You Ought To!: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Superego and Conscience

A compact but comprehensive survey, of the concept of the superego is very much to be welcomed. His thoroughness and his systematic approach are evident in this book. Starting with an account of how Freud elaborated, over many years, the idea of an agency within a person’s mind which monitors and passes judgement on the person, Barnett goes on to describe the evolution of the superego from infancy to adulthood. He considers different views of this development and its chronology, and also how various analytic orientations have conceptualised the operation of the mature superego.