Part 1: Id, Ego, Superego
Note: If you believe yourself quite familiar with Sigmund
Freud’s concepts, please skip to Part 2.
Sigmund Freud explained the three guiding aspects of an
individual: the id, the ego, and the superego. For those of you unfamiliar or
in need of a refresher, allow me to give a brief rundown of what those
different aspects of our personalities are all about.
The typical human develops three different aspects of his
personality as he grows to adulthood. The id is with us early in our childhood,
the ego arises later, and finally, the superego is developed.
The id is the animal aspect of our psyche. The id wants what
it wants when it wants it. The id never does without, never contradicts itself,
is always looking to satisfy its needs. The id never stops eating just because
it feels it’s had enough. It gets out of bed when it damn well pleases, and it
doesn’t share its toys with anyone.
The id does not care about anyone else, does not care about
another’s feelings or about such nebulous concepts as fairness. There is,
perhaps, an element of kindness to the id, and he might be perfectly willing to
share, so long as his every need has already been met. If the id cannot
conceive of a personal desire it can satisfy in a particular situation, the id
might seem like a decent fellow. But if you are standing in the way of what the
id desires, watch out.
The id seems like a very horrible person, or aspect of a
person, doesn’t he? Nevertheless, he is very real, honest. The id will never
lie to you, would never feel the need to. The id is simply not that
sophisticated, not capable of being aware of how others might perceive it.
The ego arises out of the realities that the id faces. The
id goes full speed ahead, seeking to conquer all that is in its way. But as the
id is the only impulse of a child, and a child has limited means to satisfy his
urges, the child is quickly taught, often brutally, that the whims of the id
must be tempered if he doesn’t want to encounter pain and other harsh responses
to his pushiness. The ego, then, realizes there are forces other than itself to
contend with. The ego still does not care about others, not in any real sense,
but it realizes that other people have wills of their own. The ego keeps the id
in check, at least when others are watching. The ego overrides the id in order
to save both of them from an ass-whipping.
But while the id acts solely from internal impulses, the ego
acts in reaction to what the external world expects of him. The ego does not
let id jump of a rooftop because he knows the ground is stronger than the body
both id and ego inhabit. The ego restrains you from grabbing the last pork chop
because it knows your big brother will make you regret that decision. Ego is no
angel, but he knows enough to bow to authority.
Ego is necessary for id to survive. Id exists without ego
when a child is quite young because that child is also quite weak. When the
child gets to a certain age he is capable of creating a degree of havoc. The
older and more powerful that child becomes the more necessary it is for that
child to develop an ego to keep id in line so that he does not become a threat
to others around him. The greater a threat he becomes, the greater the desire
for others to do something in order to feel safe from it. If a child wishes to
grow past a certain point, he will have to develop an ego to keep him in
balance with the outside world.
As I said, the ego is developed in reaction to the outside
world and its authority over him. And to a child, the outside world and
authority primarily means a child’s parents. Thus, the ego is akin to an
internal parental voice telling the child what is and what is not acceptable,
what will and will not warrant punishment.
Lastly, as a child develops into a man, the superego arises.
Where once the child saw morality as an external force in the form of parents,
he now begins to internalize these moral influences, fashioning a morality of
his own. From the examples given by his mother, father, older family members,
teachers, and others, he synthesizes his own moral perspective. To the degree a
child is able to do this, to find rational ways to cope with his ego and
separate himself from the influence of others, he becomes an adult. Since
humans are imperfect, nobody is ever able to completely make his id behave in socially
acceptable ways. Nor are we able to completely rid ourselves of the biases we’ve
learned from our parents and others role models. There is no such thing as the
perfectly healthy individual, but most of us make that transition from child to
adult in a rather successful fashion.
