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The altruistic impulse to share food promotes the survival of the
group. The alternative would be survival of a few of the stronger
individuals who would
greedily hoard the available food supply,
but, as has been observed, there is a survival value in maintaining
the group rather than the isolated individual. It is reasonable
to suppose that evolution might favour the survival of those
individuals who experience guilt when they behave greedily and
that the guilt leads to the prohibition of the wish to have
everything for oneself. This form of guilt, which in man's earlier
history contributed to the survival of the group, continues to be
inherited and continues to exert its influence upon modern man.
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p. 342
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Arnold Modell
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"The Origin of Certian Forms of Pre-Oedipal Guilt"
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 46, 1971
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Cited in Michael Friedman,
"Toward a Reconceptualization of Guilt,"
Contemporary Psychoanalysis 21(4), 1985
p. 519.
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