Guilt

Guilt is the belief that one must make amends to re-enter belonging.
It is a transactional emotion — the mind’s attempt to pay for perceived harm, real or imagined.

Unlike shame, which says I am wrong, guilt says I did wrong — but both are rooted in the same distortion: that worth can be lost.
Clean responsibility acknowledges cause and effect without self-condemnation. Guilt weaponizes that awareness and turns it inward.

Guilt keeps one bound to the story; responsibility releases one from it.

See Philosophy of Integration
See also Shame, Punishment, Responsibility, and Forgiveness for how awareness transforms moral emotions into self-knowledge.