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In The Petrified Ego, Elizabeth Reddish, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, has adapted her professional doctorate (which was motivated by work with a particular
type of patient), carefully and impressively developing a revised theory of the evolution and function of conscience. She argues that Freud's 1923 formulation of the superego neglected the idea that the superego had its formulation in the survival instinct, that this yields two distinct stages of superego development (an archaic superego that in healthy development gives rise to a superego negotiated by the ego), and that this has clinical implications as well as implications for our understanding of the psychological relationship between the individual and society.
Reddish proposes that it is a commonly held view that a ‘mature’ conscience involves the individual moving beyond an early focus on individual pleasure to developing a capacity to accommodate social values. She takes a different position:
… a healthy, mature conscience does not emerge from a compromise between individual values and social values, “bad” tamed into “good”. A healthy, mature conscience results from the managed articulation between two entities of a different order. A stable mental state (which incorporates a socially healthy conscience) is attained through the attachment to social ideals whilst simultaneously holding to a belief in, and capacity to assert, the richness and depth of individual experience (on behalf of the self and of other individuals.) (p. 2)
Those familiar with Jung's work may draw parallels with the concept of individuation.
After introducing us to her theory and placing it in the context of Klein and other writers (including Donald Kalsched), as well as introducing a patient group for whom she feels her theory suggests relevant clinical considerations, Reddish develops her thoughts over five chapters. She begins with two broad literature reviews, the first of which documents the historical development of Freud's co