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The familiar Freudian concept of the structure of personality as an id, ego, and superego was a rather late product of Freud’s thought. Not until 1923 with the publication of The Ego and the Id did his final theory of a threefold structure of personality emerge. In dis-cussing the id, ego, and superego, we must keep in mind that these are not three separate entities with sharply defined boundaries, but rather that they represent a variety of dif-ferent processes, functions, and dynamics within the person. The psychoanalytic approach to the study of the mind illuminates processes that cognitive and neurological psychologists are studying today from their perspectives. Moreover, in his writings Freud used the German personal pronouns, das Es, das Ich, and das uber-Ich. Literally trans-lated they mean “the it,” “the I,” and “the above-I.” The Strachey translation into Latin pronouns made them less personal (Bettelheim, 1982).

THEID, EGO, ANDSUPEREGO

The id is the “core of our being,” the oldest and original function of the personality and the basis of the ego and superego. We know little of the id, because it does not present itself to our consciousness in naked form. Therefore, we can describe it only by analogies and by comparing it with the ego. Freud referred to it as a “chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations.” The id includes the instincts and drives that motivate us as well as our genetic inheritance and our reflexes and capacities to respond. It represents our basic drives, needs, and wishes. Further, it is the reservoir of psychic energy that provides the power for all psychological functioning.

The impersonal and uncontrollable character of the id is more readily expressed in the German language than in English. For example, the German idiom for “I am hun-gry” (“Es hungert mich”) translates literally as “It hungers me,” implying that I am a recipient of actions initiated in me, not by me.

The id operates according to the pleasure principle and employs primary processes.

The pleasure principle refers to seeking immediate tension reduction. When libido (psy-chic energy) builds up, it reaches an uncomfortable level of tension. The id seeks to dis-charge the tension and return to a more comfortable level of energy. In seeking to avoid painful tension and obtain pleasure, the id takes no precautions but acts immediately in an impulsive, nonrational way. It pays no heed to the consequences of its actions and therefore frequently behaves in a manner that may be harmful to the self or others.

The id seeks to satisfy its needs partly through reflex action. Inborn automatic responses like sneezing, yawning, and blinking are spontaneous and unlearned, and operate without any conscious thought or effort. Many of our reflexes are protective in that they help us to ward off dangers in our environment. Others are adaptive and enable us to adjust to the conditions of our environment. Newborn infants have several The Structure of Personality 43

reflexes that help to ensure their survival. For instance, they turn their heads toward the source of tactile stimulation. This “rooting reflex” assists them in locating the nipple.

Sucking is also an automatic reflex enabling infants to take in nourishment.

The id also seeks to reduce tension through primary processes, hallucinating or forming an image of the object that would satisfy its needs. Freud thought that visualiz-ing a forthcomvisualiz-ing hamburger or sirloin steak momentarily relieves our hunger pangs;

such activity is also called wish fulfillment. It is present in newborns, in our dreams, and in the hallucinations of psychotics. Visualizing a bottle or the breast partly pacifies the infant, but it does not satisfy its hunger. Since the primary process does not distin-guish between its wish-fulfilling images and real objects in the external world that would satisfy needs, it is not very effective in reducing tension. A second structure must develop if the organism is to survive.

The ego (“I”) emerges in order to realistically meet the wishes and demands of the id in accordance with the outside world. People who are hungry have to be effective in securing food for themselves from the environment in order to meet their needs and sur-vive. The ego evolves out of the id and acts as an intermediary between the id and the external world. It draws on the id’s energy, acquires its structures and functions from the id, and endeavors to serve the id by realistically meeting its demands. Thus the ego is the executor of the personality, curbing the id and maintaining transactions with the external world in the interests of the fuller personality.

Whereas the id obeys the pleasure principle, the ego follows the reality principle, satisfying the id’s impulses in an appropriate manner in the external world. The ego postpones the discharge of tension until the appropriate object that will satisfy the need has been found. Although the ego does not prevent the satisfaction of the id, it may suspend or redirect the id’s wishes in accordance with the demands of reality.

The id employs the fantasies and wishes of the primary process; the ego uses realistic thinking characteristic of secondary processes, the cognitive and perceptional skills that help an individual distinguish between fact and fantasy. They include the higher intellectual functions of problem solving, which let the ego establish suitable courses of action and test them for their effectiveness. Actually, there is no natural enmity between the ego and the id. The ego is a “faithful servant” of the id and tries to fulfill its needs realistically.

