You have likely heard of the renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. However, have you heard about his famous concepts of id, ego, and superego and how he created them? You might be surprised to find that these concepts apply to most areas of your life.
- Freud and the id, ego, and superego.
- Defining id, ego, and superego.
- Examples of the relationship between id, ego, and superego.
- Difference between ego and superego.
- Diagram of id, ego, and superego.
Sigmund Freud believed that adults’ behaviours are determined by psychological and environmental factors, such as childhood experiences, rather than biological factors.
The psychodynamic perspective proposes psychological drives influence human behaviour, feelings, and emotions. Based on these energies at play, Freud proposed the notion of the unconscious mind.
Fig. 1 - Photograph of Sigmund Freud.
Freud: Id, Ego, and Superego
Freud believed that most of our daily actions and behaviours are not controlled consciously but are the product of our unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is where feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories outside our conscious awareness are stored. It holds unacceptable or unpleasant information, such as pain, anxiety, and conflicts.
The influence of the unconscious seeps into every part of our lives. The unconscious mind actively represses traumatic memories from reaching conscious awareness. These memories might cause anxiety; therefore, the mind uses defence mechanisms to avoid discomfort.
Defence mechanisms are strategies we use unconsciously to protect ourselves from the anxiety caused by our unacceptable feelings and thoughts.
Freud outlined seven defence mechanisms: denial, sublimation, projection, displacement, undoing, isolation, and reaction formation.
Our unconscious tries to repress traumatic experiences. However, Freud believed traces of these experiences could reveal themselves in many different ways, such as through dreams, fantasies, slips of the tongue (called Freudian slips), creativity, and neurotic symptoms.
Jung’s View of the Unconscious Mind
Carl Gustav Jung, Freud’s successor, further developed the concept of the unconscious mind. He agreed with Freud’s view about the unconscious’s essential role in shaping our personality.
According to Jung (1981) in his book The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, “the spiritual heritage for humanity’s evolution is born afresh in the brain structure of every individual.” 2
Jung proposed that the unconscious mind is divided into the personal and collective unconscious. However, according to the collective unconscious theory, the collective conscious is the deepest level of the personality (psyche). It contains inherited ancestral memories and archetypal experiences of an entire human species rather than one individual.
The shadow archetype is based on animal instincts that influence our unconscious, such as things we do to ensure our survival.
Id, Ego, and Superego: Meaning
Freud (1923) claimed that the human psyche or personality has several aspects. The personality theory describes that the mind is divided into three parts (also known as tripartite), the id, ego, and superego. These systems are developed at different stages in our lives.
In psychodynamic terms the mind is referred to as the psyche.
Children go through unconscious processes of development of a sequence of five stages, generally referred to as the psychosexual stage model.
The stages are: oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. These different stages are associated with the driving force in children’s development. During these stages, the child develops the human psyche or personality, describing the personality theory that the mind is structured in three parts, the id, ego and superego.
A fixation of libido in specific body parts characterises each stage of the psychosexual model.
For instance, the oral stage is where pleasure is centred around the mouth, e.g. the child may be happy when sucking their thumb or drinking from a bottle.
If the child does not progress onto the latter psychosexual stages, then this is thought to cause issues in the psyche's development.
The three parts of the psyche interact to form a whole, and each makes a relative contribution to our behaviour.
What is the Id?
The id is the primitive and instinctive element of personality, consisting of the genetic inheritance or biological parts since birth. In ancient Greek mythology, Eros is used as a reference because he is considered someone who was working with life energy, similar to the libido, along with aggressive death, or instinct, Thanatos.
The id is the primitive or instinctive part of the mind containing aggressive, sexual drives and hidden memories.
The id works on the pleasure principle, craving instant gratification. The id is impulsive and relates to basic urges, needs, and desires.
If a person is cold, the id demands them to find warmth.
A newborn child does not have a well-developed personality, such as an ego or superego. They only possess the id, as babies are unaware of their surrounding reality or have not formed the ego yet. Their only awareness is about their basic needs, such as food, love and care.
Freud claimed that the id drives and seeks pleasure and instant gratification. If the id is denied pleasure, the person will become frustrated.
The id imitates the function of the limbic system in the brain; this is the brain’s “emotion centre” and the foundation of our appetites, fear and aggression.
What is the Ego?
The ego is not present at birth and forms in response to control by others, specifically parents, during the anal stage of psychosexual development, at around two years old. It works as a mediator between the other two personalities, i.e., the demands of the id and the moralistic demands of the superego. Several defence mechanisms manage the ego.
