While administering hypnosis to patients suffering from hysteria, Freud
realized that this practice was not a cure,
but just a temporary fix.
It was this event that created the framework for Freud’s idea of the
subconscious, repression vs. aggression, dreams, and civilation. The
basis of his theory is that the mind is separated into two main
factions: the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious being what
we know to be happening and the unconscious is what is in our mind that
we do not necessarily know about.
Freud’s theory of the subconscious consists of three parts, the Id,
the Ego, and the Super Ego and how they interact with one another. The
Id is considered to be chaotic, the center for animalistic impulses,
and is governed by the pleasure principle, otherwise known as instant
gratification. It is also the location of the libido, which is our
“life force” or our sexual drive. The Id’s driving instinct is for
self-preservation.
The Ego is quite different from the Id. It is the mediator between the
Id and the Super Ego. The Ego is also the personality that we show
others. It is based upon the reality principle. The Super Ego
represents our conscience or moral standards. These ideas of right and
wrong are permanently instilled in our minds by our parents or other
authority figures. To sum this all up: the Id demands gratification,
the Ego responds to reality, otherwise known as civilization, and the
Superego which is our morals and also the demands of society.
The subconscious is most evident in our dreams. While we are asleep our
subconscious is constantly active. We create scenarios in which our
true feelings are disguised but still able to be known. It is the job
of the person who is administering the process of
psychoanalysis to
interpret our dreams and reveal its true meanings, our deep hidden
thoughts of our Id.
In the subconscious many actions take place such as, rationalization,
denial, projection, and sublimation. During rationalization, we
validate our actions with reason. With denial, we denunciate our
feelings and pretend they aren’t true. In projection, much like denial,
we deny what we feel and assume that someone else is experiencing the
same feelings instead. Finally, sublimation is learning to overcome our
basic instincts, which is basically conforming to society’s norm.
As children, we are much like animals in that we only act upon instinct
and our Id is our only concern. Our main agenda is to satisfy our
selves. As we grow older, we develop and mature the Ego and the
Superego develop as well. We begin to have fears of losing the love of
our parents or authority figures, by disappointing them. It is during
this time period, that our Superego is truly developing because we are
eternalizing the values and standards that our parents or authority
figures are setting for us.
Considering all these factors, conflict is bound to happen. Being
human, we are naturally aggressive, the Id persuades us to be this way.
While on the other hand, the Superego, being the moralistic part of the
subconscious, is constantly counteracting the desires of the Id. The
aggression is then eternalized, sent back to the ego, and the result is
guilt. Guilt is derived from our sense of a need of punishment. The
Superego also creates our feeling of anxiety. Anxiety takes place when
we fear that we are going to lose the love of a parent because we are
not meeting their standards.