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One of the three agencies described by [[Freud]]'s second [[topography]] of the [[psyche]], the others being the [[ego]] and the [[id]].
[[Freud]] introduces the concept of the [[superego]] in 1923.
The [[superego]] begins to take shape as the [[child]] emerges from the [[Oedipus complex]], renounces its [[incest]]uous [[desire]] for the [[patient]] of the opposite sex and internalizes the paternal prohibitions that make that [[desire]] [[taboo]].
[[Freud]] therefore describes the [[superego]] as the 'heir to the Oedipus complex'<ref>1933</ref> and sees it as an internal conscience.
It gradually becomes more refined and sophisticated as the ideals conveyed by education, morality and religion are internalized and fuse with the internalized parental images.
In keeping with her views on the 'early' [[Oedipus complex]], [[Klein]] holds (1933) that the effects of the [[superego]] are observable in very early stages of childhood.
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The term "[[superego]]" does not appear until quite late in [[Freud]]'s work, being first introduced in ''The Ego and the Id'' (1923).
It was in this work that [[Freud]] introduced his so-called "structural model", in which the psyche is divided into three agencies: the ego, the id and the superego.
However, the concept of a moral agency which judges and censures the ego can be found in Freud's work long before he locates these funcitons in the superego, such as in his concept of censorship.
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Lacan's first discussion of the superego comes in her articule on the family.
In this work he distinguishes clearly between the superego and the [[ego-ideal]], terms which Freud seems to use interchangeably in ''The Ego and the Id.
He argues that the primary function of the superego is to repress sexual desire for the mother in the resolution of the Oedipus complex.
Following Freud, he argues that the superego results from Oedipal identification with the father, but he also refers to Melanie Klein's thesis on the maternal origins of an archaic form of the superego.<ref>{{L}} o.1938. p.59-60</ref>
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When [[Lacan]] returns to the subject of the superego in his 1953-4 seminar; he locates it in the symbolic order, as opposed to the imaginary order of the ego: the superego is essentially located within the symbolic plane of speech.<ref>{{S1}} p.102</ref>
The superego has a close relationship with the Law, but this relationship is a paradoxical one.
On the one hand, the Law as such is a symbolic structure which regualtes subjectivity and in tis sense prevents disintegration.
On the other hand, the law of the superego has a "senseless, blind character, of pure imperativeness and simple tyranny.<ref>{{S1}} p.102</ref>
Thus "the superego is at one and the same time the law and its destruction."<ref>{{S1}} p.102</ref>
The [[superego]] arises from the misunderstanding of the law, from the gaps in the symbolic chain, and fills out those gaps with an imaginary substitute that distorts the law.<ref>{{E}} p.143</ref>
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More specifically, in linguistic terms, "the superego is an imperative."<ref>{{S1}} p.102</ref>
In 1962, [[Lacan]] argues that this is none other than the Kantian categorical imperative.
The specific imperative involved is the command "Enjoy!"; the superego is the Other insofar as the Other commands the subject to enjoy.
The superego is thus the expression of the will-to-enjoy (volonte de jouissance''), which is not the subject's own will but the will of the Other, who assumes the form of Sade's 'Supreme Being-in-Evil."<ref>{{Ec}} p.773</ref>
The [[superego]] is an "obscene, ferocious Figure"<ref>{{E}} p.256</ref> which imposes "a senseless, destructive, purely oppressive, almost always anti-legel morality" on the [[neurotic]] [[subject]].<ref>{{S1}} p.102</ref>
The [[superego]] is related to the [[voice]], and thus to the invoking drive and to sadism/masochism.
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==Sigmund Freud==
The term '[[superego]]' ([[Fr]]. ''[[surmoi]]'') does not appear until quite late in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], being first introduced in [[The Ego and the Id]] (1923).
[[Lacan]] locates the [[superego]] in the [[symbolic]] [[order]].
"The [[superego]] is essentially located within the symbolic plane of speech."<ref>{{SlS1}} p.102</ref>
The [[superego]] has a close relationship with the [[Law]], but this relationship is a [[paradox]]ical one.
