Furthermore, Cloninger (2008) also tells that ego is working as the major conscious centre to resolve the issues arise from both the impulsive urge of id and the moral restriction from the superego. In a simple way, ego is the information centre of the mind that carries out duties to maintain a harmonious balance between id and superego: first to receive knowledge from internal and external environments, second is to reserve the information either in consciously or unconsciously way and third is to process the information and carry out the decision making to decide a response or a reaction based on the need of id and superego (Goldwater,
Meanwhile, Freud concepts of the id, ego, and superego are ways of describing people personality and characteristics; the id is a desire drive that wants to be fulfilled. The examples that Freud gave to explained the purpose of the id is: "to seek pleasure... unencumbered by restrictions of ego and superego with no regards to what is possible, or what is proper" (Feist 30). The ego is described as people everyday personality. The superego is described as human’s cultural norms and their social impact. In addition Freud believed that our personality is largely developed through the stage of development.
He argues that the structures and conflict in the human mind shapes personality. Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality implicated the structure of the mind, namely the id, ego, and superego, and how conflicts among these constituent parts are resolved in shaping human personality. Conflicts among these structures of the mind appear at each of Freud's five basic stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. He claimed that successful navigation of these natural, internal conflicts will lead to mastery of each developmental stage, and ultimately, to fully-mature, adult personality. The character of Joker can be further analysed based on this
' (Freud [1923], 1961, p. 25) Saul writes that ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision making component of personality. Ideally the ego works by reason, whereas the id is totally unreasonable. The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands. The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.
Sigmund Freud’s Structural Theory of Personality explains the relationship between behaviour and the three components of the mind: the Id, Ego and Superego. The Id represents the instincts with which one is born. The Id does not involve realistic thinking or the use of logic since one would do anything to have immediate satisfaction of his/her wants, needs or passions, such as stealing to satiate desires. However, the Ego is the use of logic and rational thinking that has been gained from observation of the outside world to influence behaviour. It is the part of the mind that assists in delaying or using an alternative mean to satisfy the Id’s demands in order to avoid the negative repercussions of society.
For Freud, repression was the balancing of the ego and id through repressing immoral desires, allowing one to function well in society. However, Freud, never goes into detail on what repression actually is thus leaving it with no solid definition. In Billig’s work of re-examining Freud’s past cases, he attempted to reconstitute the idea of repression, by finding it a place within the field of discourse psychology. His new formulation of repression took from the existing theories of conversational analysis regarding dialogic structure. However, in direct contrast to those theories, Billig’s took the form of absences rather than presences.
The Superego is the moral part of us and develops from the moral and ethics shown by the caregiver. According to Freud, the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id as well as the moral and ethical considerations of the superego. Finding the balance between the id and the super ego is the real challenge of the
In other words, ego mediates between the urges of the id and the moral strictures of others in the super-ego. It is the decision making component of personality. Ideally the ego works by reason. Yet Freud states that “In popular language, we may say that the ego stands for reason and circumspection, while the id stands for the untamed passions.” Another province, of the psyche, which he called the superego, is really a projection of the ego. The superego almost seems to be outside of the self, making moral judgments, telling us to make sacrifices for good causes even though self-sacrifice may not be quite logical or rational.
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality explains personality development based on the interaction between Structural Modal agencies: id, ego and superego. Id consists of two components: Eros, the life instinct and Thanatos, the death instinct. Besides, id operates on pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification of desires regardless of consequences. However, when instant gratification is impossible, id engages in primary process, temporarily fulfilling wishes with mental images. Ego moderates between id, ego and the reality through reality principle, satisfying id’s desires while obeying superego’s moral standards realistically.
Reading these publications can help them understand the Freudian theory more. One of Freud’s utmost influential works is “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality”, in which he outlines his theory of Psychosexual Development. Another book is “Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious” or ‘Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten’, where Freud observed how jokes, most likely dreams, could be associated to the unconscious wishes, desires, or memories. This book is based on his theory of Personality- the id, ego, and superego- which, according to Freud superego allows the ego to engender and express humor. Another book is ‘Introduction to Psychoanalysis’ or ‘Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse’, which is one of the eminent works of Freud.