Id, ego and super-ego

Id, ego and super-ego

• he id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory
describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund
Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical constructs
that describe the activities and interactions of the mental life of a person. In the ego
psychology model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual
desires; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the
organized, realistic agent that mediates between the instinctual desires of the id and
the critical super-ego; Freud explained that:
 Id, ego and super-ego
• The functional importance of the ego is manifested in the fact that, normally, control
over the approaches to motility devolves upon it. Thus, in its relation to the id, [the
ego] 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 analogy may be carried a little further.
Often, a rider, if he is not to be parted from his horse, is obliged to guide [the horse]
where it wants to go; so, in the same way, the ego is in the habit of transforming the
id's will into action, as if it were its own
 Id, ego and super-ego
The existence of the super-ego is observable in how people can view themselves as guilty
and bad, shameful and weak, and feel compelled to do certain things. In The Ego and the Id
(1923), Freud presents "the general character of harshness and cruelty exhibited by the [ego]
ideal — its dictatorial Thou shalt"; thus, in the psychology of the ego, Freud hypothesized
different levels of ego ideal or superego development with greater ideals:
• nor must it be forgotten that a child has a different estimate of his parents at different periods
of his life. At the time at which the Oedipus complex gives place to the super-ego they are
something quite magnificent; but later, they lose much of this. Identifications then come
about with these later parents as well, and indeed they regularly make important
contributions to the formation of character; but in that case they only affect the ego, they no
longer influence the super-ego, which has been determined by the earliest parental images.
 Id, ego and super-ego
The earlier in the child's development, the greater the estimate of parental power;
thus, when the child is in rivalry with the parental imago, the child then feels the
dictatorial Thou shalt, which is the manifest power that the imago represents on four
levels: (i) the auto-erotic, (ii) the narcissistic, (iii) the anal, and (iv) the phallic.Those
different levels of mental development, and their relations to parental imagos,
correspond to specific id forms of aggression and affection; thus aggressive and
destructive desires animate the myths in the fantasies and repressions of patients, in
all cultures. In response to the unstructured ambiguity and conflicting uses of the term
"the unconscious mind", Freud introduced the structured model of ego psychology (id,
ego, super-ego) in the essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) and elaborated,
refined, and made that model formal in the essay The Ego and the Id.
 Id
The id is the instinctual component of personality that is present at birth, and is the source of
bodily needs and wants, emotional impulses and desires, especially aggression and the libido
(sex drive).The id acts according to the pleasure principle — the psychic force oriented to
immediate gratification of impulse and desire — defined by the avoidance of pain. Freud said
that the Id is unconscious, by definition:
It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learned from
our study of the dreamwork, and, of course, the construction of neurotic symptoms and most of
that is of a negative character, and can be described only as a contrast to the ego. We
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 organization, 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.
 Id
In the id:
contrary impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other. . . . There is nothing in
the id that could be compared with negation . . . nothing in the id which corresponds to the
idea of time.
Developmentally, the id precedes the ego; the psychic apparatus begins, at birth, as an
undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured ego. While "id" is in search
of pleasure, "ego" emphasizes the principle of reality.
Thus the 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
organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to
us
 Id
The mind of a newborn child is regarded as completely "id-ridden", in the sense that it is a mass of
instinctive drives and impulses, and needs immediate satisfaction. The "id" moves on to what
organism needs. Example is reduction of tension which is experienced.
The id "knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality. ...Instinctual cathexes seeking
discharge—that, in our view, is all there is in the id." It is regarded as "the great reservoir of libido",
the instinctive drive to create—the life instincts that are crucial to pleasurable survival. Alongside
the life instincts came the death instincts—the death drive which Freud articulated relatively late in
his career in "the hypothesis of a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into the
inanimate state." For Freud, "the death instinct would thus seem to express itself—though probably
only in part—as an instinct of destruction directed against the external world and other organisms"
through aggression. Freud considered that "the id, the whole person...originally includes all the
instinctual impulses...the destructive instinct as well", as eros or the life instincts.
 Ego
• The ego (Latin for "I", German: Ich) acts according to the reality principle; i.e., it
seeks to please the id's drive in realistic ways that, in the long term, bring benefit,
rather than grief. At the same time, Freud concedes that as the ego "attempts to
mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak the (unconscious)
commands of the id with its own preconscious rationalizations, to conceal the id's
conflicts with reality, to profess...to be taking notice of reality even when the id has
remained rigid and unyielding. "The reality principle that operates the ego is a
regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate
needs and function effectively in the real world. An example would be to resist the
urge to grab other people's belongings, but instead to purchase those items.
 Ego
• The ego is the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive,
perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness
resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious.
Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to
mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control,
planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.
The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make
sense of them and the world around us. "The ego is that part of the id which has
been modified by the direct influence of the external world.
 Ego
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 tug of war, which the
ego has to hold in check the id to not let it loose; with the difference, that the teams
fought against one other in equality, while the ego was against the much stronger 'id'."
Still worse, "it serves three severe masters...the external world, the super-ego and the
id." Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the
id and super-ego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of
the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are
marginal.
 Ego
"Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality,
struggles...[in] bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in
and upon it," and readily "breaks out in anxiety—realistic anxiety regarding the
external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding
the strength of the passions in the id."It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is
constantly feeling hemmed by the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It
is said, however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring to gloss over
the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while pretending to have a regard for
reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every one of the ego's moves and
punishes it with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority.
 Ego
To overcome this the ego employs defense mechanisms. The defense mechanisms
are not done so directly or consciously. They lessen the tension by covering up our
impulses that are threatening. Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego
when id behavior conflicts with reality and either society's morals, norms, and taboos
or the individual's expectations as a result of the internalization of these morals,
norms, and their taboos.
Denial, displacement, intellectualisation, fantasy, compensation, projection,
rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, and sublimation were the
defense mechanisms Freud identified. However, his daughter Anna Freud clarified and
identified the concepts of undoing, suppression, dissociation, idealization,
identification, introjection, inversion, somatisation, splitting, and substitution.
 Ego
In a diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted
to be half in the consciousness, while a quarter is in the preconscious and the other
quarter lies in the unconscious.

