ABSTRACT
It has been observed that Freud’s formulation of the superego was “the true beginning of sound object relations theory” and, therefore, the birth of two-person psychology. This chapter focuses on the development of classical ideas by a few influential psychoanalysts working mainly in the UK, and it considers some of their contributions only in so far as they are relevant to classical superego theory. Among therapists working within an Independent orientation, Berkowitz has drawn attention to “superego anxieties” in both patient and analyst. Rosenberg, in an exploration of the erotic transference, has described that erotic feelings are unacceptable to the superego, they are kept within the limbo of repression. The chapter mentions the monumental research published as The Freud–Klein Controversies which describes interesting and important debates on such topics as the development and dating of the superego, its genesis, formation, and introjection, its stages, and its relationship with guilt and identification.
