The Superego and Big Business

Freud's Superego was a theory similar to Nietzsche's Ubermensch - and both were made necessary by the huge social changes created by Industrialization and Capitalism, in the late 19th Century.

These changes created new kinds of people - ones that benefited from them, and ones that suffered from them. And new mental compartments in which they could reside.

The most important of these was the division into the conscious and unconscious (where uncomfortable, but necessary operations could be performed, without being noticed). But the new social hierarchy also demanded its recognition. And most dominant among these was Big Business - whose importance cannot be overemphasized.

These social changes were based on a new technology - machines powered by fossil fuels, that made the Railroads and the Steamships possible. And more importantly, but hardly noticed - another technology that involved a new social ordering - with the Captains of Industry on the top.

Let me remind you that Abraham Lincoln, was a successful Railroad lawyer, who became a successful politician - who presided over the first Industrial War, the American Civil War - with huge numbers of casualties - that resulted in the triumph of the Industrial North.

This set a pattern that would be repeated in WWI, the Depression, and WWII. Huge numbers of casualties, and the triumph of Big Business.

And the triumph of the Superego - that ran everything. This terminology was not used by businessmen - but they were acutely aware of it. They knew they were the Boss - and they had their own smaller bosses who helped them run things.

In my Father's case, this resulted in my Father rejecting his family, as working class people - as he became a small businessman - a huge step upward, in his eyes.

This was the world I was born into, in 1936, in Ft. Madison, Iowa. The West End of town was dominated by the Santa Fe Railroad - and the East End of town by the Sheaffer Pen Company. We were part of a manufacturing complex that made most of the world's products - the Industrial Midwest.

Let me repeat that - we made most of the world's products! Which meant most of the world's wealth flowed toward us. A very desirable state to be in. But one that did not last!

If I go back to that country now, the people there have no memory of their past - of only fifty years ago. And, of course, no memory of what happened to it. They have a faint realization, that there are few jobs for their children now - but why this happened, they have no idea.

Let me return to my subject - the triumph (and domination) of the superego. Or the reappearance of the supernatural. The supernatural has always been with us - we have always known that some superior being (God, perhaps) was in control of things.

There was now a new supernatural force in control - and its presence was evident in the people who were in control - who were not interested in those below them - who were only people!

The sudden appearance of these people, in only one generation, should have been noticed. But this kind of change includes a non-awareness of what is going on. They showed up, took over - and no one noticed!