Id, ego and super-ego#Super-ego

The superego is a term from psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud.

In his metapsychology ( " The Ego and the Id " 1923) Freud distinguishes three " instances" of the psychic apparatus:

• The Es, the natural instinct instance,
• The ego, and
• The superego

The superego can be simplified in Freud's structural model of the psyche as a moral authority or conscience also be considered and is the opponent of the elemental impulses of lust It dar. Freud spoke of this instance as one of censorship. It is formed in early childhood ( up to 6 years ) and contains the ( moral ) norms and internalized values ​​of the cultural environment in which the individual grows up (especially the parents). The superego is formed by matching the own person to others with whom that person identifies himself. This process is referred to as fachsprachlich introjection.

When a man begins to think, this is already happening under the influence of the superego and the fundamental values ​​it contains. Because he feels it as his very own and he relates his personal identity from them, he can only to a very limited distance or emancipated by rational thinking of them.

The super-ego acts in the human psyche according to Freud as a supervisory body whose aim is to bring through self-observation one's own behavior in accordance with the ideal image. When - by meeting the needs of the Lust It - related deviations from this ideal to the superego affects the people in the form of Verspürens of guilt.

Freud's disciple Wilhelm Reich after he moved away from Freud's point of view, trying to superego ( as many other psychoanalytic terms ) to give a materialized dimension of meaning by it in his " Character Analysis " (1933 ) and their subsequent physiological justification ( body psychotherapy) as "functionally identical" designated by the psycho- physiologically understood character ( armor ).