ABSTRACT
Super-Ego is built up as part of our normal mental growth through a series of reactions by which a child seeks to cope with his inner fears on the one hand, and the demands of the environment on the other. This is why the consciences of human beings vary so greatly in their efficiency and are so often unsuited to the demands of daily life. Most of us believe that the essence of a good conscience is strength: above all, it must be firm enough to hold in check wrongful desires and tendencies to bad behaviour. A healthy conscience is a pre-requisite of human happiness, as well as of most human goodness. Man is moral, therefore, because he possesses a conscience, a mechanism which is common to the species, and which together with reason distinguishes him from the lower animals. It is the business of his conscience to make him carry out his ideas of right and wrong.
