Concept
Ego-destructive superego
In Bion's account, a severe internal object that attacks the ego's capacities instead of guiding them. He described it in 'Attacks on Linking' (1959). The infant's envy and hate, made worse by a mother who cannot take in its projections, turn the breast it had felt as understanding into an object greedy to take in the infant's projective identifications only in order to destroy them. Once internalised, this object acts as a severe and ego-destructive superego: it forbids projective identification and attacks the links of emotion and thought. Later Kleinians took up the figure, notably Edna O'Shaughnessy, whose abnormal superego (1999) entices the ego away from its objects and from life, and Ronald Britton (2003).
- Introduced by
- Wilfred Bion
- Key works
- 3
- Related
- Attacks on linking
introduced by
- Wilfred Bion 1959 In 'Attacks on Linking' (1959), Bion describes an understanding breast that envy and hate have turned into a destroyer of the infant's projective identifications. Once internalised, it acts as a severe and ego-destructive superego.
derives from
- Attacks on linking 1959 The ego-destructive superego is the internal precipitate of the failed link between infant and mother. It forms where the normal communication by projective identification is missing, and from inside it goes on attacking links of emotion and reason.
developed by
- Edna O'Shaughnessy 1999 In 'Relating to the Superego' (1999), O'Shaughnessy sets the abnormal superego, Bion's ego-destructive superego, against the normal one. The normal superego grows from the emotional relations of childhood. The abnormal one stems from dissociations inflicted and suffered in childhood, usurps the normal superego's authority, and entices the ego to turn from its objects and from life.