Problems of the Superego Concept

IN LIGHT OF DEVELOPMENTS OF THE PAST 20 YEARS, A REEX-amination of the superego concept seems to be in order. In 1960, Sandler noted the difficulty that workers at the Hampstead Clinic had in extracting from their clinical data material easily recognizable as derivatives of superego functioning. He also noted the danger of what he called "the apparent conceptual dissolution of the superego." By this he referred to the difficulty in differentiating superego function and content from the activities of the rest of the psychic apparatus, and he related this development to the confusion surrounding the understanding of the genetic roots of the superego. In large measure these difficulties have persisted to the present time. If anything, they appear to have been aggravated. Perusing our literature, one is struck by the fact that the superego concept is mentioned frequently in contributions dealing with many subjects, but the concept superego itself rarely appears as the central topic of a clinical or theoretical contribution.

Perhaps the most significant influences affecting the superego concept stem from several trends in psychoanalysis that in our time have come to occupy the center of attention. Among these are the emphasis on preoedipal factors, especially very early object relations, together with a concomitant, relative