Right. You always touch on many topics in your writings, and that's why they tend to be thought provoking. I was referring specifically to the contagion theory.

The way I see it, I think people who find themselves caught in that unhealthy swing of opposite extremes carry with them a contradiction between who they are consciously trying to be, and what they "need" to be on an unconscious level. These excesses can be a form of balance. If someone does not have a very pleasurable life, he will look for excessive pleasures.

But I don't think guilt and shame are necessarily a bad thing, they are necessary to some degree, just not in such an excessive way.