Ego ideal
Encyclopedia
The ego ideal is the inner image of oneself as one wants to become. Alternatively, 'The Freudian notion of a perfect or ideal self housed in the superego', consisting of 'the individual's conscious and unconscious images of what he would like to be, patterned after certain people whom...he regards as ideal'.
In the French strand of Freudian psychology
, the ego ideal (or ideal ego) has been defined as "an image of the perfect self towards which the ego should aspire."
" [1914], among other innovations - 'most important of all perhaps - it introduces the concepts of the "ego ideal" and of the self-observing agency related to it, which were the basis of what was ultimately to be described as the "super-ego" in The Ego and the Id
(1923b)'. Freud considered that the ego ideal was the heir to the narcissism
of childhood: the 'ideal ego is now the target of the self-love
which was enjoyed in childhood by the actual ego...is the substitute for the lost narcissism of his childhood'.
The decade that followed would see the concept playing an ever more important and fruitful part in his thinking. In "Mourning and Melancholia"[1917], Freud stressed how 'one part of the ego sets itself over against the other, judges it critically, and, as it were, takes it as its object'. A few years later, in "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego"[1921], he examined further how 'some such agency develops in our ego which may cut itself off from the rest of the ego and come into conflict with it. We have called it the "ego ideal"...heir to the original narcissism in which the childish ego enjoyed self-sufficiency'. Freud reiterated how 'in many forms of love-choice...the object serves as a substitute for some unattained ego ideal of our own', and further suggested that in group formation 'the group ideal...governs the ego in the place of the ego ideal'.
With "The Ego and the Id"[1923], however, Freud's nomenclature began to change. He still emphasised the importance of 'the existence of a grade in the ego, a differentiation in the ego, which may be called the "ego ideal" or "super-ego"', but it was the latter term which now came to the forefront of his thinking. 'Indeed, after The Ego and the Id and the two or three shorter works immediately following it, the "ego ideal" disappears almost completely as a technical term' for Freud. When it briefly reappears in the "New Introductory Lectures"[1933], it was as part of 'this super-ego...the vehicle of the ego ideal by which the ego measures itself...precipitate of the old picture of the parents, the expression of admiration for the perfection which the child then attributed to them'.
records that 'I once asked Freud if he regarded an "ego-ideal" as a universal attribute, and he replied with a puzzled expression: "Do you think Stekel
has an ego-ideal?"'.
defined the ideal ego as the combination of the ego and the id. This agency is the outcome of omnipotent narcissism and is manifested as pathology'. Otto Fenichel
, building on Sandor Rado
's 'differentiation of the "good" (i.e., protecting) and the "bad" (i.e., punishing) aspects of the superego' explored attempts to 'distinguish ego ideals, the patterns of what one would like to be, from the superego, which is characterized as a threatening, prohibiting, and punishing power': while acknowledging the linkages between the two agencies, he suggested for example that 'in humor the overcathected superego is the friendly and protective ego-ideal; in depression, it is the negative, hostile, punishing conscience'.
like Herbert Rosenfeld
're-invoked Freud's earlier emphasis on the importance of the ego ideal in narcissism, and conceived of a characteristic internal object - a chimerical montage or monster, one might say - that was constructed of the ego, the ego ideal, and the "mad omnipotent self"'. In their wake, Otto Kernberg highlighted the destructive qualities of the 'infantile, grandiose
ego ideal' - of 'identification with an overidealized self- and object-representation, with the primitive form of ego-ideal'.
Harold Bloom
has since explored in a literary context how 'in the narcissist, the ego-ideal becomes inflated and destructive, because it is filled with images of "perfection and omnipotence"'. Escape from such 'intense, excessive, and sometimes fatal devotion to the ego-ideal' - 'To the narcissist, the only reality is the ego-ideal' - is only possible when one 'gives up his corrupt ego-ideal and affirms the innocence of humility'.
, following Freud, had introduced a split into this concept, making the Ideal-Ich genetically prior to the surmoi (superego). Thereafter Daniel Lagache
developed the distinction, asserting with particular reference to adolescence that 'the adolescent identifies him- or herself anew with the ideal ego and strives by this means to separate from the superego and the ego ideal'.
