Id, ego and super-ego

 are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural 

model of the psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and 

interaction mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of 

uncoordinated instinctual trends; the ego is the organized, realistic part; and the super-

ego plays the critical and moralizing role.[1] The super-egocan stop you from doing certain 

things that your id may want you to do.[2]

Even though the model is structural and makes reference to an apparatus, the id, ego 

and super-ego are functions of the mind rather than parts of the brain and do not 

correspond one-to-one with actual somatic structures of the kind dealt with 

by neuroscience.

Id

The id is the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, 

instinctual drives. Id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.[3] The id 

contains the libido, which is the primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to 

the demands of reality.[4] The id acts according to the "pleasure principle", seeking to avoid 

pain or unpleasure (not 'displeasure') aroused by increases in instinctual tension.[5]

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 theDreamwork 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."[6]

In the id, "contrary impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other out.... There is 

nothing in the id that could be compared with negation ... nothing in the id which 

corresponds to the idea of time."[7]

Developmentally, the id precedes the ego; i.e. the psychic apparatus begins, at birth, as 

an undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured ego. Thus, the id:

"... contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the 

constitution — above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic 

organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to 

us." [8]

The mind of a newborn child is regarded as completely "id-ridden", in the sense that it is 

a mass of instinctive drives and impulses, and needs immediate satisfaction, a view which 

equates a newborn child with an id-ridden individual—often humorously—with this analogy: 

an alimentary tract with no sense of responsibility at either end, paraphrasing a quip made 

by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California 

in which he compared government to a baby.[9]

The id "knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality.... Instinctual 

cathexes seeking discharge — that, in our view, is all there is in the id."[10] It is regarded as 

"the great reservoir of libido",[11] the instinctive drive to create — the life instincts that are 

crucial to pleasurable survival. Alongside the life instincts came the death instincts — 

the death drive which Freud articulated relatively late in his career in "the hypothesis of 

a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into the inanimate state."[12] For 

Freud, "the death instinct would thus seem to express itself — though probably only in part 

— as an instinct of destruction directed against the external world and other organisms":[13] through aggression. Freud considered that "the id, the whole person ... originally includes 

all the instinctual impulses ... the destructive instinct as well."[14] as Eros or the life instincts.

The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors. According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate attempt to eat or drink. The id is very important early in life, because it ensures that an infant's needs are met. If the infant is hungry or uncomfortable, he or she will cry until the demands of the id are met.However, immediately satisfying these needs is not always realistic or even possible. If we were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find ourselves grabbing things we want out of other people's hands to satisfy our own cravings. This sort of behavior would be both disruptive

and socially unacceptable. According to Freud, the id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle through the primary process, which involves forming a mental image of the desired object as a way of satisfying the need.

Perhaps Freud's single most enduring and important idea was that the human psyche has more than one aspect.

Freud (1923b) saw the psyche structured into three parts (i.e. tripartite), the id, ego and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives.

These are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical.

The id consists of all the inherited (i.e. biological) components of personality, including the sex (life) instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and aggressive (death) instinct - Thanatos.

The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to the instincts. The personality of the newborn child is all id and only later does it develop ego and super-ego.

The id demands immediate satisfaction and when this happens we experience pleasure, when it is denied we experience ‘unpleasure’ or pain. The id is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world.On the contrary, it operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920g) which is the idea that every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences

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 bring grief.[15] At the same time, 

Freud concedes that as the ego "attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often 

obliged to cloak the Ucs. [Unconscious] commands of the id with its 

own Pcs. [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."[16]

The ego comprises the organized part of the personality structure that includes 

defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness 

resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious. Originally, 

Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic 

functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis 

of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.[1] The ego separates out what is real. It 

helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us.[1]"The 

ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external 

world.... The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to 

the id, which contains the passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, 

who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the 

rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces."[17] Still 

worse, "it serves three severe masters ... the external world, the super-ego and the id."[16] Its 

task is to find a balance between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the id and 

super-ego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires 

to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. "Thus the ego, 

driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality, struggles ... [in] bringing 

about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it," and readily 

"breaks out in anxiety — realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety 

regarding the super-ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the 

id."[18] It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is constantly feeling hemmed by the danger 

of causing discontent on two other sides. It is said, however, that the ego seems to be more 

loyal to the id, preferring to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while 

pretending to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every one 

of the ego's moves and punishes it with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority.

To overcome this the ego employs defense mechanisms. The defense mechanisms are 

not done so directly or consciously. They lessen the tension by covering up our impulses that 

are threatening.[19] Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego when id behavior 

conflicts with reality and either society's morals, norms, and taboos or the individual's 

expectations as a result of the internalization of these morals, norms, and their taboos.

Denial, displacement, intellectualisation, fantasy, compensation, projection, rationalizati

on, reaction formation, regression, repression, and sublimation were the defense 

mechanisms Freud identified. However, his daughter Anna Freud clarified and identified the 

concepts of undoing, suppression, dissociation, idealization, identification, introjection, 

inversion, somatisation, splitting, and substitution.

