The priests’ moralization of bad conscience proves to be a make-work project for them, one that enables them not merely to hang on to their influence, but to extend and strengthen it. Having created this moral interpretation of the psycho-physiological development, they now offer themselves as specially equipped to alleviate the suffering it causes ... Their claim to expertise is not hollow, for they are indeed ingenious at this work ... However, while they can alleviate the pain of moralized bad conscience, they cannot cure it. As human beings whose self-experience is almost entirely that of sickness, the ascetic priests neither understand, nor fully believe in, the possibility of health or vital potency. They therefore lack the physio-psychological knowledge that is a necessary precursor to the capacity to cure sickness ... In the absence of a cure, they temporarily alleviate the pain of the sickness using two kinds of methods: those that are 'innocent' by modern standards, since they do not exacerbate the sickness, and those that are guilty, which worsen it.
Lise van Boxel, Warspeak: Nietzsche’s Victory Over Nihilism, pg. 89
funny how this also describes psychology/therapy...
