The Id, Superego, and The Self

• Freud's Map of the Self: The author identifies with their id, ego, and superego, describing how these aspects influence their desires, actions, and long-term goals.

• Primary and Secondary Processing: The author experiences primary processing (impulsive actions) and secondary processing (rational thought) in their daily life.

• Pleasure and Reality Principles: The pleasure principle drives impulsive desires, while the reality principle mediates these desires with practical considerations.

• Child, Parent, and Adult: The author reflects on how their behavior aligns with these roles, questioning and reviewing their actions.

• Schema: The author's life experiences and cultural attributes form a schema that shapes their perceptions and dreams.

• Cultural Perspectives: Different societies emphasize either the inner self or the social self, as illustrated by Samoan, Zapotec, and Ilongot sayings about the unknowability of others' inner thoughts.

  
  

These points highlight the complexity of the self and how various psychological theories and cultural perspectives shape our understanding of identity and behavior.

Do you have: an id, ego, superego, an “I”, a “me”, primary processing, secondary processing, a pleasure principle, a reality principle, a “child”, a “parent”, an “adult”, a schema? Drawing from your own life, give one or more examples of each of these parts of the self or kinds of processing. Your graded summary (see below) can use examples from yourself or from other members of your team.

I can identify with Sigmund Freud’s Map of the Self.  Primarily, I identify with my id.  I would describe myself as a young adult trapped in an aging body, constantly aware of, and often responding to, “I want” thoughts.  My ego must be harnessed by my id – once I know what I want and know that it is a realizable goal, my ego kicks in to gear, getting me to work, cleaning the house, paying the bills, and all the other rote duties and responsibilities that come with being an adult.  All the while, my id is calling me to play, or pursue another “I want”.  And I see the superego in other people to be sure, but do not identify with an “I shall” except in a very broad sense.  I’ve never aspired to ambition, power, or wealth but always to just be as good as I can be at whatever I am doing, and my superego has told me, for example, I shall complete my degree one day, I shall maintain old, long-distance family relationships, and other, similar long term goals or aspirations, usually derived from a general desire to provide for my household and live comfortably.

In addition to identifying with Freud’s Map of the Self, other psychoanalytic concepts resonate with me, including an “I”, a “me”, primary processing, secondary processing, a pleasure principle, a reality principle, a “child”, a “parent”, and “adult”, and Piaget’s schema and associated assimilation events.  I have regular conversations in my mind between my “I” and “me” that Meade discerned from her research, and as someone in touch my id my primary processing often overtakes me – I can talk before I think, and prefer to tinker rather than research, for example – leaving me to processes again after further, rational thought.  Reality, substance, visceral experiences, and sound appeal to me, whereas romance and fiction, for example, do not, and so the reality principle, which I think is to be expected because I am impulsive, is often present as a mediator, gnawing at the back of my mind.

Reflecting on Eric Berne’s version of the Map of the Self, I see a correlation between my gravitation toward my own id and the reflexive part of my mind in the adult/parent behavior that I exhibit, constantly questioning, and reviewing my ongoing work and personal life.  This life, an American life, is replete with technology, commerce, entertainment, interpersonal relationships, the natural world, and work life, creating a sort of microculture in which I live.  Its attributes are as varied – mechanical, electric, fast, natural beauty, sensual, challenging, and digital – and it’s my guess that these attributes along with many others comprise the schema on which that microculture of mine ‘hangs’.  This culture and its attributes are certainly present in my dreams, represented on this schema which morphs and accommodates the people, places and events that appear there.

Why do Samoan’s say, "One cannot know what is in another's depths"? Why do Zapotec say, "we see the face, but do not know what is in the heart"? Why do Ilongots (Papua New Guinea) say "one can never know the hidden reaches of another's heart"?

According to Dr. Jeannette Marie Mageo in her book Dreaming and the Self: New Perspectives on Subjectivity, Identity, and Emotion, the self is as a continuum and is on the one end “constitutive” and on the other “contingent”, where the constitutive self is the “inner-self” and the contingent self is a “social self”, one that is characterized by the “connectedness” among peoples of a particular culture.  In the United States and some other nations, per Dr. Mageo, the inner self is “highlighted”, a sense of identity generally prevalent in American society emphasizing individualism.  But in many other cultures, the sense of self that people highlight is the social self, a contingent self that is defined by lifeways bound up in social and cultural responsibilities.  In these cultures, the subjective nature of the inner self, Dr. Mageo explains, “is then inaccessible to the linguistic/discursive system” (37) and, thus, is not highlighted.  For context, Dr. Mageo presents the Samoan people, who, per her fieldwork, may express this culturally constructed social self by not acknowledging in everyday speech/discourse the decisions, thoughts, and feelings that partly comprise the highlighted, inner self.  For example, she notes, Samoans may say, “One cannot know what is in another’s depths,” expressing an aversion to concentrating on individual people’s needs, wants and desires, etc. and instead focusing on the communal nature of the social self that is highlighted in Samoan culture.  (Mageo 2003: 37)

References

Mageo, J. M. (2003). Dreaming and the Self: New Perspectives on Subjectivity, Identity, and Emotion. Albany: State University of New York Press.