Curiosity as an Agent of Conscience

Public outcry against social outrages in our nation in the past few years have called for solutions that suggest that we as a nation believe that by strengthening the observational and punishing components of the superego of the American Psyche we can successfully overthrow our moral failings. By using data in regard to Adolph Eichman and other Nazis as clinical examples, it is suggested that the problem of our moral failings resides not in a deficient superego (a refluent moral agent) but in the insufficient development of conscience (a reflective consciousness). The roles that curiosity and impeded curiosity take in the development of morality are shown to be central to an understanding of how conscience differs from superego.     

Conscience as the voice of God: A jungian view

Archetypal psychology proposes a genetic basis for experiencing conscience as the Voice of God. Human beings are predisposed to submit themselves to parental directives, but they are also predisposed to submit themselves to some higher, spiritual law. True conscience differs from the Freudian superego in that it sometimes directs one to disobey the prevailing moral code.From the unconscious spring the basest motives and also the noblest motives. The religious person gives careful attention to both. It is difficult but not always impossible to distinguish true conscience from subtle self-deceit.     

Conscience and the Project of a Psychoanalytic Science of Human Nature: Clarification of the Usefulness of the Superego Concept

Although the usefulness of the superego concept has been challenged by objections to the structural theory and to applying a one-person language only to the patient, we need a concept of the conscience to understand clinical phenomenology and clinical decisions and the results of treatment. Using understanding of shame dynamics as an example, fragmentation of theory and technique can be seen as resulting from the confusion of one part of the conscience for the whole. Mainstream views consider primarily the postoedipal part of the conscience dealing with guilt; Kleinian views consider the pre-oedipal dynamic of projected rage and fear of persecution; and Kohutian thinking excludes the ego Ideal altogether. A comprehensive view of conscience is necessary to avoid such fragmentation and confusion.     

On the technique of analysis of the superego--an introduction

As a result of Freud's ambiguity (and that of later analysts) regarding the nature of the superego and how to treat it in clinical practice, it has taken many years and many theoreticians to move from Freud's predilection to use it for purposes of "suggestion" in overcoming resistance, toward the concept of the superego as part of the ego's hierarchically mobilized defensive activities in the analytical process. Although much ambiguity persists, an attempt is made here to reduce it so that analytical technique may move forward to allow the superego to be analyzed as an unconscious conflict solution.     

Notes on the Superego

The idea of the superego emerged late in Freud's conception of countercathexis or counterwill. It was preceded by censorship and the ego ideal, the latter of which later became associated with the newfound superego. Freud believed that the superego emerged as the resolution of the Oedipus complex. Klein, though agreeing with Freud, also uncovered the origin of the archaic superego in the early oral stage owing to projective identification of aspects of the infant into its image of the mother, which is then introjected and installed within the infant's internal world. The epigenesis of the superego, from the Kleinian point of view, enters into a transformation from a harsh, punitive, and retaliatory superego in the paranoid-schizoid position to a more forgiving and helpful one in the depressive position. The author suggests that there is such a thing as a “triune superego,” much like the Christian trinity, in which there are representations of the infant, the mother, and the father. Pathologic retreats constitute a default superego that vies with a normal superego.     

Saboteur and superego: The judgement of the ego in brief dynamic therapy

Drawing principally upon the work of Woodmansey the author describes the development of the punitive or humiliating superego as arising from the internalisation of an external conflict, which the child experiences with adult carers, and from whom the child fears retaliatory punishment or scornful reproach. The superego serves the function of extricating the child from the external conflict. Woodmansey’s view of the natural instincts and the development of a moral sense are compared to those of Winnicott, Fairbairn and Guntrip. The notion of a pristine unitary ego and the development of an internal saboteur arising from the frustration of needs for relatedness are outlined and linked conceptually to the development of the punitive superego. The role and judgement of the ego and its emancipation from the superego in accordance with Britton’s formulation are highlighted and related to clinical practice and the alternating transference. These clinical themes are discussed in relation to eliciting affects and narrative construction and deconstruction in brief dynamic work and illustrated by a case example.     

