Superego question

Matamoros

Is there any evidence of a person suppressing or limiting the power of their Superego? Is there any way to be your " self ", whatever that is? As I understand it, I feel that the Superego should surely decline in influence once a person reaches a certain age. Therefore, is the person who is for example, in adulthood, not fully mature?

Attol

There is no such thing as evidence in psychology. Studies don't prove anything, they only suggest that something is true.

Myksyk

I think you're mixing up the idea of proof and evidence. Proof is really only a subject for mathematics and related areas. Science is not interested in proof. Its methodology does not allow it to 'prove' something, merely to collect data (evidence) which continues to confirm hypotheses, making them stronger and establishing them as sound theories. In fact a central tenet of science is that its findings are tentative ... always. Even the strongest theories with the most evidence may be overturned and no theory in any realm of the scientific endeavour is provable (i.e. you simply cannot present data which well show that the theory may not one day have to be modified, extended or discarded).

But speaking of the superego and other Freudian concepts, there is very little if any evidence that they exist, except as rather poor analogies for mental and emotional life. A lot of people consider these concepts to have been thoroghly debunked, now holding very little currency.

Eoghan-psych

Matamoros wrote:

Is there any evidence of a person suppressing or limiting the power of their Superego?

I was going to reply with "I would first ask for evidence *for* the superego actually existing before wondering what it does", but I've been beaten to it.