Noun

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.