TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2007//
TI  - The superego, narcissism and Great Expectations
JO  - International journal of psycho-analysis
A1  - Ingham, Graham
SP  - 753
EP  - 768
VL  - 88
IS  - 3
N2  - The author notes that the concepts of the superego and narcissism were linked at conception and that superego pathology may be seen as a determining factor in the formation of a narcissistic disorder; thus an examination of the superego can function as a ‘biopsy’, indicating the condition of the personality as a whole. Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations is presented as a penetrating exploration of these themes and it is argued that in Pip, the central character, Dickens provides a perceptive study of the history of a narcissistic condition. Other key figures in the book are understood as superego representations and, as such, integral to the vicissitudes of Pip's development. In particular, the lawyer Jaggers is considered as an illustration of Bion's notion of the ‘ego-destructive superego’. In the course of the paper, the author suggests that Great Expectations affirms the psychoanalytic understanding that emotional growth and some recovery from narcissistic difficulties necessarily take place alongside modification of the superego, allowing for responsible knowledge of the state of the object and the possibility of realistic reparation.<p /> 
LA  - 
SN  - 0020-7578
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1516/A817-0367-7503-G228
ID  - ref1
ER  -