The id, the ego and the superego, according to Sigmund Freud

Of all the theories developed by Sigmund Freud, that of It, the Me and the Superego it is one of the most famous. According to his psychodynamic approach, each of these structures represents a psychic instance that, from our nervous system, leads us to pursue interests that collide with each other.

So the It, the Me and the Superegoare the concepts that Freud used to refer to the conflict and the struggle of antagonistic forces that, according to him, govern our way of thinking and acting. The aim of psychoanalysis was, therefore, to bring out the true nature of the conflicts and blockages that according to Freud were at the base of the psychopathology. Let's see in more detail what ideas were behind this theory.

The three psychic instances of Freud's theory

The psychodynamic approach, which was born with Freud's psychoanalysis, is based on the idea that the psychic processes that occur in each person are defined by the existence of a conflict. Hence comes the term "dynamics", which expresses that constant succession of events by which one party tries to impose itself on the other. The concepts of the Id, the Ego and the Superego form the section of Freud's theories in which this idea of ​​collision between different psychic structures is most evident.

But let's get away from such abstract terms. On what basis is this struggle that according to Freud is fought in our head so fundamentally unconscious? What interests and objectives are at stake according to the father of psychoanalysis? To answer these questions, it is first necessary to define what the id, the ego and the superego are, the three entities that for Freud explain the personality of human beings through the way they fight each.

1. The it

Freud proposed that the Id or Id is the structure of the human psyche that appears first. Unlike what happens with the ego and the superego, it is present from the moment we are born, and therefore both during the first two years of our lives is the one that commands throughout that period of weather.

The it moves from the principle of immediate pleasure, and that is why he struggles to make the primary drives govern the behavior of the person, regardless of the medium or long-term consequences that this may entail. For this reason it is usually considered that the Id is "the animal" or "instinctive" part of the human being.

2. The I

This psychic instance would arise after two years and, unlike the Id, it would be governed by the principle of reality. That means that the I is more outwardly focused, and leads us to think about the practical consequences of what we do and the problems that overly uninhibited behavior can generate. This makes it confront the Id to appease the drives that emanate from it, for which it uses the defense mechanisms.

Ultimately, the Ego is, according to Sigmund Freud's theory, the psychic instance that is in charge of making the force of the Id not take over. control of the body leading to catastrophic situations in the short term, and that the superego does not suffocate us due to its character restrictive. It is not simply an entity that limits the influence of the other two, but has its own agenda and interests and is governed by a different logic: that of the pragmatic and survival.

3. The superego

The superego would appear according to Freud from 3 years of life, and it is a consequence of socialization (basically learned through parents) and the internalization of socially agreed norms. It is the psychic instance that watches over the fulfillment of the moral rules. That is why the superego presses to make great sacrifices and efforts in order to bring one's personality as close as possible to the idea of ​​perfection and good.

As the Id totally rejects the idea of ​​submission to morality and the Ego, despite trying to restrain the drives, is also moved by selfish objectives focused on survival and the pragmatic of adapting to the environment, The Super-ego faces both. For the father of psychoanalysis, the superego makes sense in a context in which the influence of society forces us to adopt behaviors of vigilance of oneself to avoid confrontations with others, although in the long run this influence will go much more beyond this logic oriented to socialization and becomes a fundamental element in the creation of the identity of the individual.

The balance between forces

Freud believed that all these parts of the psyche exist in all people and, in their own way, are an indispensable part of mental processes. However, he also believed that the struggle between the id, the ego and the superego can sometimes generate decompensations that produce suffering and the appearance of psychopathologies, so an attempt should be made to re-balance the correlation of forces through psychoanalysis. In fact, one of the characteristics of Freud's theories is that they create a concept of mental health in which disorders are not the exception, but the norm; the most common are the imbalances between these psychic instances, due to the fact that the mental problems remain implicit and latent in the internal struggle that they maintain between them.

For example, if the superego becomes imposed, the repression of thoughts and emotions can become so excessive that periodically nervous breakdowns occur, something that he attributed for example to the cases of women with hysteria too attached to a rigid and deeply restrictive morality.

On the other hand, if the It predominated, this could give way to sociopathy, an impulsiveness that endangers both the person who experiences it and others, since the absolute priority is to meet needs urgently.

This concept of balance between forces totally permeated the work of Sigmund Freud, since he did not believe that there was a definitive solution to the confrontation between the three instances. psychic: the healthiest people are not those in which the Id, the Ego and the Superego have stopped fighting (which is impossible, according to him), but those in whom this fight causes less misfortunes.

It must be borne in mind, however, that the impossibility of refuting Freud's theories turns these three concepts into theoretical constructs of little use to current scientific psychology, partly because of the impact it had on the philosophy of science Karl Popper's work and his criticism of psychoanalysis.