PsychoanalysisId, Ego, Superego

Development of the IndividualSociety as a Self-Governing Organism

Sigmund Freud Born May 6, 1856 One of 8 children, Jewish family Age 4, Freud’s father moved family to

Vienna, Austria In the last years of his life to London (to

avoid Nazi persecution)

Psychoanalysis: “The Talking Cure” therapy that investigates the workings and interactions between conscious and unconscious mind.

Think of: “revealing,” “unearthing” what we have hidden, repressed, in order to become healthy.

The image of the therapist’s couch is from Freud’s practice where patients would lie as Freud interrogated them

Freud: We have a tri-partite (three-part) self Id – That most infantile and demanding part of the self

that is insatiable; ruled by the “Pleasure Principle” that aims to find pleasure and avoid pain

Ego – The part of the self that battles against the Id and Superego with reason, logic, and rationale; ruled by the “Reality Principle”: You can’t always get what you want; helps the Id make it until urges/desires can be satisfied

Superego – Unreasonably abuses you for shirking your responsibilities and not living up to your potential; contains rules concerning what constitutes good or appropriate behavior as well as standards concerning what constitutes bad, immoral, or embarrassing behavior

Conflict Model: The self is NOT UNIFIED; it is not a coherent, singular entity. We’re not entirely rational, not entirely in control

There are competing elements within ourselves.

No way to resolve competing elements; the only way to stay healthy is to not let any one of them “get the upper hand” or sickness (i.e. neurosis or psychosis) can occur.

If, as an adult, your Id is too dominant? (very self-absorbed, don’t care about others, only out for yourself)

If, as an adult, your Ego is too dominant? (distant, rational, efficient, unemotional, cold)

If, as an adult, your Superego is too dominant? (guilt-ridden or sanctimonious).

Plato saw the self as tri-partite (three components) Reason (>> ego) Spirit/conscience (>>

superego) Desire (>> id)

Plato believed reason could and should rule the personality

REASON keeps desires in check and uses them to motivate

Freud’s viewpoint is that reason can never control the passions

We are driven by unconscious instincts we can never possibly know

Knowledge of the self is beyond reason

Marx = father of the communist revolution

Historical evolution, Marx believed, would usher in communism – we would create a rational, just system (as opposed to the unjust system of capitalism)

Therefore, logic and rational thinking will overcome the illogic of capitalism

Freud says Marx is idealistic and utopian

“Our basic needs are not benign needs”

Our deepest needs are aggression, the willful desire to hurt, and seek domination, and ultimately our own self-destruction

Thus war, cheating businessmen, mercenaries, etc.

Children repress their desire for their opposite-sex parent; they realize that they will never have them as long as the other parent is around.

Upon resolution the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent.

Desires replaced with “healthy” love for parent/family

Development of the superego. Child adopts values and standards of the parents.

REVIEW: Our base instincts are repressed as we deal with the Oedipal Complex

NOTICE: Life requires our base instincts be pushed down in order to become functioning members of society

QUESTION: If we’re all essentially violent, sexual beings, then why isn’t there anarchy?

For Freud, the Id desires pleasure through sexual satisfaction; therefore, we all desire to find acceptance from the opposite sex

In order to be accepted by another, we must act in a way to attract others; therefore, we must act desirably

We “behave” so we can attract others to satisfy us

If we do not behave, we are separated from society – something we cannot accept b/c we can’t find satisfaction when we’re put in jail (banished)

Our LAWS and societal rules help keep our instinctual desires in check

RELIGION keeps us in check through the threat of GUILT

Some people throw their energies into work, others into hobbies

These distractions help us keep our desires in control and focus our energy that would otherwise seek an unacceptable outlet

These distractions help society evolve by developing technologies, for example

Man can’t just go around doing whatever he wants all the time – he values acceptance in order to gain sexual gratification, and besides, his actions would destroy society

He gains acceptance by doing something “acceptable:” going to school, earning a degree, working hard

The individual may, by working and through hobbies, develop new techniques and technologies

Thus by sublimating his instincts, he helps society evolve

Note that the Id exists exclusively in the unconscious. The Ego and Superego battle to keep the Id in check. Likewise, the Ego battles with reason against the unreasonable demands of both the Id and the Superego.

Top of the iceberg: Conscious mind (smallest part – say, 10%). We can access this, we are aware of this part of “us.” We understand it logically.

Middle of iceberg: Preconscious (medium size, about 10-15%). Ordinary memory. You don’t keep a lot of information in your conscious mind all the time – why?

If you need to know something (where you parked your car, your sister’s birthday, your 7th grade Stardust Dance, etc.) you can bring it “up”) to your Conscious mind.

Bottom of iceberg: Unconscious (huge – dwarfs the other two, 75-80% of our mind). “Underwater”

The unconscious: Plays a very large role in how we function as human beings. Most of the work among the Id, Ego, and Superego happens here.

A “dumping ground” for all of our desires, anxieties, urges, especially those which are painful – why?

Nothing in the unconscious goes away. Even if we aren’t aware of it, what is in the unconscious influences us every day in every way.

Can’t directly or easily access the unconscious with conscious mind. “Speaks” a different language (ex. Dreams).

Freud, Sigmund. A Note upon the “Mystic Writing-Pad,” General Psychological Theory. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1991.

_______. The Ego and the Id. (Trans. Joan Riviere.) New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1960.

Lecture Notes, Professor Debra Bergoffen, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, George Mason University, 1994.