Let’s stop committing crimes against ourselves(DW# 847)
As Abraham Maslow says in Toward a Psychology of Being:
"The serious thing for each person to recognize vividly and poignantly, each for himself, is that every falling away from species-virtue, every crime against one’s own nature, every evil act, every one without exception records itself in our unconscious and makes us despise ourselves.
Karen Horney had a good word to describe this unconscious perceiving and remembering; she said it "registers." If we do something we are ashamed of, it "registers" to our discredit, and if we do something honest or fine or good, it "registers" to our credit. The net results ultimately are either one or the other—either we respect and accept ourselves or we despise ourselves and feel contemptible, worthless, and unlovable."
People of faith of course call this our conscience, our internal moral compass that guides us towards virtue: it makes us feel good when we live up to our virtuous self and it "punishes" us with despair and regret when we fail to live up to our aspirations of goodness.
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