Scientific Forum on the Superego: Its Early Roots and the Road from Outer to Inner Conflict as Seen in Psychoanalysis

Anna Freud: I welcome our guests and express my gratitude that they took the trouble of coming to Hampstead. I consider this a compliment, not only to this Clinic and its staff but also to the topic we have chosen and to the work we intend to do on it.

As happened in the past, we selected from the range of basic psychoanalytic concepts a particular one, with the intention of tracing its fate from first appearance in the analytic literature to the present day with special concern for increasing or decreasing emphasis, distortion of meaning, etc. To a task such as this, which legitimately belongs to one of our official Congresses, we nevertheless feel that we can add an extra dimension. Where analysis of adults has to rely heavily on reconstruction, we, on the basis of direct analytical and observational childhood material, are able to check whether reconstruction supplies the correct picture in all instances, i.e. how far early events are partly altered, partly added to, and partly covered by subsequent layers of development. To apply this to our study of the superego: this mental structure is well known to all of us in its mature form. However, as analysts of adults, we know much less about its antecedents, its gradual formation and its various vicissitudes on the path towards independence. To supply some additional information about these latter points and bring it into line with what happened in the various theoretical publications will form the basis of the contributions from the Clinic's side.

Dr George Pollock: Miss Freud, Mrs Kennedy and colleagues, it is indeed our privilege and pleasure to be here and we are delighted that we have been able to come. Next Thursday we will celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, commemoration of gratitude for a bountiful harvest first celebrated, as we all