In modern English, ego has many meanings. It could mean one's self-esteem; an
inflated sense of self-worth; the conscious-thinking self; or in philosophical terms,
one's self. Ego development is known as the development of multiple processes,
cognitive function, defenses, and interpersonal skills or to early adolescence when ego
processes are emerged.
 Super-ego
The super-ego (German: Über-Ich) reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly taught by parents
applying their guidance and influence. Freud developed his concept of the super-ego from an earlier
combination of the ego ideal and the "special psychical agency which performs the task of seeing that
narcissistic satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured...what we call our 'conscience'." For him "the
installation of the super-ego can be described as a successful instance of identification with the parental
agency," while as development proceeds "the super-ego also takes on the influence of those who have
stepped into the place of parents — educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models".

Thus a child's super-ego is in fact constructed on the model not of its parents but of its parents' super-
ego; the contents which fill it are the same and it becomes the vehicle of tradition and of all the time-
resisting judgments of value which have propagated themselves in this manner from generation to
generation.
 Super-ego
The super-ego aims for perfection. It forms the organized part of the personality structure,
mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and
the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that criticizes and prohibits their drives,
fantasies, feelings, and actions. "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that
punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt. For example, for having extra-marital affairs." Taken
in this sense, the super-ego is the precedent for the conceptualization of the inner critic as it
appears in contemporary therapies such as IFS.

The super-ego works in contradiction to the id. The super-ego strives to act in a socially
appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. The super-ego controls
our sense of right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially
acceptable ways.
 Super-ego
The super-ego's demands often oppose the id's, so the ego sometimes has a hard time in
reconciling the two.
Freud's theory implies that the super-ego is a symbolic internalisation of the father figure and
cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of the id
because of their conflicting objectives, and its aggressiveness towards the ego. The super-ego
acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality and proscription from taboos. The
super-ego and the ego are the product of two key factors: the state of helplessness of the
child and the Oedipus complex. Its formation takes place during the dissolution of the Oedipus
complex and is formed by an identification with and internalisation of the father figure after the
little boy cannot successfully hold the mother as a love-object out of fear of castration. Freud
described the super-ego and its relationship to the father figure and Oedipus complex thus:.
 Super-ego
The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus
complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (under the influence of
authority, religious teaching, schooling and reading), the stricter will be the domination
of the super-ego over the ego later on—in the form of conscience or perhaps of an
unconscious sense of guilt
 Super-ego
The concept of super-ego and the Oedipus complex is subject to criticism for its
perceived sexism. Women, who are considered to be already castrated, do not identify
with the father, and therefore, for Freud, "their super-ego is never so inexorable, so
impersonal, so independent of its emotional origins as we require it to be in men...they
are often more influenced in their judgements by feelings of affection or hostility."
However, Freud went on to modify his position to the effect "that the majority of men
are also far behind the masculine ideal and that all human individuals, as a result of
their human identity, combine in themselves both masculine and feminine
characteristics, otherwise known as human characteristics.