Part II: The Judgement Day | Why you can’t do it right now?, Id Ego Super-Ego
Continued from Part I : The Judgement Day | End of World, Word of Bible, 21st May 2011
Why you can’t do what you desire right now?
The answer goes little deep in the trenches of psychology. Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche explains the concept well. According to it, our way of thinking and acting depends on three factors id, ego, and super-ego.
Before I share my expert opinion, let us have a look at the Wikipedia definitions of Id, Ego and Super-ego.
The id comprises the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains the basic drives. The id acts according to the "pleasure principle", seeking to avoid pain or unpleasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension.
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 dream-work and of 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."
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."
The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that 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 his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.
The ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing 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."
Blah! Blah! Blah!
Let us come back to basics. Id explains what we desire, what we want to achieve, what our heart yells irrespective of what society and the world say. Id aims at self-fulfillment. While on the other hand, superego explains what world and society want us to do irrespective of what we desire. So we see that both of these id and superego take us in two very extreme directions, we need to find a middle way out. Ego lives realistically. It tries to find out a way that obeys either of the extremities as well as disobeys them at the same time. 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. The super-ego's demands oppose the id’s, so the ego has a hard time in reconciling the two.
Now the reason of me explaining such thing to you was to explain what a Judgment Day could do to our lives. If we are assured of the end of the world, we will see the super-ego vanishing instantly. When there would be no super ego, there won’t be any need to draw a balance between a strong instinctive ego and a dead super-ego. So the second fundamental of ego fades away. We are left with one – Id. Something that aims in self-satisfaction. Something that doesn’t see the world around and does what it wants. Wonder what that day would be like, when you could actually do what you desire. Whatever freaky, no matter how inappropriate, irrespective of the norms, when you can satisfy what you desire, I think you achieve something that mankind has always been yearning for; the word is as simple as Happiness.
Now the question that arises here, why can't we always be happy? Why do we need a judgment Day to make us realize the worth of what we always had? Why do we need a rap on the knuckles to be happy? The answer is superego. We respect what world says, we obey the society norms, we travel the beaten path once again because everyone thinks that it is right irrespective, uncared of what you want, what you desire. At the same time, superego takes care that you don't go reckless about anything that comes your way. It makes you a wise man who knows the difference between right and wrong.
You can't dismiss any of the three fundamentals of psyche. I explain this with a very simple example that is often used in this context. Let's say you have a person in your life you love beyond limits. When you are with him/her, you can’t see anything around. You forget all your worries and responsibilities. All you see is that someone special. Id says, go for your desires, make love beyond limits, don’t think of anything. Superego says, your parents don’t want you to be doing that. Ego finds a way out. You date him/her but make sure that you don’t cross any limit, you should not.
The day when there will be no restrictions on Id will be an amazing one but for the time being we have to respect all these three fundamentals of psyche and live the way we are. But I still want to,
Why you can’t do what you desire right now?
The answer goes little deep in the trenches of psychology. Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche explains the concept well. According to it, our way of thinking and acting depends on three factors id, ego, and super-ego.
Before I share my expert opinion, let us have a look at the Wikipedia definitions of Id, Ego and Super-ego.
Id
The id comprises the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains the basic drives. The id acts according to the "pleasure principle", seeking to avoid pain or unpleasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension.
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 dream-work and of 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."
Super Ego
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."
The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that 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 his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.
Ego
The ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing 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."
Blah! Blah! Blah!
Let us come back to basics. Id explains what we desire, what we want to achieve, what our heart yells irrespective of what society and the world say. Id aims at self-fulfillment. While on the other hand, superego explains what world and society want us to do irrespective of what we desire. So we see that both of these id and superego take us in two very extreme directions, we need to find a middle way out. Ego lives realistically. It tries to find out a way that obeys either of the extremities as well as disobeys them at the same time. 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. The super-ego's demands oppose the id’s, so the ego has a hard time in reconciling the two.
Now the reason of me explaining such thing to you was to explain what a Judgment Day could do to our lives. If we are assured of the end of the world, we will see the super-ego vanishing instantly. When there would be no super ego, there won’t be any need to draw a balance between a strong instinctive ego and a dead super-ego. So the second fundamental of ego fades away. We are left with one – Id. Something that aims in self-satisfaction. Something that doesn’t see the world around and does what it wants. Wonder what that day would be like, when you could actually do what you desire. Whatever freaky, no matter how inappropriate, irrespective of the norms, when you can satisfy what you desire, I think you achieve something that mankind has always been yearning for; the word is as simple as Happiness.
Now the question that arises here, why can't we always be happy? Why do we need a judgment Day to make us realize the worth of what we always had? Why do we need a rap on the knuckles to be happy? The answer is superego. We respect what world says, we obey the society norms, we travel the beaten path once again because everyone thinks that it is right irrespective, uncared of what you want, what you desire. At the same time, superego takes care that you don't go reckless about anything that comes your way. It makes you a wise man who knows the difference between right and wrong.
You can't dismiss any of the three fundamentals of psyche. I explain this with a very simple example that is often used in this context. Let's say you have a person in your life you love beyond limits. When you are with him/her, you can’t see anything around. You forget all your worries and responsibilities. All you see is that someone special. Id says, go for your desires, make love beyond limits, don’t think of anything. Superego says, your parents don’t want you to be doing that. Ego finds a way out. You date him/her but make sure that you don’t cross any limit, you should not.
The day when there will be no restrictions on Id will be an amazing one but for the time being we have to respect all these three fundamentals of psyche and live the way we are. But I still want to,