One of the cases of spiritual direction, which most frequently arises in the increasingly strenuous life of our age, is that of scrupulosity. The nervous tension, caused by the irritating atmosphere of great cities, is obviously conducive to psycho-neurotic troubles; and, if a rigorist educative influence saddles a hypersensitive temperament afflicted by these troubles, with the result that religion is misconceived as a repressive legalism, the effect will almost inevitably be a false conscience perhaps for ever paralysed by scruples. Whenever it makes its appearance and for the same reasons, this disease either suddenly breaks out in a violent crisis or gradually spreads in a slow, consuming progression. Much has been written about this malady : descriptions of the disorder, descriptions of the supernatural trial, the attitude to be taken towards the scrupulous by confessor and director, psychotherapeutic treatments or others in obstinate and disconcerting cases. It would seem that nothing has been overlooked and that the subject is therefore exhausted. One is tempted to conclude : the whole question has been settled once and for all. Nevertheless the scrupulous remain. It is in the West among Latins that scrupulosity is found in its endemic state, whereas it is unknown among Eastern Catholics and Orthodox . . .’