Sigmund Freud's Personality Theory (continued)

The id is the oldest system of the personality, from which the ego and the superego develop. It provides the energy of the mind for all three systems. It is already present since birth and only knows the inner world of opinions and feelings, and it operates by the pleasure principle which attempts to obtain pleasure and to avoid pain, regardless of the external circumstances, and the primary process, for example, the need to eat, to drink, to eliminate wastes, etc.

The ego represents reasonable and sensible thinking. A child soon learns that their impulses cannot always be fulfilled immediately. Hitting someone may be result in being punished by a parent. Relieving bladder pressure must be delayed until he reaches the toilet. The ego tries to make the id's mental pictures to be more to the reality and based on facts rather than thoughts and opinions. It also decides what actions are appropriate and in what situation the id's impulses may be satisfied. The ego operates by the reality principle and the secondary process.

The superego represents moral standards. Its sense of right and wrong punishes wrong behaviors, and its ego ideal rewards right behaviors. The child's parent controls his behavior directly through rewards and punishments. The parent is building the superego in the child. The child soon can control his own behavior, for the superego tells them what is right or wrong. Acting against the superego's standards for fulfilling the id's impulses, will cause the child to feel anxious, which may be experienced as guilt.

Produced for Thinkquest Internet Challenge 2000.

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