Superego in freudian and lacanian thoughts: From morality to amorality, a structural gluttony

Abstract

This article offers a discussion on the superego based on the thoughts of Freud and Lacan and by focusing on the way it functions. We notice that what prevails are its structural gluttony, its status of Reality, and its status of psychic instance which are able to force the subject to seek pleasure. We describe clinical and theoretical vicissitudes of the superego from a historical perspective, from the excess of morality described by Freud to the amorality unveiled by Lacan and conclude that the gluttony of the superego for pleasure is what provides it with a structural position in the psyche.