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The couple's constructive and destructive superego functions

¹New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

|January 1, 1993

Summary

Couples develop a shared superego from partner interactions, influencing their relationship dynamics and potentially leading to pathology. This study explores the functions and symptoms of this joint superego in love lives.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Psychoanalysis
Relationship Dynamics

Background:

Couples integrate conscious and unconscious desires, fantasies, and internalized object relations.
Partner interactions activate conscious and unconscious superego functions within the couple.

Observation:

The continuous interaction of partners' superegos over time forges a new, shared system: the couple's superego.
This joint structure influences relationship dynamics, sexual fantasies, and internalized object relations.

Findings:

The study describes the functions of the couple's joint superego structure.
Symptoms of superego pathology in couples' love lives are identified, including issues with gratitude, guilt, stereotyping, and destructiveness.
A spectrum of joint superego pathology severity is explored.

Implications:

Understanding the couple's superego is crucial for analyzing relationship health and dysfunction.
Clinical interventions may benefit from addressing the dynamics of the joint superego.
This framework offers insights into destructive and self-destructive relationship patterns.

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