What do the three images have in common? How are they similar?
Ego, Superego and Id Freudian Concepts of the Psyche
In his theory of psychoanalysis,
Sigmund Freud
sought to explain how the unconscious
mind operates by proposing
that it has a particular structure. He proposed that the self
was divided into three parts: the Ego,
the Superego and the Id.
The general claim that the mind is not
a monolithic or homogeneous thing continues to have an enormous influence on
people outside of psychology.
Many, however, have questioned or rejected the specific claim that the mind is
divided into these three components.
The ancient Greeks also divided the
soul into three parts of their own, with only one part in common. The Greek
parts were the desiring part (which
is like what we call the id, but without so much implication of suppressed
deviant sexuality),
the spirited part, and the reasoning part.
The Id (Latin, "it" in English,
"Es" in the original German)
represented primary process thinking -- our most primitive need gratification
type thoughts. The Id, Freud stated, constitutes part of one's unconscious mind.
It acts on primitive instinctual urges (sex, hunger, anger, etc.).
The Superego
("Über-ich" in the original German)
represented our conscience
and counteracted the Id with moral and ethical thoughts. The
Superego, Freud stated, is the moral agent that links both our conscious
and unconscious minds. The Superego stands in opposition to the desires of the
Id. The Superego is itself part of the unconscious mind; it is the
internalization of the world view and norms and mores a child absorbs from
parents and peers. As the conscience, it is knowledge of right and wrong; as
world view it is knowledge of what is real.
The Superego comes from parents; there
are complex explanations of how/why and some involve the concept of the Oedipal
complex.
Freud is theorized that the development
of the Superego followed the development of society; he used the famous phrase,
“Ontogeny (individual development) recapitulates Phylogeny (development of
species),” to make that assertion (jeez he was wordy!).
In Freud's
view the Ego stands in between the Id and the Superego to balance our primitive
needs and our moral/ethical beliefs. ("Ego" means "I" in Latin; the original German
word Freud coined was "Ich".) He stated that the Ego resides almost
entirely in our conscious mind. Relying on experience, a healthy Ego provides
the ability to adapt to reality and interact with the outside world in a way
that accommodates both Id and Superego.
One of the Ego’s defensive behaviors is
anxiety.
Mask, Lower Self, and
Higher Self
A
more modern version of psychology uses the above three terms. How do you think they relate to Frued’s
terms?
Much of the above is taken from http://www.fact-index.com/e/eg/ego__superego_and_id.html
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