Development - Study Task 6

"The Human Psyche" By Sigmund Freud

This piece of text (1000 words aprox)  is my analysis draft on Sigmund Freud's theory on human Psyche

Human Psyche – The Id, Ego and Super-Ego

According to Sigmund Freuds psychology studies, our distinctive human behaviour , thoughs and actions are the consequence of our psyche . Before to board in this sociologist journey ,it would be wise to have an understanding of how human mind works and why we behave as we do from a scientific point of view , in order to understand humans behaviour and human identity in modern society.

This paper will explore and identify the basic structure of the human psyche , a discussion from a static to a dynamic (libidinal) conception of unconciousness , sublimation and its fundamental role not only individual psycological development but also psycological development from a cultural perspective , and finally the social dimension of identity formation. A better understanding of these concepts will asure comprension of the role of human psyche in our bevaviour on both individual and social level.

As Freud's explains on his book “ The Ego and the Id “ , the human psyche can be divided into three different elements ; The Id, Ego and superEgo. In order to understand human behaviour , it will be necessary an approach to each of them.

The Id is the part of the psyche that is mainly formed by human instincts, as animals that we are. It is the only part of the psyche that it is present at birth and it's in charge of response to all types of impulses such as desires, needs, and wants. You can think of the Id as the capricious baby inside each individual, that we need to calm and attend to his demands.
According to Freud, the Id is entirely unconcious and is the “source of all psychic energy”, making it the primary component of personality. The Id follow the principle of pleasure and contains the libido, which is the main source of instictual force that respond to reality demands ( ex: Im hungry and I want to eat NOW ! Aka baby)

( The pleasure principle drived the id to findinstant gratification of whatever he desires, needs or want at the moment. Sometimes, these desires can't be satisfy instantly which as a consequence, a tension is created and needs to be relieve. As a remedy , the Id uses Primary Process , a defens mechanisim to relieve the tension , whereas the Id creates a mental image of the desired object to substitute the needs . Through this process, the tension is relived and anxiety level get steady . Daydreaming and masturbation are good examples of Primary Processes.



Secondly, the intermediary part of the psyche , the Ego , its main function is to ensure that all instincts manifestation of the Id are expresseed in an acceptable way to the real world. The ego helps to process Id desires to reality , it works as a moderator and is in cahrge of filtering Id's needs.
In order to understand the role of the Ego , we will look at the 3 levels of conciousnesss found in human mind. Freud believed that our behaviour and personality can be based on the interactions between the different conciousness

The first part of conciousnes is the concious mind , including everything we are aware of, the aspect of our mind that can think and reason.
In the unconcious mind ,we can find 2 different types. The precouncious (Pcs) , representing ordinary memory . We are not 100% aware of it although we can access and move some of them to the concious part at anytime. .
The last type of conciousness, the unconcious mind ( Ucs) and in comparison with the Pcs, we dont have access to it. A example of unconcious mind would be dreaming Freud believes that the unconcious is mainly formed by unpleasent memories, such as feeling of pains,repressions, anxiety,etc. Freud also discuss that the Ucs constantlly influence the individual beaviour ,and personality, even if is never aware of the influences.

Therefore , the Ego has a duty of distinguish fantasy from reality. It filter the thoughs and makes sense to to world., representing common sense and reason. However, it has the most important responsible role, as it has to serve the Id and the superEgo, and at the same time , bringing to the external world.



The Super – Ego would be the third part of the human psyche . It reflects the cultural rules, moral and ethics values mainly taught by parents as influence or/and guidance. Super ego aims for perfection . It represent the organized part of personality structure. It critiziques and prohibits fantasies,feeling and actions that are no moral or ethic. Is in constantc contradiction with the Id, because it has to act ina socially acceptable manner , therefore and as mention before, The ego often has to mediate between the two.




Knowing this , we can understand now the important role of the ego when it comes to canalize a responds, driven by the Id and confined by the super ego. Sometimes the ego struggle trying to satisfy both of them ,which obviously not always is possible . This can cause anxiety , in different ways ( Moral anxiety regarding the super ego, neurotic anxiety ,regarding the Id and realistic anxiety,regarding the external world ) To fight these anxieties, The ego has elaborate defense mechanisms, trying to solve these anxiety threats which ,it can become repressions if not treat at time.


Sublimation is the defense mechanisim ,where socially unacceptable impulses or desired are conciously transformed into socially acceptable behaviour or actions . Freud defined sublimationas the process of deflecting sexual insticts into acts of higher social valuation .He belivied that sublimation is a sign of maturity , not just as an individual but in a social aspect.