You've Got to Suffer If You Want to Sing the Blues: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Guilt and Self-Pity

The experience of self is partially a narrative of one's history; without memory, there is no self. Central to personal histories are accounts of significant relationships and their successes and failures. Accounts of failed relationships tend to gravitate toward two narrative themes: selfpity and guilt. This essay explores some aspects of the nature of guilt and self-pity, the different forms in which they surface, and their relationship to each other.