The Age of Guilt The Super-Ego in the Online World

How Freud’s concept of the super-ego can help us to understand the harsh cultural climate of the digital age

Cancellation,  scapegoating, raving on Twitter. How did the Internet, which began as a  place for open thought and exchange, become a forum for cruelty and  judgment? Can a whole culture become mentally ill? How do we understand  and respond to this problem?

Mark Edmundson views contemporary  culture and discourse through Freud’s concept of the super-ego, the  moralistic and frequently irrational inner judge. The poet William Blake  was attuned to this “dark pressure of self-condemnation,” and Nietzsche  knew its power as well. One way to mitigate (temporarily) the  self-judgment of the super-ego is to aim it outward instead, judging and  even punishing others for supposed infractions. Naturally these targets  fight back, resulting in a cascade of bitterness and even hatred.  Edmundson traces the destructive passion of the super-ego on politics,  race, gender, class, education, and more, drawing on psychological  studies, classroom experience, and the work of Adam Phillips and Slavoj  Žižek. Edmundson proposes ways to manage the super-ego and even to  transform it into an affirmative power.

In The Age of Guilt ,  Edmundson renews the promise of Freudian theory as he explores our  unique social moment with psychological insight, humanity, and  erudition.