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| − | ==Sigmund Freud==
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| − | 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).
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| − | [[Freud]] developed a "[[structural model]]" of the [[psyche]], divided into three agencies:
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| − | * the [[ego]],
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| − | * the [[id]] and
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| − | * the [[superego]].
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| − | However, the concept of a moral agency which judges and censures the [[ego]] can be found in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]] long before he locates these functions in the [[superego]], such as in his concept of [[censorship]].
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| − | ==Jacques Lacan==
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| − | [[Lacan]]'s first discussion of the [[superego]] comes in his article on the family.<ref>Lacan, 1938</ref>
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| − | 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]].
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| − | He argues that the primary function of the [[superego]] is to [[repress]] [[sexual]] [[desire]] for the [[mother]] in the resolution of the [[Oedipus complex]].
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| − | 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>Lacan, 1938: 59-60</ref>
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| − | [[Lacan]] locates the [[superego]] in the [[symbolic]] [[order]].
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| − | "The [[superego]] is essentially located within the symbolic plane of speech."<ref>{{Sl}} p.102</ref>
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| − | The [[superego]] has a close relationship with the [[Law]], but this relationship is a [[paradox]]ical one.
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| − | The [[law]] as such is a [[symbolic]] [[structure]] which regulates [[subjectivity]] and in this sense prevents [[disintegration]].
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| − | On the other hand, the [[law]] of the [[superego]] has a "senseless, blind character, of pure imperativeness and simple tyranny."<ref>{{Sl}} p.102</ref>
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| − | Thus "the [[superego]] is at one and the same time the law and its destruction."<ref>{{Sl}} p.102</ref>
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| − | 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]]
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| − | attempt to avoid the ambiguity and equivocation of [[discourse]], it is precisely this ambiguity which [[psychoanalysis]] thrives on.
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| − | More specifically, in [[linguistic]] terms, 'the [[superego]] is an imperative."<ref>{{Sl}} p.102</ref>
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| − | In 1962, [[Lacan]] argues that this is none other than the [[Kant]]ian [[categorical imperative]].
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| − | The specific imperative involved is the command 'Enjoy!'; the [[superego]] is the [[Other]] insofar as the [[Other]] commands the [[subject]] to [[enjoy]].
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| − | The [[superego]] is thus the expression of the [[will-to-enjoy]] (volontÈ 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>
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| − | The [[superego]] is an "obscene, ferocious Figure"<ref>{{E}} p.256</ref> which imposes 'a senseless, destructive, purely oppressive, almost always anti-legal morality' on the neurotic subject.<ref>{{Sl}} p.102</ref>
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| − | The [[superego]] is related to the [[voice]], and thus to the invoking [[drive]] and to [[sadism]]/[[masochism]].
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| − | [[Category:Dictionary]]
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| − | [[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
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| − | [[Category:Terms]]
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| − | [[Category:Concepts]]
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| − | [[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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