Freud theorised that someones personality is split into three different systems, the ID, the ego, and the super-ego.
The ID is your natural instincts, meaning that your ID is a completely unconscious part of our personality in which we get no say in. It consists of the aspects of our personality that were passed onto us by our parents. The ID is what dictates our emotions, reactions and desire to be happy. This is because every wishful thought we have comes from our ID.
The Ego is part of your ID that has broken off and has been influenced by your surroundings. The ego acts as some sort of negotiator between the surrounding world and your ID. The ego also has the desire to be happy, but appreciates that happiness can't be achieved in the way the ID wants to achieve it because of how society functions and the consequences it brings to people who seek happiness through the instincts of their ID. The Ego's idea of right and wrong is based solely on making the ID happy without consequences, a weak ego with often be overrun by a stronger and more passionate ID.
The Superego is your overruling system that implements societies rules and morals onto the ego and controls the frowned up impulses of the ID such as aggression. Essentially the Superego is fighting with the ID for control of the Ego. It is made up of the conscience and the ideal self. The conscience is the punishment system for your personality, it punishes the ego if it gives into to the ID's impulses by way of feelings of guilt. The ideal self is a persons vision of how they should be, this encompasses every aspect of their life. Fulfilling the ideal self is rewarded by the Superego with feelings of pride and happiness, whereas falling short of the ideal self will be punished with guilt. The standard of a persons ideal self is dependant mainly on their childhood and upbringing, if the standard is too high then everything the person does will be considered a failure, and visa versa.
The way I see it, the Superego is very much a characterised version of Stryker’s theory, whereas the ID is a characterised version of McCall and Simmons’ theory.
McCall and Simmons’ theory suggests that your own validation is more important than validation from others, this essentially means that doing what you want to do is what makes you happy, which draws similarities with the impulsive and instinctive nature of the ID. The theory also suggests that interaction between people is unstructured, which again reflects the impulsive and often erratic nature of the ID. It’s also interesting how this theory’s idea of a role identity is in no way influenced by societies actions and tendencies, which is also a present feature in what makes the ID happy.
Stryker’s theory on the other hand is supportive of the idea that our expectations of what our identity should be comes from others, which strongly links with the Superegos ideal self being drawn from the image of our parents and upbringing. The theory also suggests that the identity we show is influenced by our social surroundings, which is reflective of how the Superego withholds the ID and Ego through feelings of guilt. On top of this, the Superego reward the Ego and ID with feelings of happiness when it fulfils the image of the ideal self, which is dictated by external influences. This is very similar to how Stryker’s theory suggests that validation from others builds self-esteem, and from this, happiness.
This comparison leads to the conclusion that you can only ever be truly happy when your ID is happy, the idea of "you" is, in my opinion, defined by the ID. The Superego has the ability to trick the ego into thinking it's happy, but due to the instinctive nature of the ID, you'll always be able to feel if something isn't making you happy, even the smallest thing. At risk of turning my blog into an archive of episodes of the Simpsons, I think this is pretty well illustrated by Homer as Lisa tries to convince him not to take part in Springfield's traditional "Whacking Day" (Season 4, Episode 20).
Homer is caught between what is shown as "good" and "evil".
But of course happiness can only ever be achieved by following the "evil" instincts inside him.
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