I have often heard references to Freudian psychology and things like the oedipus complex and whatnot but i have never really studied freud in any detail. i was glad to have the opportunity to study in greater depth the father of so many psychological breakthroughs. Beneath is a video about one aspect of His studies that i focused on: The Id, Ego, and Superego. It is old and cheesy but explains the principle really well.
So you having watched the video i thought of a somewhat twisted version of the cliched imagery of the angel and the devil on the shoulders of the decision maker. I dont think i fully agree with the concepts of Id and Superego, especially on the sexual front. Nonetheless i think it is important to understand each and it's role.
Id: "It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learnt from our study of the dream-work and of the construction of neurotic symptoms, and most of this is of a negative character and can be described only as a contrast to the ego. We all approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations... It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organisation, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle."
—Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1933)
Id to me is the "carnal man". Basically all of the instincts of an animal wrapped into a being. according to freud a new born baby is purely Id because his being has yet to be influenced by society and his own perception of his surroundings: ". .[id] contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitution -- above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organisation, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us." He is a purely instinctual being.
Ego: "The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world ... The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces."
The ego seems to me to be the rational part of us that develops naturally through trial and error, experience, observation etc.—Freud, The Ego and the Id (1923)
Superego: "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt. For example: having extra-marital affairs."[7]
The superego, as is apparent in the video clip, is the part of us that is influenced by the moral values of our society and parents. We struggle with those when making decisions because the id wants to have the pleasure but the superego says that it is morally unacceptable.
I then wanted to know how relevant Freud is to modern psychology. i found two great opinion articles from Psychiatric News. I encourage you to read both:
The video didn't work - what/where was it from?
ReplyDeleteI remember a classroom discussion from years gone by that we were talking about the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The thing I remember most was the side conversation that spun off about whether a person's personality are learned from his surroundings or if they are a natural part of him. You know - if twins (or a parent/child) are separated at birth & meet in 20 years, how much of their personalities are the same?
My husband's parents divorced when he was a baby & he didn't know his Dad until we were married & had children. It was a lot of fun looking at the two of them to discover the differences and similarities!
Interesting human tricks!