The “ID” is screaming while “SUPEREGO” runs away

Those who know bits of general knowledge about psychoanalysis might have noticed what I meant by words “Id” and “Superego”. There is also one more, in between and that is “Ego”. It makes a lot of sense to me, for a very long time, what Freud meant by these three components and I decided to give it a go and write about these, since I feel it’s quite relevant to me and my life these days. 

First a little theory on the subject by Sigmund Freud. The components I mentioned above need to be well-balanced in order to have good amount of psychological energy available and to have reasonable mental health.

The Id stands for “it”. It functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind. 
The Ego stands for “I”. It functions with the rational part of the mind. 
The Superego stands for “Over-I”. It might be called the moral part of the mind. 

Freud held that there is a constant tension between man and his surroundings. In particular, a tension—or conflict—between his drives and needs and the demands of society. It is no exaggeration to say that Freud discovered human drives. Simply put, our actions are not always guided by reason. Man is not really such a rational creature as the eighteenth-century rationalists liked to think. Irrational impulses often determine what we think, what we dream, and what we do. Such irrational impulses can be an expression of basic drives or needs. The human sexual drive, for example, is just as basic as the baby’s instinct to suckle.

 

When we come into the world, we live out our physical and mental needs quite directly and unashamedly. If we do not get milk, we cry, or maybe we cry if we have a wet diaper. We also give direct expression to our desire for physical contact and body warmth. Freud called this ‘pleasure principle’ in us the id. As newborn babies we are hardly anything but id. We carry the id, or pleasure principle, with us into adulthood and throughout life. But gradually we learn to regulate our desires and adjust to our surroundings. We learn to regulate the pleasure principle in relation to the ‘reality principle.’ In Freud’s terms, we develop an ego which has this regulative function. Even though we want or need something, we cannot just lie down and scream until we get what we want or need. Can we? 

And what about superego? From infancy we are constantly faced with the moral demands of our parents and of society. When we do anything wrong, our parents say ‘Don’t do that!’ or ‘Naughty naughty, that’s bad!’ Even when we are grown up, we retain the echo of such moral demands and judgments. It seems as though the world’s moral expectations have become part of us. Freud called this the superego.

So while I was reading about these components again, I linked them with my present state of mind and also with my dreams. First of all, I don’t know why Superego inside of me is not as developed as in other people. That’s why some people might find my thoughts intriguing. I am open to say “this turns me on” I am open to various experiences and risks that life is offering. It might be the “fault” of my mother who is psychologist and maybe unwittingly she knew what she was doing when I was young. My short life has been silly really having experiences that people with developed Superego will never have and they will never taste the uniqueness, bliss and simple perfection. 

Freud also made me think about dreams. Freud determined that all dreams are wish fulfillments. This is clearly observable in children, he said. They dream about ice cream and cherries. But in adults, the wishes that are to be fulfilled in dreams are disguised. That is because even when we sleep, censorship is at work on what we will permit ourselves. And although this censorship, or repression mechanism, is considerably weaker when we are asleep than when we are awake, it is still strong enough to cause our dreams to distort the wishes we cannot acknowledge.

It has been around 2 and half years since I stopped having dreams regularly. I do think I have them, as everybody does, but I do not remember them at all. They occur occasionally but those are just minutes. For some time I thought it was because I was living in a dream called reality. I am becoming to understand, though, that it isn’t the theory of living in a dream but the theory of not letting repress some thoughts and memories. I am an open minded person in every sense, sometimes to the extent when it hurts. Me, or somebody else. My current state of mind will force me to try a little experiment. And I am curious about the results. 

Until it happens I will play around with my ID. And try to chase the “Ego” inside of me, the adult part of my mind. Cuz you cannot have what you imagine, just what is. And what is, just is. And yeah, I am back, with plenty things to comment on.

~ by Lenka Bliss on November 21, 2008.