ABSTRACT
Several patients—both women and men—have told about the moving success story of [Britain’s Got Talent singer] Susan Boyle with tears pouring down their cheeks. The youngest of nine children, Boyle developed learning difficulties as a result of being deprived of oxygen at her birth. She was bullied throughout her childhood by other children, although very much protected within her family. In psychoanalytic terms, Boyle’s performance highlights the difference between the ego-ideal and the superego. The Austrian psychoanalyst Annie Reich explains, “The ego-ideal represents what one wishes to be, the superego what one ought to be.” The ego-ideal is initially based on an idealised image of the parents that the child internalises and that is gradually modified as the child grows and incorporates other characteristics from his environment that form a model to aspire to. In healthy development, the superego tempers these aspirations by reminding the ego of its limitations—it keeps the ego grounded.
