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.
“Eskimos have 29 words to describe snow, each alluding to a different quality”.—A professor had just said this to a group of psychoanalytic candidates when he was interrupted by a sharp remark from one of them: “Snow for Eskimos is like the superego concept for psychoanalysts—it has at least 29 different meanings.” Thus he implied that while Eskimos are far more differentially articulated than we about snow, they always allude to the same snow. Psychoanalysts are equally articulated about the “superego,” but do not necessarily always refer to the same concept.
Flugel's Man, Morals and Society was considered a superego encyclopedia when published in 1945; although immensely informative, its major drawback is its “additive” rather than “integrative” nature7. Although Flugel's book reflected a considerable general agreement, Brierley stated then that the superego was still “a bone of contention.” I think the same observation applies 35 years later.
While studying the difficulties encountered by therapists at the Hampstead Child-Therapy Clinic in categorizing and classifying superego-related clinical material, Sandler86 noticed an “apparent conceptual dissolution of the superego concept“—a “conceptual dissolution” which he related to the consequences of an advanced understanding of the superego's genetic roots, a lack of theoretical precision in differentiating superego content from ego content, and confusion over the mechanisms of superego formation. He contrasted the repercussions