Still, it would be an error to believe that psychoanalytic theory makes no contribution to describing and assessing different types of ethical conduct. The crucial notion in this connection is the relative rigidity or flexibility of the superego. The childish, immature, or neurotic superego is rigid; it is characterized by slavish adherence to rules which, moreover, may not be clearly understood. The mature or normal super- ego, on the other hand, is flexible; it can evaluate the situation at hand and modify the rules accordingly. Thus, in an early, classic paper, Strachey suggested that the basic aim of psycho- analytic treatment is to make such mutative interpretations as would help to render the patient's rigid superego more flexible.⁸ Like the psychoanalytic theory of the superego, on which it is based, this view suffers from the limitation of being silent on what sort of rigidity is considered bad or undesirable and what sort of flexibility is considered good or desirable. In short, Freud and other psychoanalysts have persistently dallied with normative systems without ever committing them- selves on normative standards.

If the book was not clever and amusing, we should not refer to these matters, nor to such epithets as “swanking ” and “salonical.”

Where does he keep the seed? In his underneaths. Why? Oh, it's a good place to keep it. How does he plant it? He just puts it in. Where? In my underneaths. How does he? He just pushes it in. And then I keep it in my tummy, and when it's ready it comes out and it's a baby and then it grows into a boy or girl and then into a man or woman.

The wide lovely lake lay in dreamy serenity, fretted with green undulations, ruffed with blue, patched with glades of lucid smoothness between the ackers ….