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Aiming at an analysis of the psychological suffering which musicians may experience in performance situations, this paper puts forward some ideas largely based on the metapsychology of Sigmund Freud and on a critical view of university-level education of musical interpreters. It is argued, at first, that ethical and moral injunctions put upon performers throughout their education could be identified metapsychologically as superegoic. Another part of the investigation verses on possible relations between Superego, death drive and sublimation in the production of unhealthy practices in the study and preparation of performances. This part of the discussion will also consider the different ways in which the Ego might relate with its ideal instances. The last portion of the paper consists in an analysis of passages from Thomas Bernhard's der Untergeher, based on the hypotheses hereby brought to light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]