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Superego - What does it mean?

superego | |

superego

Alternative forms

* super-ego

Noun

(en noun)
  • (psychoanalysis) The part of the mind that acts as a self-critical conscience, reflecting social standards that have been learnt.
  • * '>citation
  • Still, it would be an error to believe that psychoanalytic
    theory makes no contribution to describing and assessing
    different types of ethical conduct. The crucial notion in this
    connection is the relative rigidity or flexibility of the superego'.
    The childish, immature, or neurotic '''superego''' is rigid; it is
    characterized by slavish adherence to rules which, moreover,
    may not be clearly understood. The mature or normal '''super-
    ego''', on the other hand, is flexible; it can evaluate the situation
    at hand and modify the rules accordingly. Thus, in an early,
    classic paper, Strachey suggested that the basic aim of psycho-
    analytic treatment is to make such "mutative interpretations"
    as would help to render the patient's "rigid '''superego'''" more
    "flexible".8 Like the psychoanalytic theory of the '
    superego
    , on
    which it is based, this view suffers from the limitation of being
    silent on what sort of rigidity is considered bad or undesirable
    and what sort of flexibility is considered good or desirable. In
    short, Freud and other psychoanalysts have persistently
    dallied with normative systems without ever committing them-
    selves on normative standards.

    See also

    * ego * id English calques ----

    Not English

    has no English definition. It may be misspelled.