Chapter 1. Personality Structure: Id, Ego, and Superego

Short Description

Sigmund Freud describes his theory of personality structure. The conscious self that attempts to deal with the outside world of reality he calls the ego.

Long Description

Sigmund Freud describes his theory of personality structure. The conscious self that attempts to deal with the outside world of reality he calls the ego. But ego is not the master of self, claims Freud, because we are “constantly bedeviled by powerful unconscious forces.” Id reflects all that is primitive and infantile; it represents the blind instincts of sexual desire and aggression within us. Id is opposed by superego which is rigid, punishing, and repressive. The superego reflects the moral restrictions we have inherited from our parents and from our society.

The three elements of personality are illustrated in David’s interactions with his employer who challenges the way he has handled a client. Although David’s responses to his employer seem rational and calm, the inner voices of id and superego reflect strongly conflicting forces. Id expresses strongly hostile feelings, while superego voices respect.

David’s hostility toward his employer is based on unconscious hatred of his father caused by childhood jealousy and the Oedipus Complex (a very young boy’s sexual desires for his mother and feelings of jealous hatred toward his father). Without insight into these dark forces, we are doomed to play out our lives in an endless dramatization of our childhood relationships with our parents.

In a second scenario, the same conflicting forces are apparent in David’s interactions with his girlfriend, Peggy. In this case, the strong sexual attraction he feels toward Peggy replays the unconscious sexual attraction he felt at a very early age toward his mother. This id impulse is in sharp conflict with the superego’s moral restrictions on the expression of the sexual drive.

Ego’s task is to meet the conflicting demands of id, ego, and reality and still preserve its own identity. The struggles between id and superego can be the source of our growth only if we recognize the unconscious forces within us.

Questions