Moral life in times of loneliness

does the notion of double conscience illuminate lacan's understanding of moral sensibility?

Paul Moyaert

pp. 481-511

in: Roland Breeur, Ullrich Melle (eds), Life, subjectivity and art, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

The double conscience mentioned in this paper's subtitle alludes to the psychoanalytic doctrine that relates moral conscience not only to the oedipal conscience formed by identification with paternal authority, but also to a less cultivated, more archaic, and more cruel superego that is never completely overcome in the instauration of the oedipal superego. This view, therefore, reveals the superego to be a complex reality. Lacan brings up the multi-layered aspect of the superego from as early as in his first essays "L'agressivité en psychanalyse" (1948)1 and "Introduction théorique aux fonctions de la psychanalyse en criminologie" (1950)2.