Page 116 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

93 Moral Development and Ego Identity

of the anxieties rekindled by transgression of moral commands
(fear of punishment, shame, or qualms of conscience) makes
possible a better classification of defense mechanisms.”' Specific
identity formations promote such anxieties because they make
possible moral insights that are, so to speak, more advanced than
the action motives that can be mobilized within their limits.
The dual status of ego identity reflects, of course, not only the
cognitive-motivational duality of ego development but an inter-
dependence of society and nature that extends into the formation
of identity. The model of an unconstrained ego identity is richer
and more ambitious than a model of autonomy developed ex-
clusively from perspectives of morality. This can be seen in our
completed hierarchy of the stages of moral consciousness. The
meaning of the transition from the sixth to the seventh stage—
in philosophical terms from a formalistic ethics of duty to a
universal ethics of speech—can be found in the fact that need
interpretations are no longer assumed as given, but are drawn
into the discursive formation of will. Internal nature is thereby
moved into a utopian perspective; that is, at this stage internal
nature may no longer be merely examined within an interpretive
framework fixed by the cultural tradition in a naturelike way,
tested in the light of a monologically applied principle of gen-
eralization, and then split up into legitimate and illegitimate
components, duties, and inclinations. Inner nature is rendered
communicatively fluid and transparent to the extent that needs
can, through aesthetic forms of expression, be kept articulable
{sprachfahig} or be released from their paleosymbolic pre-
linguisticality. But that means that internal nature is not sub-
jected, in the cultural preformation met with at any given time,
to the demands of ego autonomy; rather, through a dependent
ego it obtains free access to the interpretive possibilities of the
cultural tradition. In the medium of value-forming and norm-
forming communications into which aesthetic experiences enter,
traditional cultural contents are no longer simply the stencils
according to which needs are shaped; on the contrary, in this
medium needs can seek and find adequate interpretations. Natu-
tally this flow of communication requires sensitivity, breaking