The ego deals with the reality principle and mediates between the desires of the id and the superego.
The ego uses the reality principle. If anxiety is experienced, the unconscious defence mechanisms are activated to help prevent the mind from facing unpleasant feelings or making the person feel better. The ego interacts in our thinking process and is orientated towards problem-solving, realism, and rationality.
The ego resembles the function of the prefrontal cortex in the human brain: this is the brain’s “decision-making centre” and handles messages from the limbic system and decides how to act on them.
The ego is ‘that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.’ (Freud, 1923, p. 25)3
What is the Superego?
Values and morals of society drive the superego, learned in childhood from their parents and society. It is formed by the end of the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The superego is characterised by the “inner voice” that lets us know when we have crossed the boundaries, behaving in a way that does not truly mirror the self.
The superego controls our moral conscience.
The conscience is the internalisation of societal rules. It determines which behaviours are allowed and causes guilt when rules are broken.
The superego represents the moral standards of the internalised parent and will punish the ego for eventual mistakes through feelings of guilt.
The superego’s function is to control the id’s impulses, especially behaviours society forbids, such as aggression. It also persuades the ego to turn to moralistic goals and seek the idealised self.
The superego has two systems: The conscience and the ideal self.
The conscience is the inner voice that whispers to us when we do something wrong. The conscience can punish the ego by raising guilt, driving us to behave like our “ideal self”.
If the ego surrenders to the id’s demands, the superego will enlighten a person’s feelings of guilt.
Difference Between Ego and Superego
The ego works in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious minds. The superego is the internalised aspect of personality that holds all of the moral principles and ideals we learn from parents and society based on our notions of right and wrong.
The superego gives us the guidelines for making our judgments, and it begins to emerge around age five.
Complementing the difference between ego and superego in Freud’s words:
Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider. The ego is ‘like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse.’ (Freud, 1923, p. 15)3
Id, Ego, Superego: Example
The id, ego, and superego work together to help us make healthy, acceptable decisions. They can be applied to any decision we have to make.
You are on your lunch break at work. Your id tells you you’re hungry, so you should eat an entire pizza.
Your superego values your health and your performance as an employee. Your ego knows you get sluggish and groggy if you keep eating after you’re full.
You won’t get any work done after lunch if you're tired. Moreover, it’s not good for your health to keep eating until you are stuffed. So, the ego may try to balance the superego and id's desires by signalling the body to eat until they are satisfied, i.e. no longer hungry.
Id, Ego Superego: Diagram
Freud (1900 - 1905) developed a topographical model of the mind. He described the features of the mind structure and functioning of the ego, superego and id.
He used the analogy of an iceberg when describing different levels of the mind. He proposed The metaphor of an iceberg to explain the other parts of our mind.
The conscious mind consists of the mental processes we are aware of; this is the tip of the iceberg, while the unconscious mind is the hidden, more significant part of the iceberg.
Fig. 2 - Diagram of id, ego, and superego.
For example, you may feel hungry at this moment and decide to eat; you are aware of and can act on this feeling with clarity.
The preconscious mind maintains thoughts and feelings we are unaware of, but we can quickly bring them to our consciousness with some effort. It is found just below the level of consciousness before the unconscious mind.
However, negative emotions or traumas repressed in the unconscious are not readily available to the preconscious mind.
You are not presently thinking about your email address, but now, you can easily recall it.
The unconscious mind compartmentalises mental processes that are not accessible to the consciousness, but it affects behaviour, feelings, and even judgements.
Id Ego Superego - Key takeaways
- The psychodynamic perspective proposes psychological drives influence human behaviour, feelings, and emotions. Based on these energies at play, Freud proposed the notion of the unconscious mind and developed the id, ego, and superego concepts.
- The unconscious extended its influence into every part of our waking and sleeping lives. Traumatic memories actively prevent the unconscious mind from reaching conscious awareness.
- The unconscious mind is where feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories outside our conscious awareness are stored. It holds unacceptable or unpleasant information, such as pain, anxiety, and conflicts.
- Jung’s view of the unconscious mind did not differ dramatically from Freud’s. However, the collective unconscious theory believes it is the deepest level of the personality (psyche).
- The id is the primitive or instinctive part of the mind, the ego uses the reality principle, and the superego controls our moral conscience.
References
- Fig. 1 - Image by Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay
- Jung. C. G., (1970) The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. Princeton University Press
- Freud, S. (1923). The Ego and the Id. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIX (1923- 1925): The Ego and the Id and Other Works, 1-66
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