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Comment on Dr. Grinberg's Paper. Daniel W. Badal. Pp. 371-372.
Persecutory guilt arises earlier than depressive guilt of the depressive position (Klein), is pathological rather than normal, and is more closely linked to the death instinct. The main effects of the former are resentment, despair, fear, pain, self-reproaches; of the latter, sorrow, concern for the object and the self, nostalgia, responsibility. Factors which contribute to the emergence and intensification of persecutory guilt are birth trauma, a bad relationship with the breast and the mother, predominance of frustrations, and, especially important, experiences of loss. Grinberg illustrates his thesis with a case that includes an interpreted dream.
Badal thinks that rather than two kinds of guilt the same guilt is expressed in two ways: by projection and as a loss within the self. In this revision the ego and its defensive operations are given the emphasis neglected by Grinberg. Badal's clinical work shows that adult guilt in depressions involves the Oedipus complex, even in cases where the preoedipal relationship to the mother manifests obvious oral symptoms.