Readings: Gula, Ch 9-10

Conscience

The Conscience is not the Super-ego. In Freudian psychology, we have three structures to our personality: the id, the ego, and the super-ego. Sometimes the super-ego is confused with a persons conscience. The super-ego is like a tape we have in our heads playing the dos and donts that we have learned from authority figures while we were growing up. The commands of the super-ego come from the process of absorbing the regulations and restrictions of those who are our sources of love and approval is internalized as the voice of the super-ego. The commands and prohibitions of the super-ego do not arise from any kind of perception of the intrinsic goodness or disvalue of the action being contemplated. We follow the commands of the super-ego for fear of losing love or out of the need to be accepted or approved. The super-ego is basically a principle of self-censorship and control that uses super-ego guilt as a means to keep the person obedient to self-imposed rules. Super-ego guilt is introverted because it is concerned about the love that has lost and needs to regain. The moral guilt of the mature conscience, on the other hand, is extroverted and is concerned about the welfare of others who have been hurt by ones actions and how ones offense has weakened or damaged ones loving relationship with God and others. When a super-ego controlled person does something that the super-ego prohibits, the super-ego induces a sense of panic in the person by making the person feel guilty that love would be withdrawn from him because of his action. The person feels isolated from the source of love and the super-ego will induce the person to correct the situation and regain the love that it feels it has lost. The super-ego controlled person will seek to escape or remove his isolation in three ways: o There is unconscious betrayal of guilt. While the person would consciously try to hide his violation, he would seek to be discovered in order that punishment and the ensuing reconciliation and the restoration of love would take place. o The person would seek some form of indirect punishment. The original misdeed remains undetected and unpunished, so the person commits another misdeed in order to be caught and punished. By committing the second misdeed, the guilty person seeks to break out from the isolation caused by the original misdeed. His subconscious goal is to have the second misdeed result in punishmentreconciliation to make up for the guilt of the original misdeed. o The person will seek an indirect escape from isolation by creating a community where the person would be accepted. This implies provoking others to deeds similar to ones own. Super-ego is a primitive phase in the development of the mature conscience. At an early point in our lives, during childhood and adolescence, we have been making choices based on external rules from authority figures. As we grow into adulthood, we begin to develop a conscience where we integrate the rules we have learned from our significant authority figures with our own understanding of the values behind these rules and our vision of what kind of person we want to be in the future.

We are supposed to let the super-ego of our childhood organically develop into a mature conscience. Some persons do not go beyond the super-ego stage of moral development and they confuse the super-ego as their conscience and the voice of their super-ego as the voice of God. Even when we have made a transition toward forming a conscience, we may continue to hear the voice of our super-ego in the background. The development of a mature conscience does not mean a total silencing of the super-ego (this may not be possible because we continue to retain our memories from childhood). What is desirable for the maturation of the conscience is that we can identify whether the voice we are hearing on a particular moral matter is our super-ego or conscience and that we choose to listen to our conscience. There may be areas in our lives where the super-ego speaks more authoritatively than our conscience. We strive to place these areas under the control of our conscience.

The Moral Conscience Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) no 16: In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged (cf. Rm 2:15-16). Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths.(1) In a wonderful manner, conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor (cf. Mt 22:37-40; Gal 5:14). In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence, the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality. Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin. Gaudium et Spes no. 16 used the metaphor of sanctuary to describe the conscience: two meanings of conscience as sanctuary: o Conscience is a holy and sacred place where an individual meets God alone. o Conscience as a safe place for a person where no outside human authority may violate. The imagery of sanctuary gives attention to the personal encounter of the person with God in his moral discernment and in his response to what he believes to be Gods voice to him in the depths of his conscience. In the proper exercise of conscience, a person should be responding to God. A person can refer to other external authorities for information and guidance, but ultimately the person responds to God and not to authority. No other authority can take the place of God in a persons conscience.

Three Senses of the Conscience Conscience as a Capacity. o The tendency within us to know and to do the good. o It involves our general sense of value and fundamental sense of responsibility which makes it possible for us to engage in moral discussions to determine the particular moral good. Conscience as a Process. o It is the process of discovering the particular good which ought to be done or the evil to be avoided. o It involves seeking to understand universal moral norms and applying them to particular cases. o It may also involve discovering exceptions and new norms in response to extraordinary situations. o In this process, conscience is being formed and informed through experiences and investigation of sources of moral wisdom. Conscience as a Judgment. o It is the specific judgment of good which I must do in this particular situation. o The primary object of this judgment is not this or that object of choice, but being this or that sort of person through what I choose. o This is the conscience that I must obey. o This is the sanctuary of the self which must never be violated. o Here I am alone with God in the depths of my heart.