I have started my study of child psychology and educational theory today by reading Erik Erikson. He was an artist who moved to Vienna and was trained in psychoannalysis. He study Freud and worked closely with his daughter Anne Freud. They ran a little school and studied the children and how they learned.

Anyway, I wish I had a background in Freud for reading Erikson. I need to figure out exactly what the ‘ego’ and ‘super-ego’ are. From what I’ve read today, the ‘ego’ is a person’s innate self-love, and the ‘super-ego’ is what we call a conscience. But, a child isn’t born with a conscience. The ‘super-ego’ develops within a child in response to their need for adult approval. The conscience is a created authority inside the child’s head that defines right and wrong the way he thinks adults would do it. This mechanism keeps his behaviour in check because the need for adult love is so strong.

I don’t think I agree with that.

I guess it’s a question of nature vs. nurture. Is conscience something we’re born with, or is it learned? There are clearly people that don’t have much of a conscience–is it because it was never nurtured into them, or that it was nurtured out of them?