The superego in the clinic, by Dr. Marta Gerez Ambertín

When: November 2nd, 2024, 10:00 AM PST (Vancouver, BC)

Where: Zoom, online. Please register here

The superego precipitates acts of failure, as imperatives of enjoyment and as excessive punishment; it also hinders the psychoanalytic clinic. At the same time, the recourse to temper and negotiate with this fierce instance competes and corresponds to the unconscious desire – such is its alibi.

Lacan in Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959-60) emphasized the necessary alliance with desire to counteract the ferocious effects of the superego.

I will turn to the clinic to exemplify the superego mechanism through fragments of dreams of anguish or through punitive dreams related by Freud and from my clinical practice.

Biography: Dr Marta Gerez Ambertín is a Psychoanalyst and author. She teaches courses and seminars on psychoanalysis internationally. Director and professor at the Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic Foundation and the J. Lacan Institute. She has a Master’s Degree in Psychoanalytic Theory (Mexico); PhD in Psychology (University of Tucumán) and Postdoctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology (Universidade Católica of São Paulo, Brazil). She is a professor of Psychology at a graduate level in the Tucumán National University, the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), FLACSO (CABA) and the Aconcagua University (Mendoza). She is the author of the following books (in Spanish, translated to Portuguese): Las voces del superyó; Manantial 3rd ed 2009; Imperativos del superyó;  2ª ed 2003; Entre deudas y culpas: Crítica de la razón sacrificial”. Letra Viva. 2008; Author and editor of 4 volumes on “Discurso Jurídico y Psicoanalítico” Letra Viva  2009.

*Image above by Salvador Dalí