against several temptations and with certain temptations to derogate from the rule of active resistance. It is also necessary to remain calm and not resort to bodily affections in these circumstances, which are often more harmful than useful. Immediate confession, from a psychological point of view, is beneficial to the patient because it reassures him and disposes him to overcome the crises that present themselves; but while it may be permissible not to oppose this practice to the meticulously moderate, it must be forbidden to those who are gravely scrupulous, because, while the reassurance is short-lived, the minute and repeated examinations of conscience that precede confession are the cause of new worries and new anxieties. To avoid the disturbance of long and particularized examinations of conscience in an atmosphere of spiritual disturbance, a general accusation is advisable.
Collaboration between the physician and the spiritual director is indispensable in certain cases of pathological scruples; the physician treats the morbid conditions that sustain the syndrome and administers the remedies that benefit the case; the director of conscience intervenes with moral and spiritual means.
THE MORALITY OF THE ACTS OF THE SCRUPULOUS. — The morality of the acts of the scrupulous must be measured according to the norms of erroneous and doubtful conscience (v.). When it becomes habitual, one can no longer speak so much of error as of a state of fear of making a mistake, of sinning. And since it is not possible to rid oneself of such a state in a day, the scrupulous person may act even against scrupulous conscience, and does not sin, even if overwhelmed by a lively fear of sin, provided that he exercises a moderate diligence in inquiry, above all by seeking advice, and does not consider what he does to be certainly sinful. Thus he may do what he sees practiced by God-fearing people, even if it is contrary to his own point of view. On the other hand, however, the scrupulous person is bound to react against his state in order to avoid harm to body and soul and at the same time to escape his own selfishness and stubbornness. By not applying the remedies methodically prescribed, the scrupulous person renders himself directly guilty of the worsening of his state.