The Super-Ego and the Demiurge

June 17, 2005 | Share/Save

I read a great book years ago by a guy named Karl Menninger called “Man Against Himself - the Psychology of Self-Destruction” (or something like that). Basically it was psychological study of the suicidal impulse.

One of the most fascinating and worthwhile insights in this book came in the chapter on alchoholism and addiction. Basically, Menninger’s hypothesis was that black-out drinking represented a frontal assualt on the super-ego - that part of the psyche that represents all of the internalized authority figures and restrictions, the conscience, the inner tyrant, the inflexible rule upholder.

So, the black-out drinker gets looped in an attempt to take out the superego and let the Id roam free for a night. Problem is, the super-ego comes back the next morning with a vengeance and our one-man Bay of Pigs is now gripped with guilt and remorse in addition to a wicked hangover.

The solution, Menninger suggests, it to instead grow a healthy ego. The Super-ego is there to pick up the slack in the undeveloped psyche - to make sure the things that have to get done, do get done. It rules by fear, but a person with a healthy sense of self and ego does not rely on the super-ego so much. They have their own values and do not need a rigid inner parent to boss them around. Instead they rely on themselves and eventually the super-ego withers from disuse.

I used to think that the creator god of the Bible - Jehovah - could be knocked out in a blitzkrieg attack. Through sustained effort, I could destroy god. But by engaging him on his own terms I only made him stronger, and when I ran out of gas, he took me down. That’s one of the reasons this website went into hibernation in the late 90s, actually.

I’ve since realized that you can’t do battle that way and expect to win - to be a warrior you really have to understand the principles of warfare, and to fight Jehovah, the best way to do it is never to engage him at all. Sure, ridicule, expose and evade the angry desert father - but don’t expect to be able to go toe to toe with him and come out on top. He’s much stronger than you are.

Instead, like the black out drinker, you need to develop something inside yourself that you can rely on so that you don’t react to him. Eventually his hold over you will wither away all by itself. He is still there for other people, but sorry, that’s just not your problem anymore.

null