Superego

The superego is part of the tripartite structure of the psyche as described by Sigmund Freud, consisting of the id, the ego, and the superego. The superego is formed by the child internalizing parental attitudes and prohibitions, and it is experienced as a voice of conscience that criticizes and guides the ego and its responses to the instinctual desires of the id. The notion of the superego as the inner representative of social demands is very useful for understanding how these demands influence individuals. The concept of superego has therefore been appropriated by several different sociological schools.