The boy in the iron mask: superego issues in the analysis of a two-year-old encopretic

The paucity of psychoanalytic literature on encopresis is surprising given its frequency as a presenting symptom. Vignettes from the analysis of a two-year-old encopretic boy are presented to demonstrate the prominence of superego determinants, even in a child so young. The implications of this finding for understanding encopresis are subsequently discussed, including the common feature of depression. Technical issues arising from a sensitivity to these superego contributors are demonstrated, and the importance of addressing a child's sadistic superego directly in order to facilitate insight is emphasized.     

On the development of a benign superego- thoughts arising from psychoanalytical work with children and grownups

ABSTRACT

The human psyche unfolds through the internalization of the presence of the object; little by little the child makes the functions and characteristics of the object her own. Part of the internalization of the primary objects result in the superego formation. When the internalized object is reliably present, protecting and need fulfilling the superego will be formed into a benign inner structure, which has self-observing, self-regulatory and ideal forming functions. A good internal object lays the basis for a well- functioning and protective superego, whereas an object experienced as too distant and not there when needed results in internalizations which build a harsh and persecuting superego. The focus in this article is on the development of a benign superego.     

Superego formation, adolescent transformation, and the adult neurosis

The superego is heir to the Oedipus complex but has a much larger developmental legacy which includes preoedipal precursors and the influence of latency and adolescence. The superego continues to change in function and content throughout life, and radical transformation in adolescence may result in developmental discontinuity as well as core developmental continuity. A case is discussed in which adolescence was overlooked in previous analysis and in which adolescent superego modification had a major impact on the patient's character and his adult neurosis. The developmental significance of adolescence experienced under conditions of social isolation and rejection with forebodings of the Holocaust was unrecognized in sanctioned silence and shared analytic denial. These repeated earlier experiences of silent submission and stifled protest, and the silent suffering of the patient and his family, were an integral part of his humiliating and emasculating adolescent experiences. The intimidated adolescent, threatened from within and without, identified with the aggressor as well as with the victim. Identification with the aggressor and glorified victor contributed to a final adolescent structuralization of a punitive, sadistic superego and a rigidly perfectionistic ego ideal. As an adult, he tended to passive masochistic compliance with diminished self-esteem and unconscious self-denigration. He was prone to shame and guilt, self-criticism, and hidden hypercritical attitudes toward others. The adolescent internalization of aggression, intense castration anxiety, and pervasive narcissistic mortification led to retreat from resolution of revived oedipal conflict and to concomitant detrimental superego alteration. These issues were of major importance for analytic understanding and therapeutic progress.     

Self-criticism and the psychic surface

It is postulated that the surface of the mind reflects a variety of shifting self-syntonic and self-dystonic contents striving to achieve a stable homeostatic balance. Shifts between self-syntonic and self-dystonic contents are seen to reflect an underlying intrasystemic conflict within the superego between conflicting superego injunctions. These shifts possess a cyclical quality, as self-syntonic contents become self-dystonic and as self-dystonic contents become self-systonic. This conceptualization of the psychic surface has implications for a comparative study of psychoanalytic technique and for implementing the technical recommendation to work from surface to depth. It is suggested that the analyst's interpretations become assimilated within cyclical processes of superego reaction and repair.     

Opening the mind to reality

The author shows, through the use of clinical material, how an early failure in love can give rise to a severely crippling superego. The experience of a hateful relation with the mother is not simply internalized as a persecuting internal object, but is grafted onto the very roots of superego formation. As a result, the development of other parts of the psyche are affected – specifically the relation between the ego and self and the development of sexuality. The alienation between ego and self impairs thinking and the perception of external reality, which is modified and denied in the service of maintaining a pathological superego. By allowing the patient's hateful feelings to come out in the transference, without making him feel guilty, he is then able to risk expressing his loving feelings without the fear of rejection or abandonment. Through this process, the pathological superego can be dismantled and a more benign superego constructed.     

