V--2nd, Chapter 11 p.324 A room is all that is the case

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

The psychoanalyst Theodor Reik called it compulsive confessing 
(Geständniszwang)
and found this basic human need, in connection with a desire for punishment,
especially in the field of law-affairs.

Cf. Theodor Reik: Geständniszwang und Strafbedürfnis. Probleme der 
Psychoanalyse
und der Kriminologie [1925]

Sounds pretty Vinelandish to me.

KFL


On 18.11.2010 11:11, Mark Kohut wrote:
> Someone commenting psychologically on Catholicism I once read
> said it fulfilled our need to confess, to be heard about our weaknesses
> by authority we respected.
>