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Guilt plays a role in various forms of psychopathology. However, different types of guilt might be involved in different mental disorders. Obsessive-compulsive (OC) patients are prone to a type of guilt in which the violation of an internalized moral norm is necessary and sufficient, whereas data suggest that depression might be linked to more interpersonal types of guilt. However, the extent to which a specific guilt phenomenology is involved in each condition is yet to be determined. Here we assessed the association between different types of guilt and different diagnostic groups. Two clinical samples (33 OCD and 35 non-OCD) filled in the Moral Orientation Guilt Scale (MOGS) along with other OCD and depression measures. Regression was employed to test group differences in the MOGS subscales and to test the influence of MOGS subscales on OCD and depression levels. Results confirm that different types of guilt might be implicated in different psychopathological conditions. Specifically, moral norm violation guilt is more present in OC patients than in other disorders. Depression seems to be associated with different guilt feelings depending on the psychopathological condition, specifically in non-OC patients, with types of guilt involving a "victim", supporting the accounts viewing interpersonal guilt as involved in the emergence of depressive symptomatology and hyper-altruistic behavior as a vulnerability factor for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The close link between obsessive symptomatology, guilt and inflated responsibility is well documented, although one might suppose that guilt sensitiveness and dysfunctional beliefs about responsibility are rooted further in time. Imagery with rescripting (IWR) is an emotion-focused technique that binds actual stressful emotions to past memories where similar feelings were activated. It is used to change the meaning of emotionally distressing memories, turning aversive mental images into positive ones, and achieving a healthier prospective on the event. the aim of this study was to compare the content of IWR exercises, collected during an on-going cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, in OCD and non-OCD patients, in order to explore eventual differences in their early negative childhood memories. We expected guilt and blame-related childhood episodes to be more frequent in OCD, compared against non-OCD patients. Method: forty-one imagery exercises were collected and categorized according to their content, emotions, needs, type of re-scripting, and final cognitive re-attribution. Results: OCD patients reported significantly more blame/reproach memories, expressing more guilt emotion and needs for acceptance. Within the re-scripting phase, all patients, regardless of their diagnosis, concluded the exercise protecting, reassuring and fostering emotional and needs expression, with no specific difference between groups. Conclusions: this work has several limitations, including the subjective nature of the study, the small sample size and unbalanced gender distribution across samples. However, our findings are in line with cognitive models on OCD, supporting the role of guilt-related early experiences that seem to be specific to this disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]