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==Sigmund Freud==
The term "[[superego]]" does not appear until quite late in [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|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 [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|work]] long before he locates these functions in the [[superego]], such as in his concept of [[censorship]].
==Jacques Lacan==
[[Lacan]]'s first [[discussion]] of the [[superego]] comes in his 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]] [[desire|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 [[Kleinian psychoanalysis|Melanie Klein]]'s [[thesis]] on the [[maternal]] origins of an archaic [[form]] of the [[superego]].<ref>{{1938}} p. 59-60</ref>
===Symbolic Law===
When Lacan returns to the subject of the superego in his 1953-4 [[seminar]]; he locates it in the [[symbolic|symbolic order]], as opposed to the [[imaginary|imaginary order]] of the [[ego]]: the [[superego]] is essentially located within the [[symbolic|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 this [[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>
<blockquote>Thus "the superego is at one and the same [[time]] the law and its [[destruction]]."<ref>{{S1}} p. 102</ref></blockquote>
The superego arises from the misunderstanding of the [[law]], from the [[gap]]s in the [[symbolic]] [[chain]], and fills out those [[gap]]s with an [[imaginary]] [[substitute]] that distorts the [[law]].<ref>{{E}} p. 143</ref>
===Philosophy===
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 [[Kant]]ian [[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 [[superego|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]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Ego]]
* [[Desire]]
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* [[Drive]]
* [[Id]]
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* [[Identification]]
* ''[[Jouissance]]''
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* [[Law]]
* [[Oedipus complex]]
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* [[Philosophy]]
* [[Repression]]
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* [[Structure]]
* [[Symbolic]]
{{Also}}
==References==
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