How to understand id, ego and superego?

In Freud's theory, consciousness is divided into three parts, namely, ID, ego and superego.

Id, ego and superego constitute the complete personality of human beings.

All human psychological activities can be reasonably explained from their relationship. Ego is permanent, while superego and id are almost permanent opposites. In order to coordinate the contradiction between id and superego, ego needs to be adjusted.

If an individual suffers from excessive pressure from ID, superego and the outside world and is anxious, the ego will help start the defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms include: repression, denial, regression, offset, projection, sublimation and so on.

It's actually quite understandable. To put it simply, the id is human instinct, the superego is our ideal goal, and the ego is the regulator when the two conflict.

Id is a subconscious thought (Latin word is "ID" and German original word is "Es"), which represents the original program of thought-the most primitive desire of human beings to satisfy instinctive impulses, such as hunger, anger, sexual desire and so on. This word was coined by Freud based on the works of Georg Grodike.

Ego is the psychological component of personality, which is gradually differentiated from id and located in the middle layer of personality structure. Its function is mainly to adjust the contradiction between id and superego. On the one hand, it adjusts the id, on the other hand, it is subject to the superego. It follows the principle of reality and meets the requirements of the ID in a reasonable way.

The superego is the controller in the personality structure, which is governed by the principle of perfection and belongs to the moral part of the personality structure. Located at the highest level of personality structure, it is a moral self, internalized by social norms, ethics and values, and its formation is the result of socialization.

Relatively speaking, Freud only put forward a theory, so can it be used to guide real life?

I think it's possible.

In fact, the ID is a "perceptual self", our "initial heart", and it is still full of our inner desire and endless enthusiasm after reading Qian Fan. Where these passions are, they are like neutral desires and spontaneous desires. But many people don't know their id and what their original desires are.

The superego is actually the "rational self", which is our rationality. It contains a lot of external "should". We not only make complex logical judgments through rationality, but also deal with external information through rationality. But many times, we are more willing to believe the wrong voices from outside and ignore our inner desires, which will inevitably bring us self-rejection, self-denial, self-distrust and "I am not good enough".

I have met many people who, after entering the workplace, choose to accept and believe everything in the face of "should" and "advice" from outside. As a result, there is a fierce conflict between the superego and the id, and the heart is constantly rebellious, resulting in all kinds of discomfort, pain and entanglement. The mobility will be extremely reduced, and it will be timid and stagnant.

Here, we can see that the theory of id, superego and ego is actually very meaningful.

At the most basic level, it explains many of our human behaviors.

Just like the metaphor in The Elephant and the Rider, our brains are dominated by emotional elephants and rational riders.

Just like the hypothesis in Thinking, Fast and Slow, our brain is dominated by perceptual fast thinking and rational slow thinking.

Okay, here's the theory. It has explanatory power and landing, can explain many things, and can also adjust its behavior with the help of theory. This is already great.

Our human history is more like constantly putting forward assumptions, then constantly verifying and discarding them.

19 In the forties and fifties, there was a statistic about European and American bestsellers, among which the top four bestsellers were: Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe and Human Structure. The fourth book, Human Body Structure, doesn't seem to be an anatomy or serious medical book, but it is actually a fortune-telling book, which introduces osteopathy.

Chronology is also a hypothesis. Simply put, measuring the skull area above a certain area of the brain can determine a person's personality structure. For example, if there is an area on the head that controls wisdom, then you are a smart person. The other is to control greed. You are a big man. You must be a greedy man.

It can be seen that phrenology actually does not have many scientific hypotheses (limited to the scientific and technological level at that time). This explanation is not uncommon, and it can cause great sensation and spread effect, including "bloodletting therapy", which seems incredible now. It was once famous for a while, but it was eventually eliminated by history.

The popularity of phrenology is not only due to the pursuit of science and medicine. More importantly, people want a way to explain the differences between people:

Why are some people born cheerful, and some people have autism? Why do some people learn well and some people draw well? Are violent criminals born with characteristics? Will people's fate be tracked outside?

Looking back, people tried to answer these questions, such as constellation, Mayan calendar, tarot cards, bone touching, physiognomy, palm reading, Zi Ping eight characters, nine-type personality, Jungian octave space, MBTI, disc and big five personality.

So is technology enough to answer "What is the ID?" ?

Can I be recognized?

How to IDentify the id?

My answer is yes. Gallup's advantage theory is the closest theory to the truth to identify the true face of "ID".

The specific reasons, the following article, you can see one or two.