Most chronic guilt is obsessively single-minded, knowing only one stimulus and exactly one response. The stimulus is that you, child or adult, wish to do something for yourself that may disappoint someone else. This could be a true misdeed, such as stealing or behaving in a way that violates a moral principle; far more often, however, it’s nothing more than a desire to act in accordance with an innate impulse, from asserting your boundaries to expressing a negative feeling to even having that feeling. Making no distinction, guilt hurls at you the same epithet for all of them: selfish.
