The whole of the Christian training in repentance and redemption may be regarded as a _folie circulaire_ arbitrarily produced; though, of course, it can be produced only in people who are predisposed to it--that is to say, who have morbid tendencies in their constitutions. 233. _Against remorse and its purely psychical treatment._--To be unable to have done with an experience is already a sign of decadence. This reopening of old wounds, this wallowing in self-contempt and depression, is an additional form of disease; no "salvation of the soul" ever results from it, but only a new kind of spiritual illness.... These "conditions of salvation" of which the Christian is conscious are merely variations of the same diseased state--the interpretation of an attack of epilepsy by means of a particular formula which is provided, _not_ by science, but by religious mania. When a man is ill his very _goodness_ is sickly.... By far the greatest portion of the psychical apparatus which Christianity has used, is now classed among the various forms of hysteria and epilepsy. The whole process of spiritual healing must be remodelled on a physiological basis: the "sting of conscience" as such is an obstacle in the way of recovery--as soon as possible the attempt must be made to counterbalance everything by means of new actions, so that there may be an escape from the morbidness of _self-torture...._ The purely psychical practices of the Church and of the various sects should be decried as dangerous to the health. No invalid is ever cured by prayers or by the exorcising of evil spirits: the states of "repose" which follow upon such methods of treatment, by no means inspire confidence, in the psychological sense.... A man is _healthy_ when he can laugh at the seriousness and ardour with which he has allowed himself to be _hypnotised_ to any extent by any detail in his life--when his remorse seems to him like the action of a dog biting a stone--when he is ashamed of his repentance. The purely psychological and religious practices, which have existed hitherto, only led to an _alteration in the symptoms_: according to them a man had recovered when he bowed before the cross, and swore that in future he would be a good man.... But a criminal, who, with a certain gloomy seriousness cleaves to his fate and refuses to malign his deed once it is done, has more _spiritual health...._ The criminals with whom Dostoiewsky associated in prison, were all, without exception, unbroken natures,--are they not a hundred times more valuable than a "broken-spirited" Christian? (For the treatment of pangs of conscience I recommend Mitchell's Treatment.[2])