The Ego, id and Super Ego

A psychoanalytical theory which we have been researching is Freud's theory of the id, ego and superego, which is the three theoretical constructs of the psyche as defined by Freud. The id is the unorganised part of the personality that contains a humans basic, instinctual drives such as the libido which is the primary force of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality, and it acts according to the pleasure principle which seeks to avoid pain or unpleasure caused by increases in instinctual tension. By definition the id is the "dark, inaccessible part of our personalities that contains mostly negative characteristics, it is approached with analogies: being called a chaos, a cauldron of seething excitations and energy reaching from the instincts, it has no organisation, produces no collective will and seeks only to bring about the satisfaction of instinctual needs in observance with the pleasure principle" the id can thus be seen as the instinctual, repressed part of our personalities.

The ego is in contrast to the id, the rational aspect of the psyche. The ego acts according to the reality principle, meaning it seeks to please the id's instinctual drives in realistic ways that benefit in the long term, Freud states that the ego "attempts to mediate between the id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak and suppress the unconscious demands of the id with its own preconscious rationalisations, to conceal the ids conflicts with reality". The ego comprises the organised part of the personality structure which includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive and executive functions. The ego is where conscious awareness resides, although not all operations performed by the ego are conscious. Freud claims that the ego is a set of psychic functions such as judgement, tolerance, reality testing, defence, synthesis of information and memory.

According to Freud the super-ego is the part of the psyche that aims for perfection. It comprises that 

organised part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the ego's ideals, spiritual goals and the psychic agency (conscious) that prohibits the individuals fantasies, drives, feelings and actions. The super-ego is thought to be a type of conscious that punishes misbehaviour with feelings of guilt and anxiety. The super-ego works in contradiction to the id, it strives to behave in an appropriate manner whereas the id only wants instant self gratification. The super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and guilt, it helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways, due to this the super-egos demands oppose the id's which puts strain on the ego as it needs to reconcile the two. Freud's theory implies that the super-ego is the symbolic internalisation of the father figure and cultural regulations, The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the id because of their conflicting objectives, and its aggressiveness towards the ego, the super-ego acts as the conscious maintaining our sense of morality and proscription from social taboo's.