According to experts, remorse does not announce its arrival in advance, it can grab you by the throat from anywhere. And lack of conscience is a psychiatric problem! Remorse doesn't say it's coming; lack of conscience is a psychiatric problem!
"Conscience is a sweet whisper from God"
Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Hospital Psychiatry Specialist Asst. Assoc. Prof. Mahir Yeşildal evaluated the place of conscience in psychiatry.
Stating that the phrase "Conscience is a sweet whisper of God" circulating on social media is very meaningful, Mahir Yeşildal said, "It is not always a sweet whisper, but conscience is something that exists within the person. Morality is the aspect reflected in behavior, if morality is a concept responsible for the external relations and external affairs of the person, conscience is more related to the internal affairs and inner world of the person. Normally, the concept of conscience is a compass that tests whether one's actions in one's inner world are in accordance with one's values, worldview or universal moral laws and guides one to make the right decision. One of the important metaphors for conscience is the internal compass. Since it is a mechanical definition, like any compass, it has the possibility of going astray."
Social and individual conscience are very different
Stating that there are two types of conscience and both are different from each other, Yeşildal said:
"There is a social conscience and an individual conscience, which some sources call the core conscience. The distinction between social and individual conscience is very important here: The pilot who dropped a bomb on Hiroshima with the Enola Gay airplane in the Second World War died at the age of 92. He lived for 60 years after that, and in every interview he gave during those 60 years he said that his conscience was very clear, but he dropped the bomb and it exploded about 600 meters above Hiroshima. At about 8:00 in the morning people were going to work. About 65,000 people, a very large number of them outside, were burned to death and the pilot who dropped the bomb said he had a clear conscience for the rest of his life.
Social conscience is a bit grandstanding
This seems to contradict the definition of conscience I just gave, but it is not. Social conscience is a conscience that is determined by social norms and is actually more fake. It is a bit more secular. For example, when it comes to Syrian refugees, everyone says that they feel sorry for them, but no one thinks of making a contribution of one thousandth of their credit card statement or one ten thousandth of their salary. This is social conscience or we have a bad relationship with Israel as a country and we don't drink Coke. We do something that actually feeds that social conscience with the absurd idea that every Coke we drink returns as a bullet to our Palestinian Muslim brothers and sisters. Of course, the social conscience is not always like this, but its secular aspect is a very strong structure, it plays a bit more in the stands and has a weak connection with the inner world of the person.
The core conscience is very different
The core conscience is not like that, for example, could a pilot who dropped a bomb on Hiroshima kill and incinerate 65,000 people one by one? I think he couldn't. Even if he believed in a very lofty and noble cause, probably after 100-200 people, his own internal mechanism would stop him somewhere, unless there was a major pathology. Therefore, in this respect, the social conscience is actually a big bubble at most points, but the inner conscience is not like that. That is, the core conscience of the person is not like that."
The super ego ensures that impulses pass through the filter of conscience
Stating that the super ego is a concept that we can partly call conscience, Mahir Yeşildal said:
"Freud talks about ego and super ego when defining personality, or rather the psychic apparatus. In other words, he roughly classifies them as lower self and upper self. According to Freud, the lower self, the id, is constantly after pleasure and can do anything to fulfill that pleasure. The super ego is what we can partly call conscience. It allows the impulses coming from the id to pass through a filter. It ensures that they pass through the filter of logic and reasoning, and most importantly through the filter of conscience. The ego and the self is the place where all these reach a balance. The super ego is very closely related to the relationships the child establishes with his/her mother and father during the oedipal period between the ages of 3-6 in childhood."
Conscience is located in the frontal cortex
Stating that the concept of conscience has a biological aspect, Mahir Yeşildal said, "Damage to the region we call the anterior cingulate gyrus has been found to impair a person's empathy and emotional capacity. Therefore, if conscience has a place in the brain, it is probably the frontal cortex. In this frontal cortex, the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate gyrus can be described as the place of conscience."
Remorse of conscience does not foretell its arrival
Stating that remorse of conscience is experienced as a feeling by the individual, Mahir Yeşildal said, "It is not possible to consider remorse of conscience as a psychiatric problem. If you have committed a crime, a sin, a mistake or an act that is seen as normal in terms of society but disturbs you in your inner world because of that rigid super ego, you cannot put your head on the pillow comfortably for the rest of your life.
Or you will be on your toes in the position of a student who will be taken to the oral exam at any moment because the thing called remorse of conscience does not announce its arrival in advance. It doesn't prepare you and it can grab you anywhere and grab you by the throat. This pain you feel in your inner world is a pain that cannot be explained by a psychiatric anxiety, depression or grief because it is a situation that the person directs towards himself and crushes his own thoughts, feelings and existence under the heavy wheels of his own conscience."
Stating that there are people who live with remorse of conscience for a lifetime, but this cannot be called living, Yeşildal said, "These people generally cannot live a comfortable, happy and peaceful life in quotes because they cannot relieve the tension and tension they feel in their inner world throughout their lives. In order for them to live, there must be a very serious pathology in the frontal region of the brain, for example, there must be a very serious antisocial personality disorder. If a person has antisocial personality disorder, they don't need a conscientious accounting of what they have done. He does not allow his inner world to oppress him about the people or animals he has killed or raped."
Psychiatrist Mahir Yeşildal said that remorse of conscience can cause a chemical change in the brain after a while, and that there are studies on this.