johannes k.

i agree with almost nothing freud said about the superego and i also don't agree with the person who decided to translate Ich as 'ego' and Über-ich as 'superego', and especially Es (you are also an it!) as Id, but that's neither here nor there.

the point is : Freud identified the Über-ich and for this we will be forever grateful. a thousand years from now he will be remembered for this, provided the human race is still around then and the planet would prefer it if it wasn't but who knows, humans might reinvent themselves. i am not a humanist but i am not an anti-humanist either. for all i know i may be an ahumanist, but i'd have to read patricia maccormack's book first.

i would say i am a radically optimistic posthumanist.

for me, and from my experience of working with people and the work on my-so-called-self, you have to get to know your own Über-ich and find out what it is and how it works and doesn't work — and how it tricks you.

one of the ways in which it tricks you is if you believe that the Über-ich is the best version of 'you' and if you have a less than functional Über-ich (and there are many of us — probably because we had less than fully functional, or absent, fathers :p) you can be in a position where because you have difficulties planning, making decisions, knowing what to do or not to do, even being your so-called self, you think of yourself as failing or a failure as a human being.

of course the world in which we live, particularly right now, values the ego and the super-ego. the more 'super' your superego the better it is in a world run by neoliberal individualists, egotists and narcissists.

for dutch speakers : whenever anyone says 'super!' in response to something, you can quickly add 'ego' for fun — if they say 'top!' you can add 'dog'.