You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Glover5 suggests subdividing superego development into “layers representing historical phases of the infantile struggle to master primitive forms of instinct.” He refers to an oral superego nucleus with punishment for oral-sadistic fantasies (being devoured by a “wild object”), to an anal superego (anal fantasies controlled by what Ferenczi called “sphincter morality”), and finally to the genital superego. This controls the “complicated psychic derivatives of the incest (Oedipus) situation, jealousy, rivalry, hostility, etc. By so doing, it establishes its undisputed unconscious authority over all ethical and moral issues.”
Glover's outline has been considerably broadened by the concepts of ego psychology, particularly those of Hartmann,6 Erik Erikson,1 and Edith Jacobson.9 We could speak of early and late internalizations in ego and superego development. The earlier internalizations are called introjections and the later internalizations identifications. Ego internalizations are used also for later superego development, and in the early developmental stage it is not easy to keep separate the ego and the superego internalizations. Among the introjections of the early oral-narcissistic phase are precursors of the superego, particularly the ego ideal, which is the guiding and measuring function of the superego. In this phase there is a limited ability to establish selective internalizations. Establishment of selective internalizations becomes very important to later identifications. But the more anxious the child, the more he tends to take in the environment globally. The early introjections are completely under the sway of drive-dominated perception of objects. But even in this stage, introjects are not only passively accepted but also actively sought by