Oedipal Object Relations and Morality

Mahler (1975) has suggested that the rapprochement struggle may be a phenomenon linking early separation and individuation with higher and broader levels of object relationship and ego functioning. Loewald (1979), too, has speculated that “the superego as the culmination of individual psychic structure formation, represents something ultimate in the basic separation-individuation process” (p. 775). I hope to show that this “something ultimate” resides in the creation and ongoing transformation of a moral bond with the social and historical environment. Because self and nonself, inside and outside, external and internal are never fully delineated, various indispensable judgmental and observational functions can never be wholly internalized and must remain attributes of the environment. I believe the individual is a moral agent only insofar as he receives a moral message. The discovery of morality and the resolution of the oedipal situation are considered here as stages in the maturation of self and object relationships through a lifelong attachment to the authority and ethical guidance of the cultural milieu.

My theoretical premise is that our species has an indispensable reliance on ordering, certainty, and guidance. The healthy fulfillment of these needs leads to inspiration, creativity, and a passion for understanding. I offer a view of Complete Man, neither Guilty nor Tragic, who is whole because he possesses a moral competence. The line of development of the moral