What is the difference between conscience and superego

Reiner, A. Sagan, E. New York: Basic Books. Sandler, J. Schafer, R. Searles, H. Seneca, L. Stern, K. In: Love and Success. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Giroux, pp. Strachey, J. Twain, M. Winnicott, D. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 8: — Article Google Scholar.

Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to Donald L Carveth. Reprints and Permissions. Why we should stop conflating the superego with the conscience. Psychoanal Cult Soc 22, 15—32 Download citation. Published : 26 April Issue Date : March Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Skip to main content. Search SpringerLink Search. References Adorno, T. Google Scholar Akhtar, S. Google Scholar Arlow, J. Google Scholar Bloom, P. Google Scholar Bollas, C. Google Scholar Bowlby, J. Google Scholar Carveth, D. Google Scholar Chomsky, N. Google Scholar De Waal, F. Google Scholar Erikson, E. Google Scholar Fairbairn, W. Google Scholar Ferenczi, S. Google Scholar Fernando, J. Google Scholar Freud, S.

Google Scholar Grinberg, L. Google Scholar Hughes, J. Google Scholar Jacoby, R. Google Scholar Kavaler-Adler, S. Google Scholar Kierkegaard, S. Google Scholar Klein, M. Google Scholar Kohut, H. Google Scholar Kris, E. It is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable.

The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave. Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure i. The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or the id.

Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can do is stay on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action were its own. Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider. The ego is 'like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superiour strength of the horse.

If the ego fails in its attempt to use the reality principle, and anxiety is experienced, unconscious defense mechanisms are employed, to help ward off unpleasant feelings i.

The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational, realistic, and orientated towards problem-solving. If a plan of action does not work, then it is thought through again until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.

An important feature of clinical and social work is to enhance ego functioning and help the client test reality through assisting the client to think through their options. The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 — 5 years during the phallic stage of psychosexual development.

The superego is seen as the purveyor or rewards feelings of pride and satisfaction and punishments feelings of shame and guilt depending on which part the ego-deal or conscious is activated. The main difference between conscience and superego is that conscience pays emphasis on the personal identification of moral actions while superego is heavily influenced by external influences.

Accordingly, conscience is a part of the superego and accounts for the part that provides the moral guidance and the results for actions. However, modern psychology has identified limitations to what Freud has highlighted as conscience in the superego.

Superego consists of moral conscience as well as the ideal self while conscience consists of what an individual identifies as morally good and bad things. Thus, there is a distinct difference between conscience and superego. What is Conscience — Definition, Nature, Significance 2. What is Superego — Definition, Nature, Significance 3.

Freud identified conscience as a part of the superego. Similarly, when the same person does a bad or evil deed, conscience responds to it as a sinful act; therefore the evil consequences have to be suffered by that person in the form of punishment.

In brief, conscience is the part of your personality that helps you to determine between right and wrong. Hence, there is more of personalized moral conscience in this. Thus, it is the conscience that gives moral judgments to the results of the actions of a person. Moreover, Freud pointed out two subdivisions of the human conscience: good and the bad conscience.