In a diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted to 

be half in the consciousness, while a quarter is in the preconscious and the other quarter lies 

in theunconscious.

In modern English, ego has many meanings. It could mean one’s self-esteem; an inflated 

sense of self-worth; the conscious-thinking self;[20] or in philosophical terms, one’s self. Ego 

development is known as the development of multiple processes, cognitive function, 

defenses, and interpersonal skills or to early adolescence when ego processes are emerged.[15]

The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. The ego functions in both the conscious,preconscious, and unconscious mind.The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification--the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place.The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through the secondary process, in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary process.

Initially the ego is “that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world” (Freud 1923).  The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world.

Ideally the ego works by reason whereas the id is chaotic and totally unreasonable.  The ego operates according to the reality principle, working our realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction.

Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain but unlike the id the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure.  Freud made the analogy of the id being the horse while the ego is the rider. 

Often the ego is weak relative to the head-strong id and the best the ego can do is stay on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action were its own.  The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or to the id.

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'."[21] 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."[22]

The super-ego aims for perfection.[19] 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. For example, for 

having extra-marital affairs."[23] Taken in this sense, the super-ego is the precedent for the 

conceptualization of the inner critic as it appears in contemporary therapies such 

as IFS and Voice Dialogue.

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.[1]

The super-ego's demands often oppose the id’s, so the ego sometimes has a hard time in 

reconciling the two.[19]

Freud's theory implies that the super-ego is a symbolic internalisation of the father 

figure and cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of 

the id because of their conflicting objectives, and its aggressiveness towards the ego. The 

super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality and proscription from 

taboos. The super-ego and the ego are the product of two key factors: the state of 

helplessness of the child and the Oedipus complex.[24] Its formation takes place during the 

dissolution of the Oedipus complex and is formed by an identification with and 

internalisation of the father figure after the little boy cannot successfully hold the mother as 

a love-object out of fear of castration.

"The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus 

complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (under the influence of 

authority, religious teaching, schooling and reading), the stricter will be the domination of 

the super-ego over the ego later on—in the form of conscience or perhaps of an 

unconscious sense of guilt."—Freud, The Ego and the Id (1923)

The concept of super-ego and the Oedipus complex is subject to criticism for its 

perceived sexism. Women, who are considered to be already castrated, do not identify with 

the father, and therefore, for Freud, "their super-ego is never so inexorable, so impersonal, 

so independent of its emotional origins as we require it to be in men ... they are often more 

influenced in their judgements by feelings of affection or hostility."[25] However, Freud went 

on to modify his position to the effect "that the majority of men are also far behind the 

masculine ideal and that all human individuals, as a result of their bisexual disposition and of 

cross-inheritance, combine in themselves both masculine and feminine characteristics."[26]

In Sigmund Freud's work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), he also discusses the 

concept of a "cultural super-ego". Freud suggested that the demands of the super-ego 

"coincide with the precepts of the prevailing cultural super-ego. At this point the two 

processes, that of the cultural development of the group and that of the cultural 

development of the individual, are, as it were, always interlocked."[27] Ethics are a central 

element in the demands of the cultural super-ego, but Freud (as analytic moralist) protested 

against what he called "the unpsychological proceedings of the cultural super-ego ... the 

ethical demands of the cultural super-ego. It does not trouble itself enough about the facts 

of the mental constitution of human beings."[28]

The last component of personality to develop is the superego. The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society--our sense of right and wrong. The superego provides guidelines for making judgments. According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.

There are two parts of the superego:

1. The ego ideal  includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These behaviors include those which are approved of by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value and accomplishment.

2. The conscience  includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and

lead to bad consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt and remorse.

The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather that upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learnt from one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 4 – 5 during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

The superego consists of two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The conscience can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt.  For example, if the ego gives in to id demands, the superego may make the person feel bad though guilt. The ideal self (or ego-ideal) is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be, and represents career aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behavior as a member of society.

Behavior which falls short of the ideal self may be punished by the superego through guilt. The super-ego can also reward us through the ideal self when we behave ‘properly’ by making us feel proud.  If a person’s ideal self is too high a standard, then whatever the person does will represent failure.  The ideal self and conscience are largely determined in childhood from parental values and you were brought up.

The Interaction of the Id, Ego and Superego

With so many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the id, ego and superego. Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego's ability to function despite these dueling forces. A person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage these pressures, while those with too much or too little ego strength can become too unyielding or too disrupting.

According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id, the ego, and the superego.

The unconscious mind contains our biologically based instincts (eros and thanatos) for the primitive urges for sex and aggression.

While we are fully aware of what is going on in the conscious mind, we have no idea of what information is stored in the unconscious mind.

The unconscious contains all sorts of significant and disturbing material which we need to keep out of awareness because they are too threatening to acknowledge fully. 

So, the unconscious is not like a dustbin containing unimportant or irrelevant thoughts. Rather, it is precisely because they are so powerful that they are kept buried. Nevertheless, they exert a significant influence.

