Conscience as the Reappearance of the Other in Self-Experience: On Using the Concepts Superego and Conscience in Self Psychology

Abstract

Many self-psychologically oriented psychoanalysts regard the traditional psychoanalytic construct of a psychic authority situated above the ego as a reification of a relational process and as such no longer relevant. The isolated view of the superego fails to recognize the dynamic, nonlinear nature of the therapeutic relationship in an inter-subjective context. Conscience as an aspect of the superego can, along with the introspective judgment of one's own actions, be embedded in the self so as to become an internal guideline for the necessary personal decisions of social life. Conscience is, among other things, what gives us the courage of our convictions.