|  | Mental Health | Anxiety Disorders

Superego and Anxiety

Anxiety and the superego are key concepts in the science of Psychoanalysis. Anxiety can be applied to a myriad of mental health problems, but it has a specific relationship with the idea of the superego that psychiatrists are trained to ascertain through psychoanalytic assessment of their patients. This interaction between the two is particularly important in Freudian analysis.

  1. Anxiety

    • Anxiety is an emotional state whereby a feeling of apprehension is often accompanied by a sense of dread or uneasiness. Usually these feelings do not have a direct object that causes them, but are vague in character and thus can be overwhelming. The physical manifestations of anxiety can include shortness of breath, sweating, a dry mouth and headaches. It is thought that anxiety developed as a response to potential danger during human evolution (i.e., fight or flight).

    Superego

    • The superego is one of the three parts of Sigmund Freud's concept of the human psyche. The other two are the id and the ego. The id comprises the instincts and natural impulses of humankind. The ego is the active, rational, realistic side of a person's character. The superego is the critical faculty and is informed by such conceptions as morality.

    Interaction between Anxiety and the Superego

    • Anxiety can occur when someone feels overwhelmed by the demands of his own superego. The internal mechanisms that drive the superego to moralize and instruct can cause the person to feel guilty that he is not able to meet the expectations of the superego. This conflict, where the ego is "overrun" by the superego, is what causes anxiety.

    Roots of Anxiety

    • It is a common theme in Freudian psychoanalysis that many mental health problems that people develop have their root cause in experiences during childhood because children are less able to utilize their mental faculties to reason themselves out of anxiety. In the case of anxiety and the superego, it may be linked, in Freudian theory, to fears of losing the mother's love or the mother herself. Each case, however, may have different causes, and it is the job of the psychiatrist to determine them. Treatment is through continued therapy.

    Further Reading

    • The key texts to understanding the part that the superego and its relationship to anxiety plays in the human psyche are two by Sigmund Freud. He first discussed these ideas in an essay called "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" published in 1920. The tripartite concept of the psyche was elaborated upon in a book entitled "The Ego and the Id," issued three years later.

Anxiety Disorders - Related Articles