It arises both from introjection of external authority and from the internalization of aggressionagainst that authority. Thus Freudessentially fuses thesis 1 and thesis 2 to form thesis 3 about the generationof the super-ego. Hethen suggests that it is perhaps not so much introjection of externalauthority, as in thesis 1, that explains the relationship between the ego andexternal disciplinary figures, but perhaps simply the aggression the ego senses against the father (orparents) that cannot be directed at its true object, and hence turns inwardagainst the ego, that is responsible for this relationship.
To suspend this contradiction hesuggests that the first and second reflexes are actually both operative andwork in tandem with one another, making the super-ego even more powerful. That explainswhy often those who are least inclined to immoral acts are also those who aremost severely punished by their own conscience.ģ) Freud admits that these 2possibilities seem potentially contradictory. –The more aggression that isdiverted inward, the greater the power of the super-ego becomes. These internally directed aggressions become the basis for thesuper-ego and its ego-punishment. –The economy of the psychedemands that instincts can never be dispelled but only diverted or re-directed.Since civilization forces us to check and repress our aggressive instinct,those instinctual impulses that are suppressed are turned against the egoitself. This thesis is consistent withwhat Freud theorizes in the context of his discussion of the Oedipus complexand its dissolution.Ģ) The super-ego develops as the internalizationof those aggressive instincts that one cannot successfully turn outward. TheAggressive Instinct and the Generation of the Super-Egoįreud returns in the context of theaggressive instinct to his deliberations on the super-ego and contemplatesthree different possible developmental origins for this psychic agency whosesole purpose (as conscience) is the discipline and punishment of the ego.ġ) The super-ego represents the introjection into the psyche of an externalauthority figure ,especially the father or the parents in general.