The formation of the superego from the ego is not accidental; it crystallizes two decisive biological and phylogenetic factors—prolonged human childhood helplessness and the specifically human, two-stage sexual development linked to cultural evolution—by giving parental influence a permanent, internal expression.

By Sigmund Freud, from The Ego and the Id

Key Arguments

  • Freud urges us to "cast our eyes again on the described origin of the Superego so we recognize it as the result of two highly significant biological factors, the long childlike helplessness and dependency of a person and the truth of his Oedipus Complex, which we already have tied back to the interruption of libido development through latency, 73 hence the two-fold start of his sexual life. 74 75"
  • He describes the second factor as a "specifically human peculiarity" that "has developed per a psychoanalytic hypothesis, as an inheritance through the Ice-Age-compelled development of culture 76."
  • He concludes that "Thus, the division of the Superego from the Ego is not by chance, it represents the most significant traits of individual and species development by giving the parental influence permanent expression, it perpetuated the existence of the factors to which it owes its origin."

Source Quotes

From where it derives the power for this domination, the compulsive character, that expresses itself as a categorical imperative, 72 I shall later proffer a guess. Let us cast our eyes again on the described origin of the Superego so we recognize it as the result of two highly significant biological factors, the long childlike helplessness and dependency of a person and the truth of his Oedipus Complex, which we already have tied back to the interruption of libido development through latency, 73 hence the two-fold start of his sexual life. 74 75 The latter, as it seems specifically human peculiarity, has developed per a psychoanalytic hypothesis, as an inheritance through the Ice-Age-compelled development of culture 76. Thus, the division of the Superego from the Ego is not by chance, it represents the most significant traits of individual and species development by giving the parental influence permanent expression, it perpetuated the existence of the factors to which it owes its origin.
Let us cast our eyes again on the described origin of the Superego so we recognize it as the result of two highly significant biological factors, the long childlike helplessness and dependency of a person and the truth of his Oedipus Complex, which we already have tied back to the interruption of libido development through latency, 73 hence the two-fold start of his sexual life. 74 75 The latter, as it seems specifically human peculiarity, has developed per a psychoanalytic hypothesis, as an inheritance through the Ice-Age-compelled development of culture 76. Thus, the division of the Superego from the Ego is not by chance, it represents the most significant traits of individual and species development by giving the parental influence permanent expression, it perpetuated the existence of the factors to which it owes its origin.
74 75 The latter, as it seems specifically human peculiarity, has developed per a psychoanalytic hypothesis, as an inheritance through the Ice-Age-compelled development of culture 76. Thus, the division of the Superego from the Ego is not by chance, it represents the most significant traits of individual and species development by giving the parental influence permanent expression, it perpetuated the existence of the factors to which it owes its origin. It has been accused of psychoanalysis countless times that it does not pay attention to the higher, moral, supra-personal in people.

Key Concepts

  • we recognize it as the result of two highly significant biological factors, the long childlike helplessness and dependency of a person and the truth of his Oedipus Complex, which we already have tied back to the interruption of libido development through latency, 73 hence the two-fold start of his sexual life. 74 75
  • The latter, as it seems specifically human peculiarity, has developed per a psychoanalytic hypothesis, as an inheritance through the Ice-Age-compelled development of culture 76.
  • Thus, the division of the Superego from the Ego is not by chance, it represents the most significant traits of individual and species development by giving the parental influence permanent expression, it perpetuated the existence of the factors to which it owes its origin.

Context

Mid-late part of Chapter III, where Freud connects superego formation to ontogenetic and phylogenetic factors and to a psychoanalytic prehistory of human culture.