There are two psychological states of
mind after the crime has been committed: the resulting remorse leads to
repentance when the sinner realizes that they have sinned, and the realization
is followed by repentance. Repentance can be passive, that is to say, remorse
in negative emotions, but it can also be active, when the sinner does something
useful or even useless to mitigate the sin committed and reassure his
conscience. A special form of the latter is some form of compulsive action (a
psychological condition called OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), when the
sinner has lost control of the situation and the guilt manifests itself in
repetitive or symbolic actions that are socially not useful and psychologically
pathological. The most typical example of this is the manifestation of a
distorted conscience of the murderer in various distractions and substitute
activities, such as a killer constantly washing bloodstain when it is no longer
there, but still imagines it. Another excellent example of this is Lars von
Trier's latest scandal movie[1],
in which the serial killer obsessive-compulsive anti-hero cannot escape the
crime scene because he constantly thinks he leaves blood stains somewhere in
the murdered woman's house, so he keeps going back to check the house, though
the situation is getting more and more dangerous because of a suspecting cop turning
up. We can often find examples in literature, and perhaps the most famous is
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story the Tell-Tale Heart, in which the murderer under
the pressure of heavy remorse constantly hears the heartbeat of his victim
buried under the floor, finally turning himself in just to get rid of the
noise.[2]
Here, as in the film, there is the perverse enjoyment of guilt-inducing action
and the resulting danger.
Repentance is also an important moral
act in religions, which, in the form of confession to the priest, is a weekly
routine of Christians, albeit usually serves to confess minor sins and do
penance. In this case, atonement is to say prayers kneeling down in church in a
compulsory number determined and selected by priest.