Pangs of conscience: definition, examples. Remorse

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

What is conscience? Why can't every person continue to live in peace, having done a bad deed or not having done a good one? Why do we get remorseful? How to deal with them? For a long time, scientists could not find answers to these questions.

Initially, it was believed that pangs of conscience are the product of the activity of a certain area of the human brain, which is allegedly located in the forehead. As it turned out, the reason really lies in our body: not only in the gray matter, but also in the genes. In addition, the upbringing of the individual, his character, has a strong influence. But everyone, without exception, is capable of feeling pangs of conscience to one degree or another. Agree, each of us at least once in his life began to reproach himself for any act. We replayed the unfortunate situation in our minds over and over again in order to find a more acceptable way out of it.

What is conscience?

Conscience, or, as they say, later regret, overtakes us at the moment when we realize that we did something bad, did something wrong. It comes in the form of an endless stream of thoughts. But these are not just ordinary thoughts that accompany us throughout the day. These are eating, pumping andannoying phrases: “If I had acted differently, nothing bad would have happened”, “These are not my problems, everyone gets out as best they can, I am not obliged to help”, “And if there is a chance to still fix it?” and so on. Of course, everyone experiences pangs of conscience in different ways, because everyone's thinking is different.

Yes, repentance is nothing but the voice of reason, laid down by mother nature in the early stages of the formation of human consciousness. He "lives" in us so that we can distinguish good from bad, right from wrong. Only one thing nature did not take into account: we begin to think about the consequences only after we have done something.

Perhaps this is not a beacon at all, giving us a chance to make the right choice, but a punishment for the wrong one? After all, regret sometimes brings a lot of inconvenience. And one of them is the inability to think about anything other than your own dishonest act. Conscience helps us henceforth to think first, and then to do. However, not everyone can learn from their mistakes.

Shame and conscience are the same thing?

Recall that moment when, as a child, we blushed because we had to listen to our parents' reproaches about another prank. In those moments, the face instantly filled with paint. We were ashamed. We regretted what we had done in the moment, here and now. Most often, this just happened under the pressure of other people who, trying to teach the mind-reason, shamed us.

What followed next? Never mind! We completely forgot about all the problems and abuse of parents. From negative feelingsthere was no trace left. The discomfort passed quickly enough. After all, as you know, we are ashamed in front of other people, and ashamed in front of ourselves. In the case of the parents, a mistake was made. Adults just shamed me instead of explaining. Perhaps if they had put everything on the shelves in detail, we would not only feel shame, but also conscience. And they wouldn't do anything like that again.

Based on this, you can find a number of differences between these two concepts. Ashamed usually becomes immediately after the deed. The person is trying to correct himself with an apology. He does everything to resolve the situation, after which calmness or even pride comes. Repentance comes imperceptibly and sometimes even unexpectedly. Sometimes a person begins to suffer pangs of conscience because of a situation that happened a week ago. Why is this happening?

As already mentioned, it is society that forces the individual to admit his guilt. According to the rules of etiquette, he apologizes and forgets about the problem, since the signal was given to the brain - "hang up". Forgiveness plays the role of complacency for us: after all, there are no complaints. Remorse of conscience appears only when the brain either “didn’t understand” that there was an apology and forgiveness, or they really didn’t follow.

"Residence" of conscience in the human body

Few people know, but there is a very interesting theory. According to her, each organ also has a spiritual function, in addition to the physiological one. For example, the heart is responsible for mental pain. Ear infections appear to be due toa person painfully perceives refusals and reproaches from other people. At the same time, the stomach, digesting food, “absorbs” impressions with it. And the kidneys are supposedly responsible for conscience in the human body.

The spiritual and physiological functions of this paired organ are similar. At the physical level, the kidneys cleanse the body of toxins and toxins. On the spiritual level, they similarly try to “bring out” all the worst that poisons our consciousness. However, it doesn't always work out.

Why does the conscience gnaw?

It is quite clear that we experience regret after we commit an offense and until we hear the cherished: "I forgive you." But why should a person justify himself to himself? Why can't you just forget about the conflict as a nightmare and not fill your head with all sorts of nonsense? Everything is explained easily: pangs of conscience are not excuses that we invent for ourselves in order to calm down. It is about responsibility to those who were offended.

The human brain is designed in such a way that it needs to make sure of everything, even that its "master" is right. Therefore, thinking about what happened is nothing more than a way to get rid of annoying and sometimes such boring reproaches of conscience. Unfortunately, excuses and the search for evidence of one's innocence cannot be saved.

How to deal with pangs of conscience?

It turns out that you can not even listen to the so-called voice of reason, ignore it. Our brain does just that in some cases. For example, when there are more important thoughts in a person’s headself-flagellation about this or that curiosity. How to get rid of pangs of conscience? You just need to learn to respect yourself. After all, if a person has low self-esteem, he will be afraid to do something wrong. Consequently, the individual will constantly involuntarily remind himself of punctures.

Some have a knack for coming up with false excuses for themselves that they think could spare them remorse. But it was not there! After all, those who seek excuses never turn out to be right in the end. Therefore, it is necessary to exclude inventions of the reasons for innocence and how one should scold oneself for what one has done.

And literary heroes have a conscience…

Pangs of conscience in the fate of famous literary heroes is a fairly common occurrence. Many of them, to one degree or another, thought about the correctness of their actions, justified themselves before themselves, or continued to gnaw at themselves. Raskolnikov is considered to be the most conscientious character in Russian literature. One has only to remember how at first he was delirious that they wanted to seize him, put him in prison, convict him. The hero was not even ashamed. Like, the old money-lender is to blame. Raskolnikov did not consider himself a "trembling creature." He assured himself that he "has the right" to kill those who supposedly prevent decent people from living. But after what happened, everything changed. Pangs of conscience drove him into a corner to such an extent that he literally began to go crazy. And he did not calm down until he got what he deserved for the murder of an old woman.

Anna Karenina is another conscientiousheroine. But she reproached herself not for the murder, but for betraying her husband. The woman chose her own punishment - she threw herself under the train.

Thus, in their works based on psychologism, the authors show what a terrible thing is conscience. Her reproaches can drive you crazy, drive you to suicide. Therefore, you do not need to commit those acts for which you would be painfully ashamed.