The superego, narcissism and Great Expectations

The author notes that the concepts of the superego and narcissism were linked at conception and that superego pathology may be seen as a determining factor in the formation of a narcissistic disorder; thus an examination of the superego can function as a 'biopsy', indicating the condition of the personality as a whole. Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations is presented as a penetrating exploration of these themes and it is argued that in Pip, the central character, Dickens provides a perceptive study of the history of a narcissistic condition. Other key figures in the book are understood as superego representations and, as such, integral to the vicissitudes of Pip's development. In particular, the lawyer Jaggers is considered as an illustration of Bion's notion of the 'ego-destructive superego'. In the course of the paper, the author suggests that Great Expectations affirms the psychoanalytic understanding that emotional growth and some recovery from narcissistic difficulties necessarily take place alongside modification of the superego, allowing for responsible knowledge of the state of the object and the possibility of realistic reparation.     

Narcissism and superego development

To elucidate the role of the superego in th maintenance of narcissistic equilibrium, we reviewed Freud's ideas about narcissism and the superego as well as the relevant theories of Kohut, Kernberg, and certain ego psychologists. These latter authors offer an alternative mode of understanding narcissism more consistent with Freud's structural theory, one in which signal affects and superego functioning play a central role in normal development and in the pathogenesis of narcissistic disturbances. Early steps in superego formation were then examined schematically to elucidate the interaction of environmental influences and emerging psychic structure. We suggested that the first step in a developmental line toward superego formation is based on the affective qualities experienced in the course of self-object differentiation. Subsequent steps examined were introject and ego-ideal formation; compliance with th object; compliance with the introject; identification with the introject and the ego ideal; and finally, with oedipal resolution, the integration of superego nuclei into a progressively structuralized autonomous superego system. This system achieves growing independence from the drives and from pressures from early introjects during the course of latency, and functions to maintain the demands of the conscience and the standards of the ego ideal; rewards or punishments result when these demands and standards are or are not met. The final stage briefly considered here was the revision, modification, and elaboration of moral codes and the ego ideal as part of the adolescent process. Narcissistic vulnerabilities at various stages were pointed out in an attempt to stress that a particular clinical picture in later phases of development or adulthood may derive from any of several development points of origin and from one or more etiological factors.     

Otherness in interior identity: a reflection about the Freudian concepts of unconscious, superego, and id

Theoretical, psychoanalytical constructs referring to the unconscious, the superego, and id, enjoy an autonomy within the I. As such, this study contemplates the discussion of these foreign entities that inhabit the interior of the I, producing an effect of foreignness. In the first section, I will develop a reflection on the state of foreignness of the unconscious. I will begin with an analogy used by Freud, which addresses the thesis of universality of consciousness with the psychoanalytical thesis of the subconscience within the I. Affirmation of consciousness in the other may be used analogously for affirm the idea of another inhabiting our own being. I shall continue, seeking to understand how the process of unconscious repression produces the effect of foreignness. The idea of a moral censor present in the entity of the superego constitutes the theme of the second section. The superego follows the principle of otherness in its constitution and in its effects on the I. Finally, a reflection on the dimension of otherness in the Id seems urgent to me, as with this concept, Freud radicalized in the idea of the foreign as the origin of the subject.     

The psychoanalyst's normal and pathological superegos

The first section of the paper explores a number of differing views regarding the concept of the superego, essentially in terms of its formation and its functions. Two broad theories of superego development, both of which were introduced by Freud, are described. The first takes the superego to be principally oedipal in origin; the second traces the superego to an earlier period. The controversy about the usefulness of the concept of the death instinct is also implicated in the different views. It is then suggested that it is worthwhile to distinguish between a normal superego and a pathological superego and that these two distinct models of the superego are implicit in the work of both Freud and Klein. Strachey's (1934) views on the nature of the mutative effect of psychoanalytic treatment are briefly reviewed in the light of this distinction. It is suggested that Strachey was hesitant in clarifying the full implications of his views, particularly regarding the reasons for the difficulty the psychoanalyst will experience in making a transference interpretation. It is argued that the difficulty will relate to the psychoanalyst's anxiety about having sufficiently worked through the countertransference, particularly in relation to superego functioning. Two brief clinical vignettes are considered in support of this view. The last section of the paper offers some comments on the emotional development of the psychoanalyst and the ways that maturing as a psychoanalyst will involve a certain mellowing of the analyst's stance and a greater tolerance of the patient's prerogative to bring the full range of his or her personality into the treatment.     

