Hobart Mowrer – 1960

Sin, The Lesser of Two Evils.

"For several decades we psychologists looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus and acclaimed our liberation from it as epoch making. But at length we have discovered that to be free in this sense, that is, to have the excuse of being sick rather than sinful, is to court the danger of also becoming lost. This danger is I believe betokened by the widespread interest in existentialism which we are presently witnessing. In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity, and with neurotics, themselves, we find ourselves asking: Who am I, what is my deepest destiny, what does living mean?"

Anna Russell

At three I had a feeling of ambivalence toward my brothers

And so it follows naturally I poisoned all my lovers

But I am happy, I have learned the lesson this has taught

That everything I do that wrong is someone else’s fault