LITERATURE

Guilt: The Bite of Conscience is the first book to study guilt from a wide variety of perspectives including those of psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, six major religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism), four key moral philosophers (Aristotle, Kant, John Stuart Mill, and Nietzsche), and the law.

This personal work draws from, and integrates, material from extensive primary and secondary literature. It is a reliable guide to what scholars, investigators and clinicians have to say about the topic. Through the extensive use of literary and personal accounts, this book provides an intimate picture of what it is like to experience this universal emotion. While the book is not intended to be a self-help manual, each chapter addresses the issue of how to deal with guilt from a particular point of view.

Herant Katchadourian is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Human Biology at Stanford University and former president of the Flora Family Foundation. He has received numerous awards, including Stanford's Dinkelspiel Award and the Lyman Award from the Stanford Alumni Association.