Ego – Superego – ID Triangle
July 8, 2008 – 11:36 pm
Psychology
Do you hear a voice from your deep inside telling you to do anything anytime without waiting or thinking? Another voice tells you should not do it, it is not right, moral, and something balances it. These are ID, superego, and ego. This triangle is the structural psyche model of Freud and it is explained with iceberg example. There is a huge part of iceberg that we can not see in the water which symbolizes our primitive part and it is called ID, near the surface of water there is another level, this is superego, it always tries to prevent us from making some actions, and the last part can be seen on the surface of water, it is ego, it is the balancing part of our psyche. Conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind is the source of Freud’s Models of Mind.
Terms Ego, Superego, ID
You can wonder where these concepts are coming from; Freud did not originate all these, his original terms were in German: “das Es,” “das Ich,” and “das Über-Ich”, they can be translated into English directly as: “the it”, “the I”, and “Over I”.
What is ID?
I want food! I want to pee! I want to have sex! Do you hear these sentences from your soul? Is your soul like a naughty child? And you want all these at the same time without waiting? Nothing can prevent you! This is your primitive side and Freud calls it as ID. No social rules, morality, authority, psyche only wants. Babies have the dominant ID, but with age, we have less “primitive” ID.
What is Superego?
Superego is the controlling part of human psyche. While our souls say do that, take it, make it, superego limits our desires. Morality, rules, clichés, authority is essential and if you do anything, it should be in the frame of all these. Do not you ever experience such things: You want to go out with your boyfriend, but first of all your parents do not approve it, they also say “Think the thoughts of other people!”, so you always think what other people say, what I should do, what the general rule is. This is your dominant superego.
What is Ego?
Ego balances the desires of superego and ID. ID keeps on wanting, superego looks for right thing and ego tries to find a common way. Ego is the realistic level, the main function of it providing security and making some of the wishes of ID true. It is like a judge deciding what is true, what should be done. Ego is affected by superego, ID and other external factors, after examining all these points, the exact decision is given by it.