Harbored within the ego as “its innermost core” is the superego (“above-I”). Heir to the Oedipus complex, it represents internalized values, ideals, and moral standards.

The superego is the last function of the personality to develop and may be seen as an outcome of the interactions with one’s parents during the long period of childhood dependency. Rewards and punishments originally placed on us from without become self-administered as we internalize the teachings of our parents and society. As a result of the activity of the superego we experience guilt when we disobey acceptable moral standards.

The superego consists of two subsystems: the conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience is the capacity for self-evaluation, criticism, and reproach. It scolds the ego and creates feelings of guilt when moral codes are violated. The ego-ideal is an ideal self-image consisting of approved and rewarded behaviors. It is the source of pride and a concept of who we think we should be.

The superego strives for perfection. It seeks moralistic rather than realistic solutions.

Practically speaking, the development of the superego is a necessity. The id’s demands are too strong, and young children’s egos are too weak to prevent them from acting on their impulses. For a period of time, strong introjected moral injunctions—“Thou shalt nots”—are required to curb behavior. But the superego may also be relentless and cruel in its insistence on perfection. Its moralistic demands may resemble those of the id in

their intensity, blindness, and irrationality. In its uncompromising manner, the superego may inhibit the needs of the id, rather than permit their ultimate necessary and appro-priate satisfaction.

In the well-adjusted adult personality, the ego is the primary executor. It controls and governs both id and superego, mediating between their demands and the external world.

In ideal functioning, the ego maintains a balanced, harmonious relationship among the various elements with which it has to deal. Development, though, does not always pro-ceed optimally. The ego frequently ends up harassed by two harsh masters. One demands instant satisfaction and release. The other places rigid prescriptions on that release. Drawing on Plato’s analogy, Freud described the ego as a charioteer trying to control two strong horses, each of which is trying to run in the opposite direction from the other.

Freud’s final picture of personality is that of a self divided (cf. Brunner, 2002). The specific roles played by the id, ego, and superego are not always clear; they mingle at too many levels. The self is seen to consist of many diverse forces in inevitable conflict.

Freud’s picture of the person is not optimistic, but it is an attempt to account for the fact that as human beings we are not always able to cope with certain situations.

Although the trifold division of personality appears to be a finished structure, essen-tially the person is understood as a product of development. The ego and superego have evolved historically in response to specific personal situations. In the case of the super-ego, that situation is also interpersonal, as it involves other people. It would be wrong to freeze the id, ego, and superego into systems; instead, the personality is created by a dynamic of forces that can be divided against themselves at many levels. Thus, in his mature formulation, Freud holds in tension the biological ground of the self and its his-torical development.

THERELATIONSHIP OF THEID, EGO, ANDSUPEREGO TO CONSCIOUSNESS

There is no easy correlation between the words id, ego, and superego and the qualities of

“conscious” and “unconscious.” At times, Freud tended to make the easy equation of ego with consciousness and id with unconsciousness. His discoveries, reflected in The Ego and the Id (1923), that aspects of the ego and the superego are unconscious, as is the id, forced him to revise his theory. Conscious and unconscious could be used only as adjectives describing qualities that psychological processes may or may not have. This final conclusion is also concurrent with contemporary neurological findings.

If one were to diagram Freud’s picture of the psyche, perhaps the best image would be Freud’s own: an iceberg, nine-tenths of which is submerged under water (see Figure 2.2). The surface of the water represents the boundary between conscious and unconscious. Its line intersects, or potentially intersects, all three functions: id, ego, and superego. But any spatial metaphor is ultimately misleading. Id, ego, and superego are best understood as dynamic functions of personality, whereas conscious and unconscious are adjectives that describe qualities that these functions may have.

The merit of Freud’s rejecting his early assumption that consciousness is located in a single center is confirmed by twentieth-century brain-activity monitoring and imaging (Beer, 2003).

The dynamic forces within the self are many. The self is not simply divided against itself by id, ego, and superego but is divided against itself and the world at many levels.

Conflict is the keynote of Freud’s final understanding of the self. The world, Freud once wrote, is anake (the Greek word for “a lack”), too poor to meet all of our needs. As the id’s demands increase, the ego becomes overwhelmed with excessive stimulation that it cannot control and becomes flooded with anxiety.

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