ABSTRACT
The superego is an infantile solution to an infant’s problem. Freud calls it the heir to the Oedipus complex.37 It is a little difficult to follow the developmental story because both the ego and the superego are built up out of layers of identifications. The ‘simplified case’ (which Freud says never exists as such) is based on a nuclear family with heterosexual parents. As we have seen, such family structures can vary, and even within this family structure myriad variations are possible. Still, the ‘the simplified case’ sheds light on the broad structure of superego formation. Again, we can think of it in terms of structural moments.
