Opening the mind to reality

The author shows, through the use of clinical material, how an early failure in love can give rise to a severely crippling superego. The experience of a hateful relation with the mother is not simply internalized as a persecuting internal object, but is grafted onto the very roots of superego formation. As a result, the development of other parts of the psyche are affected--specifically the relation between the ago and self and the development of sexuality. The alienation between ego and self impairs thinking and the perception of external reality, which is modified and denied in the service of maintaining a pathological superego. By allowing the patient's hateful feelings to come out in the transference, without making him feel guilty, he is then able to risk expressing his loving feelings without the fear of rejection or abandonment. Through this process, the pathological superego can be dismantled and a more benign superego constructed.