Ways of Female Superego Formation and the Female Castration Conflict

Freud (1925) has repeatedly expressed the opinion that on the average, the female superego, compared with that of the male, is organized rather weakly, is unstable, and has no independence. In his last work on Female Sexuality (1931) he again expresses the same opinion. Convincingly, he explains the imperfect formation of the female superego by referring to the different development of the female castration conflict. The little girl does not develop real 'castration fear', which is the strongest causal factor in the overcoming of the Oedipal conflict. Since the fear of loss of love does not have the same dramatic significance as the boy's castration fear, her Oedipal wishes are only slowly and incompletely given up and do not leave behind a stable superego as the heir of the Oedipus complex.

Studies of the female personality and clinical analytic experiences with female patients appear to confirm this view. We know, for example, about the greater frequency of compulsive narcissism in men and of hysteria in women. However, we have to question why the illness which is characterized by the merciless cruelty of the superego, the melancholic depression, occurs so predominantly in females.

Even more surprising is the fact that in the treatment of women whose superego appears to be weak and anaclitic, whose moral judgments seem to vacillate and to depend on those of the environment, the patients may suddenly show eruptions of cruel