THE SUPEREGO AS A CULTURAL REGIME: FROM FREUD TO LACAN

Annotation

The article is devoted to the examination of the evolution of the concept of the “superego” in the history of psychoanalysis and its cultural interpretations. The relevance of the topic is defined by a dual perspective: on the one hand, the necessity of clarifying the role of the psychoanalytic tradition in the formation of humanities knowledge of the 20th-21st centuries, and on the other, the interest of cultural studies in the mechanisms of normative and symbolic control in society. The purpose of the article is to identify the key stages in the transformation of the concept of the “superego”: from its introduction by S. Freud as an instance of moral prohibition and guilt to J. Lacan’s interpretation as the paradoxical imperative of enjoyment. Special attention is paid to the Russian context of the 1920s-1930s, when psychoanalysis was subject to ideological restrictions, as well as to contemporary cultural practices in which the superego manifests itself as a specific form of affective pressure.

Keywords

psychoanalysis, Freud, Lacan, superego, cultural studies, guilt, enjoyment, history of psychoanalysis

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