Guilt

By Caryll Houselander On its surface, few books better warrant the proverb, “Physician, heal thyself,” than Caryll Houselander’s Guilt. An analysis of neurosis by a self-proclaimed neurotic, Guilt explicates a novel form of suffering: ego-neurosis. A “disease of the soul,” ego-neurosis is a “thrusting forward of the self; it may take the form of self-analysis, self-defense, self-obsession, self-aggrandizement, humiliation in being self, self-frustration or countless others…grounded in self-love.” Exploring the root causes of this neurosis and its manifestations (scrupulosity, aberrant sexual behavior, hypochondria, and other assorted manias), Houselander offers a challenging reading of human nature, and one decidedly reserved for a mature readership. Its somber subject notwithstanding, Guilt concludes on the deeply hopeful note of the revitalizing power of the Incarnation: “Christ [took] all the suffering of guilt on himself, wedding himself to our sorrow, and offering the sacrifice o