THE SUPEREGO AND MORAL CONFLICT: A PSYCHOANALYTIC READING OF RODION RASKOLNIKOV’S CONSCIENCE IN CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Abstract

This article explores the intersection of moral consciousness and internal psychic conflict in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, with a particular focus on the protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, through the lens of Freudian psychoanalysis. The analysis centres on the role of the superego as defined by Sigmund Freud and its function as a moral regulator, internalised authority, and source of guilt and anxiety (Freud states that the superego “aims for moral perfection” and punishes failures with guilt). According to one study, Dostoevsky “captured the workings of the superego in Crime and Punishment … Raskolnikov’s guilt after murder” testifies to the internal tribunal of conscience. The article argues that Raskolnikov’s crime is not simply a social or economic act, but an uprising of his id-driven grandiosity against the constraints of his superego, producing a profound moral conflict. The analysis shows how his eventual breakdown and confession signify not merely legal or social penance, but the superego’s triumph in forcing reconciliation between transgression and conscience. Ultimately, the article demonstrates that Raskolnikov’s psychological ordeal exemplifies the dynamics of an over‐active internal moral agency, and by tracing this psycho-moral architecture, enriches our reading of the novel’s ethical dimension.