Lacan
for his part explored the concept in terms of the subject's 'narcissistic identification...his ideal ego, that point at which he desires to gratify himself in himself'. For Lacan, 'the subject has to regulate the completion of what comes as...ideal ego - which is not the ego ideal - that is to say, to constitute himself in his imaginary
reality'.
'Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel
(1985) identified various possible outcomes for the ego ideal, perverse as well as creative'.
In the French strand of Freudian psychology
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, the ego ideal (or ideal ego) has been defined as "an image of the perfect self towards which the ego should aspire."
Freud, ego ideal, and superego
In Freud's "On Narcissism: an IntroductionOn Narcissism
On Narcissism was a 1914 essay by Sigmund Freud, widely considered an introduction to Freud's theories of narcissism.In this paper, Freud sums up his earlier discussions on the subject of narcissism and considers its place in sexual development...
" [1914], among other innovations - 'most important of all perhaps - it introduces the concepts of the "ego ideal" and of the self-observing agency related to it, which were the basis of what was ultimately to be described as the "super-ego" in The Ego and the Id
The Ego and the Id
"The Ego and the Id" is a prominent paper by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. It is an analytical study of the human psyche outlining his theories of the psychodynamics of the id, ego, and super-ego, which is of fundamental importance in the development of psychoanalytic...
(1923b)'. Freud considered that the ego ideal was the heir to the narcissism
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
of childhood: the 'ideal ego is now the target of the self-love
Self-love
Self-love is the strong sense of respect for and confidence in oneself. It is different from narcissism in that as one practices acceptance and detachment, the awareness of the individual shifts and the individual starts to see him or herself as an extension of all there is...
which was enjoyed in childhood by the actual ego...is the substitute for the lost narcissism of his childhood'.
The decade that followed would see the concept playing an ever more important and fruitful part in his thinking. In "Mourning and Melancholia"[1917], Freud stressed how 'one part of the ego sets itself over against the other, judges it critically, and, as it were, takes it as its object'. A few years later, in "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego"[1921], he examined further how 'some such agency develops in our ego which may cut itself off from the rest of the ego and come into conflict with it. We have called it the "ego ideal"...heir to the original narcissism in which the childish ego enjoyed self-sufficiency'. Freud reiterated how 'in many forms of love-choice...the object serves as a substitute for some unattained ego ideal of our own', and further suggested that in group formation 'the group ideal...governs the ego in the place of the ego ideal'.
With "The Ego and the Id"[1923], however, Freud's nomenclature began to change. He still emphasised the importance of 'the existence of a grade in the ego, a differentiation in the ego, which may be called the "ego ideal" or "super-ego"', but it was the latter term which now came to the forefront of his thinking. 'Indeed, after The Ego and the Id and the two or three shorter works immediately following it, the "ego ideal" disappears almost completely as a technical term' for Freud. When it briefly reappears in the "New Introductory Lectures"[1933], it was as part of 'this super-ego...the vehicle of the ego ideal by which the ego measures itself...precipitate of the old picture of the parents, the expression of admiration for the perfection which the child then attributed to them'.
Stekel's ego-ideal
Ernest JonesErnest Jones
Alfred Ernest Jones was a British neurologist and psychoanalyst, and Sigmund Freud’s official biographer. Jones was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and became its leading exponent in the English-speaking world where, as President of both the British Psycho-Analytical...
records that 'I once asked Freud if he regarded an "ego-ideal" as a universal attribute, and he replied with a puzzled expression: "Do you think Stekel
Wilhelm Stekel
Wilhelm Stekel was an Austrian physician and psychologist, who became one of Sigmund Freud's earliest followers, and was once described as "Freud's most distinguished pupil." According to Ernest Jones, "Stekel may be accorded the honour, together with Freud, of having founded the first...
has an ego-ideal?"'.
Further developments
Freud's followers would continue to exploit the potential tension between the concepts of superego and ego ideal. 'Hermann NunbergHermann Nunberg
Hermann Nunberg was a psychoanalyst and neurologist who was born in Będzin, Poland. He earned his medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1910, and for a short time practiced psychiatry in Schaffhausen and Bern. In 1912 he taught classes at the university clinic in Krakow...
defined the ideal ego as the combination of the ego and the id. This agency is the outcome of omnipotent narcissism and is manifested as pathology'. Otto Fenichel
Otto Fenichel
Otto Fenichel was a psychoanalyst of the so-called "second generation".Otto Fenichel started studying medicine in 1915 in Vienna. Already as a very young man, when still in school, he was attracted by the circle of psychoanalysts around Freud...
