Superego - Psychology Definition of the Week

Definition: According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the superego is the component of personality composed of our internalized ideals that we have acquired from our parents and from society. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and tries to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically.

Interested in psychoanalytic theory?

• The Conscious and Unconscious Mind
• The Id, Ego and Superego
• The Life, Work and Theories of Sigmund Freud

_{Image courtesy Piotr Bizior}