Freud substituted the unconscious sense of guilt for the unconscious affect of guilt: an affect, by definition, is conscious. The unconscious sense of guilt and the need for punishment are linked, but we need to distinguish between fantasies of guilt and awareness of guilt, fantasies of punishment and the need for punishment. Awareness of guilt linked to remorse can remain in the neurotic field if its economic burden does not exceed the resources and limits of the psychic apparatus; if the ego is overwhelmed economically, it leads to the behavioural path of the need for punishment. The phantasy “A child is being beaten”, the vehicle of excitation that is resolved through onanism or phantasying, combines multiple elements and lies at the heart of numerous developments that are constructive for the mind. It can be considered as an essential primal phantasy.