Subconscious MindThe subconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware

of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness.  It exists just below the level of consciousness before the unconscious mind.

This is what we mean in our everyday usage of the word available memory. For example, you are presently not thinking about your mobile telephone number, but now it is mentioned you can recall it with ease.  Mild emotional experiences may be in the subconscious but sometimes traumatic and powerful negative emotions are repressed and hence not available in the subconscious.

Our feelings, motives and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences, stored in the subconscious and instincts from the unconscious.

Freud applied these three systems to his structure of the personality, or psyche   – the id, ego and superego. Here the id is regarded as entirely unconscious whilst the ego and superego have conscious, preconscious, and unconscious aspect.  Freud also regarded the mind to be like an iceberg, where the greatest part is hidden beneath the water or unconscious.

Freud believed that the influences of the subconscious and unconscious reveal themselves in a variety of ways, including dreams, and in slips of the tongue, now popularly known as'Freudian slips'.  Freud (1920) gave an example of such a slip when a British Member of Parliament referred to a colleague with whom he was irritated as 'the honorable member from Hell' instead of from Hull.

However, to other psychologists determined to be scientific in their approach (e.g.behaviorists) the concept of the unconscious mind has proved a source of considerable frustration because it defies objective description and is extremely difficult to objectively test or measure.

Definitions

Definition:

In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the preconscious mind is a part of the mind that corresponds to ordinary memory. These memories are not conscious, but we can retrieve them to conscious awareness at any time.

While these memories are not part of your immediate awareness, they can be quickly brought into awareness through conscious effort. For example, if you were asked what television show you watched last night or what you had for breakfast this morning, you would be pulling that information out of your preconscious.

A helpful way to think of the preconscious is that it acts as a sort of gatekeeper between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. It allows only certain pieces of information to pass through and enter conscious awareness.

Definition:In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the conscience is the part of the superego that includes information about things that are viewed as

bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse.

In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.

What Is the Conscious Mind?In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the conscious mind consists of everything inside of our awareness. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about in a rational way.

The conscious mind includes such things as the sensations, perceptions, memories, feeling and fantasies inside of our current awareness. Closely allied with the conscious mind is the preconscious, which includes the things that we are not thinking of at the moment but which we can easily draw into conscious awareness.

Things that the conscious mind wants to keep hidden from awareness are repressed into the unconscious mind. While we are unaware of these feelings, thoughts, urges and emotions, Freud believed that the unconscious mind could still have an influence on our behavior.

Freud often used the metaphor of an iceberg to describe the two major aspects of human personality. The tip of the iceberg that extends above the water represents the conscious mind. As you can see in the image at the right, the conscious mind is just the "tip of the iceberg." Beneath the water is the much larger bulk of the iceberg, which represents the unconscious.

While the conscious and preconscious are important, Freud believed that they were far less vital than the unconscious. The things that are hidden from awareness, he believed, exerted the greatest influence over our personalities and behaviors.

Definition:

In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the primary process works to resolve tension created by the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle is what drives the id and seeks instant gratification of all needs, wants, and desires. When the pleasure principle creates tension, the id must find a way to discharge this energy.

The primary process acts as the id's mechanism for discharging the tension created by the pleasure principle. Rather than act on dangerous or unacceptable urges, the id forms a mental image of a desired object to substitute for an urge in order to diffuse tension and anxiety. This image can take the form of a dream, hallucination, fantasy, or delusion. For example, if you are hungry, you might form a mental image of a slice of pizza or a deli sandwich. The experience of this mental image through the primary process is known as wish fulfillment.

However, problems also result from using the primary process to dissipate the energy of the id. The primary process has no way to distinguish between the fantasy image and reality. So while the primary process can be used to temporarily reduce tension, it is only effective in the short-term. Your mental image of the food you are craving will only satisfy you for so long. Eventually, the tension will return when needs go unfulfilled.

n Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the secondary process discharges the tension between the ego and the id that is caused by unmet urges or needs. The secondary process functions through the ego's action of looking for an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary process.Remember, a large part of the ego's purpose is to delay the demands of the id until the appropriate time. The ego conforms to what is known as the reality principle. That is, the ego must take the demands and reality of the outside world into account in addition to the id's basic needs and urges. The reality principle is what leads us to weight the potential risks and rewards of a particular action. If the action in improbable or inadvisable at the moment, we might delay it until a later time. If the risk of taking the action is simply too high, we will instead find alternative ways to fulfill the need.

So let's imagine that you are in the middle of a psychology class lecture. Your stomach begins to rumble. The id begins to demand satisfaction, urging you to do something to end your hunger. What do you do? Run out of class to the nearest fast-food vendor? Reach out and grab a bag of

licorice sitting on a classmates desk? Both of these actions would be inappropriate and could lead to some serious ramifications. Instead, the ego uses the secondary process to temporarily discharge the id's energy until you are able to safely and appropriately fulfill your need. You spend the last minutes of class fantasizing about a cheesy slice of pepperoni pizza. As soon as class is dismissed, you head to your favorite pizza parlor for lunch.