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PubMed1982

The concept of the superego: a reformulation.

1. The superego is a group of compromise formations, all having to do with morality, which originate, in large part, in the oedipal phase of development. 2. Once formed as a consequence of conflict, the superego functions as a major component of (subsequent) conflicts. 3. Its role in conflict is diverse. It functions now as defense, now as the equivalent of a drive derivative arousing unpleasure, and now as a calamitous unpleasure to be avoided or mitigated. 4. For a young child "moral" equals approved by parents, while "immoral" equals the reverse. The crucial moral questions at the time of life when the superego is largely formed are, "What will win or forfeit parental approval?" and "What will rouse or dissipate parental wrath?" 5. From the side of ego functioning, superego formation involves much more than identification with parental superego demands and prohibitions. Any aspect of ego functioning which furthers parental approval and/or avoids disapproval and punishment can and does participate in superego formation. 6. From the side of the drives, both libido and aggression are involved in superego formation. Hence masochism plays a role in normal superego formation and functioning as well as in those pathological cases which Freud called moral masochism. 7. Superego pathology is not to be understood, as it has been generally understood by analysts until now, in terms of defective or incomplete development. Everyone has a fully formed superego. Superego pathology must be understood on the same basis as is the pathology of any compromise formation.

Aggression↗
PubMed1980

Formulating interpretations in clinical psychoanalysis.

The psychoanalytic psychology of the self led not only to a theoretical expansion of our central concepts of transference and resistance, but it also led to a decisive, dual shift in the manner in which we formulate and focus our interventions, irrespective of the nature of the patient's psychopathology. What we have described here as the empathic, reconstructive-interpretive process, and have exemplified with a clinical vignette, bridges within the psychoanalytic process the often still prevailing sharp division between conflict-based, structural psychopathology and deficiency-based, primary self-pathology. The utilization of a predominantly empathic mode of listening and responding (as contrasted with a predominantly inferential mode) is of particular significance in unifying the psychoanalytic approach to the various forms of psychopathology. Empathic reconstructive-interpretations encompass both transference repetitions and new experiences. Such interventions, therefore, responded to the total self of the patient, rather than to isolated, single elements in his associations and thereby lend them their broad therapeutic leverage.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Some reflections on a case of mother/adolescent son incest.

A rare case of mother/adolescent son incest is presented. The son, treated in analysis, was not psychotic. Questions are raised about why father/daughter incest appears to be much more common than mother/son incest. Part of the answer, I speculate, has to do with the special psychic dangers for both mother and son, perhaps phylogenetically-based, which attach to the fantasy and the possibility of impregnating the mother. Where the incest taboo is violated, the primary responsibility would appear to be the parent's; the parent is frequently motivated by a compulsion to repeat his or her own incestuous past. In the case presented the probably psychotic mother had raised her son to look like a girl for several years, and he had been the victim of a homosexual assault at the age of 6. The incest at puberty seems to have helped him reverse a psychic position of subjection to the pre-oedipal mother, to have modified his rage and reinforced his masculinity. It also produced some of the arrogance, alongside a need for failure and punishment that evoke the legend of Oedipus. The mother, fearful of the possibility of getting pregnant, had abruptly stopped the incest. It had been repressed, and became conscious again when the son entered analysis. He then left his treatment without being able to work through much of the terror consequent to the consummation of incest, and with some of the feeling of oedipal triumph retained.

Adult↗