Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

The Psychoanalytic Perspective on Personality423CATHY © 1995 Cathy Guisewite. Reprintedwith permission of UNIVERSAL PRESSSYNDICATE. All rights reserved.cathy® by Cathy Guisewiterather difficult to describe in words. “We come nearer to the id with images,”Freud (1933) wrote, “and call it a chaos, a cauldron of seething excitement.”The id’s reservoir of psychological energy is derived from two conflicting instinctualdrives: the life instinct and the death instinct. The life instinct, which Freudcalled Eros, consists of biological urges that perpetuate the existence of the individualand the species—hunger, thirst, physical comfort, and, most important, sexuality.Freud (1915c) used the word libido to refer specifically to sexual energy ormotivation. The death instinct, which Freud (1940) called Thanatos, is destructiveenergy that is reflected in aggressive, reckless, and life-threatening behaviors, includingself-destructive actions.The id is ruled by the pleasure principle—the relentless drive toward immediate satisfactionof the instinctual urges, especially sexual urges (Freud, 1920). Thus, the idstrives to increase pleasure, reduce tension, and avoid pain. Even though it operatesunconsciously, Freud saw the pleasure principle as the most fundamental human motive.Equipped only with the id, the newborn infant is completely driven by the pleasureprinciple. When cold, wet, hungry, or uncomfortable, the newborn wants his needsaddressed immediately. As the infant gains experience with the external world, however,he learns that his caretakers can’t or won’t always immediately satisfy those needs.Thus, a new dimension of personality develops from part of the id’s psychologicalenergy—the ego. Partly conscious, the ego represents the organized, rational, andplanning dimensions of personality (Freud, 1933). As the mediator between the id’sinstinctual demands and the restrictions of the outer world, the ego operates on thereality principle. The reality principle is the capacity to postpone gratification untilthe appropriate time or circumstances exist in the external world (Freud, 1940).As the young child gains experience, she graduallylearns acceptable ways to satisfy her desires andinstincts, such as waiting her turn rather than pushinganother child off a playground swing. Hence,the ego is the pragmatic part of the personality thatlearns various compromises to reduce the tension ofthe id’s instinctual urges. If the ego can’t identify anacceptable compromise to satisfy an instinctual urge,such as a sexual urge, it can repress the impulse, orremove it from conscious awareness (Freud, 1915a).In early childhood, the ego must deal with externalparental demands and limitations. Implicit in thosedemands are the parents’ values and morals, their ideasof the right and wrong ways to think, act, and feel.Eventually, the child encounters other advocates of society’svalues, such as teachers and religious and legalauthorities (Freud, 1926). Gradually, these social valuesmove from being externally imposed demands tobeing internalized rules and values.By about age 5 or 6, the young child has developedan internal, parental voice that is partly conscious—the superego. As the internal representation ofidLatin for the it; in Freud’s theory, the completelyunconscious, irrational component ofpersonality that seeks immediate satisfactionof instinctual urges and drives; ruled by thepleasure principle.ErosThe self-preservation or life instinct,reflected in the expression of basicbiological urges that perpetuate theexistence of the individual and the species.libidoThe psychological and emotional energyassociated with expressions of sexuality;the sex drive.ThanatosThe death instinct, reflected in aggressive,destructive, and self-destructive actions.pleasure principleThe motive to obtain pleasure and avoidtension or discomfort; the most fundamentalhuman motive and the guiding principleof the id.egoLatin for I; in Freud’s theory, the partly consciousrational component of personalitythat regulates thoughts and behavior andis most in touch with the demands of theexternal world.reality principleThe capacity to accommodate externaldemands by postponing gratification untilthe appropriate time or circum stances exist.superegoIn Freud’s theory the partly conscious, selfevaluative,moralistic component of personalitythat is formed through the internalizationof parental and societal rules.Establishing the Superego “Don’tbe mean to your friends” is justone of the many rules and valueswe learn as children from parentsand other authorities. The internalizationof such values is whatFreud called the superego—theinner voice that is our conscience.When we fail to live up to itsmoral ideals, the superego imposesfeelings of guilt, shame,and inferiority.