A weakness in this chapter is that Russell limits his discussion to irrational guilt. Just as serious a source of unhappiness, perhaps more so in our time, is the inability to let go of legitimate guilt. Surely everyone has done a few things that, even under a generous interpretation of morality, are wrong. We have also made choices that turned out badly or had the effect of increasing our own happiness at the expense of someone else. How a person deals with these experiences seems to me to have an enormous impact on his/her overall happiness.
"In a rational ethic it will be held laudable to give pleasure to any one, even to oneself, provided there is no counterbalancing pain to oneself or others." [page 80] "The problem here is the same as has confronted us in earlier chapters, namely that of compelling the unconscious to take note of the rational beliefs that govern our conscious thought." [page 83] But how is this to be done? "Whenever [irrationality] thrusts foolish thoughts or feelings into your consciousness, pull them up by the roots, examine them, and reject them." [page 83] "Most men, when they have thrown off superficially the superstitions of their childhood, think there is no more to be done. They do not realize that these superstitions are still lurking underground. When a rational conviction has been arrived at, it is necessary to dwell upon it, to follow out its consequences, to search out in oneself whatever beliefs inconsistent with the new conviction might otherwise survive, and when the sense of sin grows strong, as from time to time it will, to treat it not as a revelation and a call to higher things, but as a disease and a weakness." [page 84]
Russell seems to realize that this advice entails introspection on a scale that appears inconsistent with his advice not to dwell on the self. "The time spent in producing harmony between the different parts of one's personality is time usefully employed." [page 85] "Since rationality consists in the main of internal harmony, the man who achieves it is freer in his contemplation of the world and in the use of his energies to achieve external purposes than is the man who is perpetually hampered by internal conflicts." [page 87]
Russell presents moral progress as happening when reason triumphs over superstition and tradition. Contrast that view with this one: Great moral truths like "All people should be equal" or "Love your enemies" begin as flashes of irrational insight. In the beginning every known rational argument runs the other way, and only with time and great effort is it possible to construct a rational justification of the new insight.