Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

318 THE GUILT OF BEING UNEQUAL
Tournier further shows that basically all human behaviour, 'however
genuine it may be from a moral point of view, can be considered as
"functional," that is, may be studied objectively with a concern for the
mechanism of its origin. ,19
The theories about guilt feelings of other psychoanalytic schools bring
to light some other aspects of the problem. Adler sees it as the result of
the non-acceptance of our inferiority, and Jung as deriving from our
refusal to accept ourselves in our totality.
In the Jungian interpretation Tournier sees the conception of a genuine
sense of guilt in no way suggested by the social environment. For
support he looks to Martin Buber, who asks of psychotherapy that it
should recognize, alongside the unfounded neurotic sense of guilt, the
existence of a genuine and authentic one. This Buber considers as always
present when injury is done to an inter-human relationship.20 Tournier
sees reality as a component of each of these definitions of terms, which
he regards as different aspects of one complex phenomenon.
Repeatedly he states how much he has been, and continues to be,
tormented by guilt feelings of an indeterminate kind, no man being free
of such feelings. According to him, psychoanalysis, which seeks to free
us from guilt feelings, only brings about a shift in them; there is no way
of being completely just, and elsewhere he says: 'Guilt is no invention
of the Bible or the Church. It is present universally in the human
soul. Modern psychology confirms this Christian dogma without any
reservations. 21
Social justice
Nowhere in Tournier is there any express statement about the origin of
this omnipresent sense of guilt that has beset man since long before the
time of the higher religions. Yet an answer to this question lies in some of
Tournier's own admissions and experiences-in situations, that is, in
which he quite unmistakably feels under threat from other people's envy.
An obstacle to the clarification of this problem is Tournier's occasional
19 Op. cit., p. 64.
20 Op. cit. , p. 65.
21 Op. cit.,p.135.