Remorse, Revenge, and Forgiveness

This paper attempts to consider the capacity for remorse within the framework of Freud's structural theory. The standards leading to formation of superego as a functioning system are critical for tolerance of one's own humanness and of the human condition in others. On this rests the capacity for love and for empathy and remorse. The quest for revenge and the intolerance for guilt provide powerful unconscious dynamic forces which take precedence over love and respect. The latter dynamic is presented as explicating the absence of remorse and forgiveness.