Key Arguments

• Freud claims that, due to its formation history, the ego-ideal has “the most extensive link with the phylogenetic acquisition—the archaic inheritance—of the individual,” raising what was originally lowest in inner life into “the highest of the human soul.”
• He asserts that “the Ego Ideal satisfies all requirements associated with the higher being in man,” explicitly identifying it with what is culturally valued as higher or noble.
• As “a surrogate for fatherly longing it contains the seed from which all religions have formed,” thereby grounding religious experience in the ego-ideal.
• Feelings of religious humility are explained psychologically: “The judgment of one’s own inadequacy in comparison to the Ego’s with its Ego Ideal yields the humble religious feeling which the yearning believer invokes.”
• Teachers and later authorities “have carried forward the father role; their commands and prohibitions have remained powerful in the Ego Ideal and now practice moral censorship as conscience,” thus conscience is a function of the ego-ideal.
• The “tension between the demands of conscience and the performance of the Ego is perceived as a feeling of guilt,” directly deriving guilt from the conflict between ego and ego-ideal.
• Freud adds that “The social feelings rest on identifications with others on the basis of the same Ego Ideal,” making shared ego-ideals the foundation of social emotions and solidarity.

Source Quotes

as a result of its formation history, the most extensive link with the phylogenetic acquisition—the archaic inheritance—of the individual. 77 What has belonged to the lowermost of individual inner life becomes, through the ideal formation, the highest of the human soul in the sense of our ratings scale. But it would be a futile endeavor 78 to localize the Ego Ideal even in a similar way as we did the Ego or to fit it into one of the analogies through which we tried to simulate the relationship of the Ego and the Id.

But it would be a futile endeavor 78 to localize the Ego Ideal even in a similar way as we did the Ego or to fit it into one of the analogies through which we tried to simulate the relationship of the Ego and the Id. It is easy to show that the Ego Ideal satisfies all requirements associated with the higher being in man. As a surrogate for fatherly longing it contains the seed from which all religions have formed.

It is easy to show that the Ego Ideal satisfies all requirements associated with the higher being in man. As a surrogate for fatherly longing it contains the seed from which all religions have formed. The judgment of one’s own inadequacy in comparison to the Ego’s with its Ego Ideal yields the humble religious feeling which the yearning believer invokes.

As a surrogate for fatherly longing it contains the seed from which all religions have formed. The judgment of one’s own inadequacy in comparison to the Ego’s with its Ego Ideal yields the humble religious feeling which the yearning believer invokes. In the further course of growing up, teachers and authorities have carried forward the father role; their commands and prohibitions have remained powerful in the Ego Ideal and now practice moral censorship as conscience.

The judgment of one’s own inadequacy in comparison to the Ego’s with its Ego Ideal yields the humble religious feeling which the yearning believer invokes. In the further course of growing up, teachers and authorities have carried forward the father role; their commands and prohibitions have remained powerful in the Ego Ideal and now practice moral censorship as conscience. The tension between the demands of conscience and the performance of the Ego is perceived as a feeling of guilt.

In the further course of growing up, teachers and authorities have carried forward the father role; their commands and prohibitions have remained powerful in the Ego Ideal and now practice moral censorship as conscience. The tension between the demands of conscience and the performance of the Ego is perceived as a feeling of guilt. The social feelings 79 rest on identifications with others on the basis of the same Ego Ideal.

The tension between the demands of conscience and the performance of the Ego is perceived as a feeling of guilt. The social feelings 79 rest on identifications with others on the basis of the same Ego Ideal. Religion, morality, and social sensibility—the main contents of the higher in man 80 —were originally one.

The social feelings 79 rest on identifications with others on the basis of the same Ego Ideal. Religion, morality, and social sensibility—the main contents of the higher in man 80 —were originally one. Following the hypothesis of Totem and Taboo, 81 they were acquired phylogenetically from the father complex, 82 then religion and moral constraint by coming to terms with the actual Oedipus Complex, and social feelings through the duress of overcoming the rivalry spared among members of the younger generation.

Key Concepts

• as a result of its formation history, the most extensive link with the phylogenetic acquisition—the archaic inheritance—of the individual. 77 What has belonged to the lowermost of individual inner life becomes, through the ideal formation, the highest of the human soul in the sense of our ratings scale.
• It is easy to show that the Ego Ideal satisfies all requirements associated with the higher being in man.
• As a surrogate for fatherly longing it contains the seed from which all religions have formed.
• The judgment of one’s own inadequacy in comparison to the Ego’s with its Ego Ideal yields the humble religious feeling which the yearning believer invokes.
• their commands and prohibitions have remained powerful in the Ego Ideal and now practice moral censorship as conscience.
• The tension between the demands of conscience and the performance of the Ego is perceived as a feeling of guilt.
• The social feelings 79 rest on identifications with others on the basis of the same Ego Ideal.
• Religion, morality, and social sensibility—the main contents of the higher in man 80 —were originally one.

Context

Middle of Chapter III, as Freud synthesizes previous discussions of the ego-ideal/superego and explicitly identifies it as the psychic locus of religion, morality, conscience, guilt, and social feelings.