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5. The psycho-analytic model of the psyche Since Freud's theory is basic, and has influenced many western personality theories, I take this opportunity to let Freud largely speak in his own words. 5.1 Freud's theory of the psyche Freud's early ideas and diagram, on the function and the structure of the ego and the id, are found in a letter to Fliess of 6.12.1896, and in his 'The Interpretation of Dreams' of 1900. The below drawings, entirely different from his early diagrams, are Freud's original sketches of the psyche from 1923 (Works 19, 24), and his last from 1932 (Works 22, 78). The "FIG. 1" is from 1923: In 1932 Freud wrote: "I should like to portray the structural relations of the mental personality, as I have described them to you, in the unassuming sketch which I now present with: As you see here, the super-ego merges into the id; indeed, as heir to the Oedipus complex it has intimate relations with the id; it is more remote than the ego from the perceptual system. The id has intercourse with the external world only through the ego - at least, according to this diagram. It is certainly hard to say to-day how far the drawing is correct. In one respect it is undoubtedly not. The space occupied by the unconscious id ought to have been incomparably greater than that of the ego or the preconscious. I must ask you to correct this in your thoughts" (Works 22, 78-79) The 1923 sketch principally differs from the 1932 one in the fact that the super-ego is not indicated in it. The 'Oedipus complex', 'penis envy' and other male ideas, are correctly criticized by Erich Fromm (1980). The 1932 sketch is currently used to illustrate Freud's model the psyche, consisting of ego, id and super-ego. The id is the only part of the mind already existing at birth: "To the oldest of these psychical provinces or agencies we give the name of id. It contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, that 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" (1940 [1938], Works Vol. 23, 145). With its demanding instincts, the id operates according to the pleasure-unpleasure principle. Freud called the id's mode of operation primary process thinking. The ego begins to emerge sometime during the first year of life: "Under the influence of the real external world around us, one portion of the id has undergone a special development. From what was originally a cortical layer, equipped with the organs for for receiving stimuli, a special organization has arisen which henceforward acts as an intermediary between the id and the external world. To this region of our mind we have given the name of ego." ... "It has the task of self-preservation" (1940 [1938], Works Vol. 23, 145). The ego operates according to the 'reality principle', using memory and reason, judgement and anticipation of consequences, when gratifying or delaying the desires of the id. The obeyance to the rules of logic and reason, and the learning from experience was called 'secondary process thinking'. This part of the ego is conscious. The super-ego begins to develop around the age of two or three: "The long period of childhood, during which the growing human being lives in dependence on his parents, leaves behind it as a precipitate the formation in his ego of a special agency in which this parental influence is prolonged. It has received the name of super-ego." ... "This parental influence of course includes in its operation not only the personalities of the actual parents but also the family, racial and national traditions handed on through them, as well as the demands of the immediate social milieu which they represent" (1940 [1938], Works Vol. 23, 146). The super-ego is concerned with meeting the demands of morality and social convention. It is roughly equivalent to what we call a conscience. The super-ego is partly conscious and partly unconscious and operates by a combination of primary process and secondary process thinking. Since Freud assumed "... that mental life is the function of an apparatus to which we ascribe the characteristics of being extended in space and of being made up of several portions - which we imagine, that is, as resembling a telescope or microscope or something of the kind" (1940 [1938], Works Vol. 23, 145), it could seem that Freud saw the id, ego and super-ego as being topographically distinct. However, in his 'New Introductory Lectures' of 1932, he warns against "sharp frontiers", and writes "We can not do justice to the characteristics of mind by by linear outlines like those in a drawing or in primitive painting, but rather by areas of colour melting into one another as they are presented by modern artists. After making the separation we must allow what we have separated to merge together once more" (Works Vol. 22, 79). Assagioli drew his so-called 'egg-diagram' in dotted lines (paragraph 3.2), "... to signify that no rigid compartments impede interplay among all levels" (Ferruci 1982, 44). 5.2 Freud on the relationship between id, ego and super-ego In the first edition of 'The Ego and the Id' (1923, Works Vol. 19, 55-56) Freud wrote: "There are two paths by which the contents of the id can penetrate into the ego. The one is direct, the other leads by way of the ego ideal; which of these two paths they take may, for some mental activities, be of decisive importance. The ego develops from perceiving instincts to controlling them, from obeying instincts to inhibiting them. In this achievement a large share is taken by the ego-ideal, which indeed is partly a reaction-formation against the instinctual processes of the id. Psycho-analysis is an instrument to enable the ego to achieve a progressive conquest of the id. From the other point of view, however, we see this same ego as a poor creature owing service to three masters and consequently menaced by three dangers: from the external world, from the libido of the id and from the severity of the super-ego" (1923, Works Vol. 19, 55-56). (The ego-ideal is the same as the super-ego.) In his 'New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis XXXI', (1933 [1932], Freud's Works, Vol. 22, 77-78) Freud writes on the same subject: "We are warned by a proverb against serving two masters at the same time. The poor ego has things even worse: it serves three severe masters and does what it can to bring their claims and demands into harmony with one another. These claims are always divergent and often seem incompatible. No wonder that the ego so often fails in its task. Its three tyrannical masters are the external world, the super-ego and id. When we follow the ego's efforts to satisfy them simultaneously - or rather, to obey them simultaneously - we cannot feel any regret at having personified this ego and and having set it up as a separate organism. It feels hemmed in on three sides, threatened by three kinds of danger, to which, if it is hard pressed, it reacts by generating anxiety. Owing to its origin from the experiences from the perceptual system, it is earmarked for representing the demands of the external world, but it strives too to be a loyal servant of the id, to remain on good terms with it, to recommend itself to it as an object and to attract its libido to itself. In its attempts to mediate between the 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, with diplomatic disingenuousness, to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding. On the other hand it is observed at every step it takes by the strict superego, which lays down definite standards for its conduct, without taking any account of its difficulties from the direction of the id and the external world, and which, if those standards are not obeyed, punishes it with tense feelings of inferiority and of guilt. Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the superego, repulsed by reality, struggles to master its economic task of bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it; and we can understand how it is that so often we cannot suppress a cry: " Life is not easy!" If the ego is obliged to admit its weakness, it breaks out in anxiety - realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the superego and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id" (1933 [1932], Freud's Works, Vol. 22, 77-78). Freud emphasizes the ambivalence and conflict among the three personality structures, focuses on intraphysic stress, and the sublimation of libidinal dynamics. Compare: The Mind and its Workings. In: Freud's Works, Volume 23, pages 144 - 171, originally published 1940 (1938). FREUD, Ernst, FREUD, Lucie & Grubrich-Simitis (Eds.) (1978) Sigmund Freud. His Life in Pictures and Words. With a biographical sketch by K.R. Eissler. London: AndrŽ Deutsch. : p. 175 Alfred Adfler 214 & 265 Lou Andreas-Salomé 1916 and 1935 (shocking difference) 299 Sketch of Freud on blotting paper, by Salvador Dali in 1938 308 The Couch |
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