{ "issue_key": "vol09-no1-2021", "volume": 9, "number": 1, "season": "Spring 2021", "year": 2021, "sequence": 6, "type": "research-article", "section": "Research Article", "title": "The Immoral Superego: Conscience as the Fourth Element in the Structural Theory of the Mind", "subtitle": null, "slug": "the-immoral-superego-conscience-as-the-fourth-element-in-the-structural-theory", "corporate_author": null, "authors": [ { "given_name": "Donald L.", "family_name": "Carveth", "credentials": "PhD", "affiliation": "York University, Toronto, Canada", "email": null, "orcid": null, "is_corresponding": false, "sequence": 1 } ], "abstract": "Coinciding with the rise of neo-liberalism and the culture of narcissism, psychoanalytic concern with problems of guilt and the superego was displaced in favour of a range of other preoccupations. Today issues of conscience appear to be returning from repression both in society at large and in psychoanalysis, but our theory in this area is deficient in many respects. We have largely identified the superego with the moral and the id with the immoral, thus downplaying the frequent immorality of the superego and the morality of the id. We have implicitly succumbed to a moral relativism oblivious to the existence of a conscience capable of judging both society and the superego it shapes. If we are to live up to our claim to be “the psychology of the innermost mental processes of man in conflict” (Kris, 1938, p. 140), we need to recognize conflict between superego and conscience—and conscience itself as the fourth element of the structural theory of the mind.", "keywords": [ "Superego", "Conscience", "Moral", "Structural Theories", "Freud" ], "first_page": 15, "last_page": 27, "pdf_start": 15, "pdf_end": 27, "references": [ { "ordinal": 1, "raw_text": "Adorno, T. (1966). 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New Haven: Yale University Press." } ], "notes": [ "¹ Taken and updated from the original publication in the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis: Revue Canadienne de Psychanalyse 23, 1, 2015: 206-223" ], "figures": [], "files": { "html": "index.html", "body_markdown": "body.md", "pdf": "article.pdf" }, "word_count": 4979, "conversion_warnings": [ "Footnote 1 marker is attached to the article title in print (reprint note); there is no marker in the body text.", "Heading 'For Klein' (p.23) is printed as a bold standalone line and kept as a sub-heading although it reads like a run-in phrase; the following sentence is printed as is.", "Block quotes from Twain and Hugo marked with '>'; the line 'All right, then, I'll go to hell—and tore it up.' is printed at body size and left as a paragraph." ], "manifest_notes": "Title carries footnote marker 1 (stripped): footnote 1 on p.15 (8pt bold) 'Taken and updated from the original publication in the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis: Revue Canadienne de Psychanalyse 23, 1, 2015: 206-223' - i.e. a reprint. Title line 2 is 14pt NOT bold. Keywords line 'Key Words: Superego, Conscience, Moral, Structural Theories, Freud'. Affiliation from Contributors bio (Emeritus Professor ... Senior Scholar at York University, Toronto, Canada). Several long 9pt indented block quotes (x100 / x352) e.g. pp.17-18. References pp.25-27, two-column 9pt.", "source": { "pdf": "vol09-no1-2021.pdf", "ocr": false }, "reviewed": true }