, building on Sandor Rado
Sandor Rado
Sándor Radó was a distinguished Hungarian psychoanalyst of the second generation, who moved to United States of America in the thirties....
's 'differentiation of the "good" (i.e., protecting) and the "bad" (i.e., punishing) aspects of the superego' explored attempts to 'distinguish ego ideals, the patterns of what one would like to be, from the superego, which is characterized as a threatening, prohibiting, and punishing power': while acknowledging the linkages between the two agencies, he suggested for example that 'in humor the overcathected superego is the friendly and protective ego-ideal; in depression, it is the negative, hostile, punishing conscience'.
In narcissism
KleiniansMelanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
like Herbert Rosenfeld
Herbert Rosenfeld
Herbert Alexander Rosenfeld was a British psychoanalyst, who was born in Germany in 1910 and died in London in 1986.'British analysts have been deeply influenced by the work and teachings of Rosenfeld who increasingly focused upon the analyst's contribution to what was happening in the analysis -...
're-invoked Freud's earlier emphasis on the importance of the ego ideal in narcissism, and conceived of a characteristic internal object - a chimerical montage or monster, one might say - that was constructed of the ego, the ego ideal, and the "mad omnipotent self"'. In their wake, Otto Kernberg highlighted the destructive qualities of the 'infantile, grandiose
Grandiosity
Grandiosity is chiefly associated with narcissistic personality disorder, but also commonly features in manic or hypomanic episodes of bipolar disorder....
ego ideal' - of 'identification with an overidealized self- and object-representation, with the primitive form of ego-ideal'.
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
has since explored in a literary context how 'in the narcissist, the ego-ideal becomes inflated and destructive, because it is filled with images of "perfection and omnipotence"'. Escape from such 'intense, excessive, and sometimes fatal devotion to the ego-ideal' - 'To the narcissist, the only reality is the ego-ideal' - is only possible when one 'gives up his corrupt ego-ideal and affirms the innocence of humility'.
Ideal ego
The ideal ego is a concept that has been particularly exploited in French psychoanalysis. Whereas Freud 'seemed to use the terms indiscriminately...ideal ego or ego ideal', in the thirties 'Hermann NunbergHermann Nunberg
Hermann Nunberg was a psychoanalyst and neurologist who was born in Będzin, Poland. He earned his medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1910, and for a short time practiced psychiatry in Schaffhausen and Bern. In 1912 he taught classes at the university clinic in Krakow...
, following Freud, had introduced a split into this concept, making the Ideal-Ich genetically prior to the surmoi (superego). Thereafter Daniel Lagache
Daniel Lagache
French physician, psychoanalyst, and professor at the Sorbonne, Daniel Lagache was born on December 3, 1903, in Paris, where he died on December 3, 1972.'He was one of the leading figures in twentieth century French psychoanalysis.-Career:...
developed the distinction, asserting with particular reference to adolescence that 'the adolescent identifies him- or herself anew with the ideal ego and strives by this means to separate from the superego and the ego ideal'.
Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
for his part explored the concept in terms of the subject's 'narcissistic identification...his ideal ego, that point at which he desires to gratify himself in himself'. For Lacan, 'the subject has to regulate the completion of what comes as...ideal ego - which is not the ego ideal - that is to say, to constitute himself in his imaginary
The Imaginary
The Imaginary order is one of a triptych of terms in the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, along with the symbolic and the real. Each of the trio of terms emerged gradually over time, and underwent an evolution during the development of Lacan's thought...
reality'.
'Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel
Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel
Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel was a leading French psychoanalyst, a training analyst, and past President of the Société psychanalytique de Paris in France. From 1983 to 1989, she was Vice President of the International Psychoanalytical Association...
(1985) identified various possible outcomes for the ego ideal, perverse as well as creative'.
See also
Further reading
- M. L. Nelson ed., The Narcissistic Condition (New York 1977)