Page - 134 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

134 The search for the self – identity 5.3 The superego and its early forms In his book New Introductory Lectures on Psycho -Analysis (1932), Freud describes the superego as a transactional structure with three functions: self -observation, conscience and formation of the ideals . . . (the superego has) the functions of self -observation, of conscience and of (maintaining) the ideal. . . . The super -ego is the representative for us of every moral restriction, the advocate of a striving towards perfection – it is, in short, as much as we have been able to grasp psychologically of what is described as the higher side of human life. . . . Thus a child’s super -ego is in fact constructed on the model not of its parents but of its parents’ super -ego; the contents which fill it are the same and it becomes the vehicle of tradition and of all the time - resisting judgements of value which have propagated themselves in this man- ner from generation to generation. (Freud 1932–33, 65ff ) Feelings of inferiority and guilt arise from the tensions between the ego and the superego, where guilt feelings correspond to the conscience and the feeling of inferiority corresponds to the ego ideal. When someone writes a diary, she is satisfying her need for “self -explanation” (Seiffge -Krenke 1985, 134). Experiences, feelings, moods and hopes are confided uncensored to the diary. Alongside the relieving, cathartic function, a diary offers the possibility to master feelings and integrate moods that are often contradic- tory. Earlier observations are brought into perspective with later ones and modi- fied. Since diary entries capture the momentary emotional state, they are also well suited to illustrate psychic development. Now, we will accompany Lari in her development past her previous diary, where she told of her first amorous experi- ences and disappointments. An outer event changes Lari’s world. She begins a new diary and writes on January 18, 1986, as a 13 -year -old: Saturday Today we came back . . . from the skiing course. I was so looking forward to seeing Mama, Jutta and Timmy (their pet dog). But I fought with her again, or, to put it more accurately, she started it. Mama is so sad. She has so many worries and wants us not to fight on top of that. She wants to file for divorce on Monday. I’m so sad! All my friends have a family, only I don’t have one. I’m embarrassed to tell them that my parents are getting a divorce. I don’t have the confidence to tell them. I feel like an outsider. Maybe my friends won’t like me anymore. I hope it won’t be that way. Right now I’m listening to “West Side Story”. That comforts me a little. I hope everything will be good again. I was so looking forward to St Christophen. But Mama won’t let me go there with Papa. Phillipp is here right now. He has it so good. He