Comments on Some Instinctual Manifestations of Superego Formation

In the following pages certain clinical observations during the termination phase of analysis are taken as the starting point for discussing some of the vicissitudes of superego formation. The termination phase, with its specific problems of separation from and relinquishment of a love object, can give insight into such vicissitudes inasmuch as the resolution of the transference neurosis and the resolution of the Oedipal conflict are intimately related to each other. Broadly speaking, the paper is concerned with the relations between instinctual drives and psychic structure. In this respect I hope to make a contribution to the much-needed rapprochement between what are loosely called “id analysis” and “ego analysis,” or “id psychology” and “ego psychology.” I explore certain instinctual manifestations, appearing in a group of patients during the termination phase of analysis, in their significance as drive representations1 of superego formation. The emergence in male patients of passive-homosexual fantasies in regard to their male analyst during the termination phase will be discussed from the point of view of the resolution of the Oedipus complex. The appearance of such