Superego and perversion

Contemporary debates about the Freudian notion of superego are presented highlighting the importance of this notion for both psychoanalytic theory of culture and clinical work. Different versions of the relationship between superego and moral conscience, as well as between superego and ego ideal are identified, which may account for the contradictory positive and negative aspects that the superego assumes in Freudian theory. Points of convergence and divergence between Kantian categorical imperative and the superego are discussed.     

Superego: an attachment perspective

With the help of attachment theory and research, the paper attempts to broaden and build on classical and current views on the superego. Attachment theory's epigenetic approach and the concept of the subliminal superego are described. The superego, it is argued, is as much concerned with safety as sex. The superego is 'heir', not just to the Oedipus complex or Klein's pre-oedipal constellation, but also to the attachment relationship. Under favourable developmental conditions a 'mature superego' emerges, facilitating, in the presence of an internal secure base, maturational boundary crossings towards adult sexuality. In the light of the above, the paper reviews Lear's updating of Strachey's model of psychic change and explores the concept of transgression in relation to the 'professional superego', its development and maturation. Theoretical arguments are illustrated with clinical examples.     

Mutative interpretation and close process monitoring in a study of psychoanalytic process

When James Strachey defined the mutative interpretation, he did not have defense interpretation in mind, but a few years later Anna Freud opened the door to new ways of making small-scale non-transference and transference interpretations that alter superego functions. Using her model and a special mode of listening, the authors suggest an updated technique of intervention with resultant superego change, which qualifies for consideration as a later version of the mutative interpretation.     

THE SEDUCTIVE SUPEREGO: THE TRAUMA OF SELF-BETRAYAL

The author describes a pathological manifestation of the approving superego that functions as a perversely seductive superego. In this process, the seductive superego rationalises and makes ego-syntonic a gratification of forbidden wishes that will result in unconscious punishment. The author argues that the seductive superego torments the self by teasing it with the presence of a tantalising but forbidden object of desire and then by inflicting shame on the self for its timidity, which prevents it from pursuing the object in spite of the dangers. He suggests that the seductive superego inflicts a betrayal trauma upon the self by unconsciously actualising a sado-masochistic fantasy of seduction, surrender and betrayal, along with a humiliating punishment for surrendering.     

Three superfactors in the 16PF and their relation to Eysenck's P,E and N

The initial data consisted of responses to the 16PF and E.P.Q., obtained at the same testing, from 239 Independent Study Students. The responses to the 16PF were subjected to a principal components analysis. A Scree Test applied to the original solution indicated that between 8 and 10 factors should be retained for rotation. As this was at variance with Cattell's postulated factor structure supplementary analyses involving the retention and rotation of from 16 to 22 factors and item-factor analyses of groups of scales were carried out. All of these analyses failed to reproduce anything like a clear 16-scale structure. In order to accommodate the hypothesis that a 3-factor solution, in line with Eysenck's postulated dimensions of P, E and N, underpinned the Cattell scales and to test the validity of the intermediate solutions, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3 factors were retained and subjected to varimax and promax rotations. These solutions were compared with solutions obtained from analyses of the responses to the 16PF of 200 students at the Independent Assessment and Research Centre. Only the 3-factor solutions showed a degree of replicability across samples. The samples were combined to form a total sample of 439 cases and this was tested for factor replicability using factor comparability coefficients based on factor scores. This revealed a clear 3-factor structure, of anxiety, superego and exvia, which was replicable across sexes. An analysis of the responses to the combined questionnaires indicated that the neuroticism and anxiety factors and the extraversion and exvia factors were co-incident, but that psychoticism and superego were separate factors. However, the P-scale loaded -0.40 on the superego factor, which lends some support to Eysenck's contention that psychoticism is the obverse of superego. A 3-step analysis, in which pairs and triads of scales were tested for factor replicability, confirmed the equivalence of the neuroticism and anxiety factors and the extraversion and exvia factors. As far as psychoticism and superego were concerned only the latter appeared as a real, replicable factor. This factor contained virtually all the 16PF superego or S-items and 11 of the 25 E.P.Q. P-items. The 14 P-items which did not load significantly on the superego factor were those involving the cruelty or sadism element of the concept of psychoticism. It is contended that superego, rather than psychoticism, may best lay claim to join neuroticism and extraversion in what may be termed the great triumverate of the personality sphere.