Part 2: The Market, The Government, And Spirituality
Society is not all that different from the individuals that
comprise it: how could it be? Human desires and aspirations are merely played
out on a larger stage. What drives the individual drives the society in which
he finds himself. And what allows the individual to function also allows a
society to survive and prosper. The difference being that fatal flaws in a
society are easier to spot, and harder to change. And where an immoral person
might actually live prosperously his whole life, the moral weaknesses of a
society will inevitably lead to its downfall.
So if the society is not that different from the individuals
comprising it, might not we view the psyche of a society—if such a thing exists—the
same we view a person’s?
Can society be said to have an id? If the id does exist in
society it exists in the market, where every need is capable of being
satisfied, for a price. It is to the id, after all, to which advertising
appeals. Ad men are always working on ways to circumvent the conscious mind in
order to appeal to the more deeply rooted, less rational part of your mind. The
goal is to get you to desire while suppressing the rational part of you that
would find reasons why not to buy what they are selling.
While we mostly think of the market as providing useful
goods, let us not forget the dark side of the market, which provides sex
slaves, drugs, and murder for hire. The market is the province of the id:
pizza, Cheetos, Ho Hos, Twix Bars. All to satisfy the most primitive of urges.
Sports cars, widescreen TVs, McMansions: all to feed the insatiable hunger
inside you. None of these things are necessary, none are really healthy for the
individual let alone the society.
The market is the most primitive means of human interaction,
where people go to acquire what they want and need. There are no rules to the
market, it is merely every man for himself.
But the market does not work so well in satisfying all of society's needs. Our earliest ancestors
must have known that, must have seen that the market was just a sublimated form
of violence where the rich took from the poor as the powerful take from the
weak. And so they created rules, limiting what could take place in the market.
Thus was the societal ego born, a parental voice that sat above the id and made
it behave in ways that were conducive to the health of the overall society, and
not just those who had economic might. The ego could take the form of either
the mother or the father. The father was a government capable of punishing
wrongdoers and rewarding those who played by the rules. The mother was a government
that helped to care for those who were helpless.
But the government—the ego—was an imperfect tool for
directing the id. For one, it often squashed the id’s desire to satisfy itself,
making for a very unhappy id and very unhappy people who wished to create
wealth through the market. On the other hand, it often took on the more
negative aspects of a parent: the father could be quite cruel and demanding in
his rule-making and dishing out of justice, the mother could be smothering and
unwilling to let her children reach independence.
And thus was born the super-ego, aka, spirituality. I’m
talking here about something distinct from primitive religion. While religion was
tied to government since its earliest forms, it was a religion whose stress was
not on spirituality but on the outer trappings. Religion, as far as it related
to government, became just another extension of the ego: a mother god or father
god who gave forth a series of rules to be obeyed while threatening punishment
for those who transgressed.
No, spirituality was a different aspect of the societal
psyche. Spirituality found expression in art and in religious associations that
were separate from the government. The superego was capable of viewing society
as it could be and was not hampered by the model that ego had created. Ego was
most unhappy with the way superego made it feel small, and so tried to suppress
it or coopt it, but spirituality has always found a way to show itself.
In our finest examples of civilization, the communal superego
was able to express itself in all aspects of society. While the cathedrals of
Europe might have been testaments to the authority of the church, there was
much more to it than that. The very beauty and even fragility of them spoke to
a love of something beyond power. Stained glass windows exist for beauty’s sake
alone, not as an expression of power.
When the superego is allowed to develop in a healthy manner,
the arts blossom, justice encompasses a larger portion of the population, and
wealth is spread around more equitably. The more we are capable of developing a
societal superego, spirituality, the more stable and healthy a society we will
have.
Spirituality is nowhere to be seen nowadays. As for
government, it exists only to serve the market. Where once we built great
edifices that bore the names of statesmen or religious leaders, what we build
now bear the names of corporations. The id (the market), has not only bubbled
up to encompass the government, which has become nothing more than the market’s
serving boy, but has drowned the spirit. The arts are dead. Superficially they
may appear to be bursting out in many directions but their ability to reflect
the times we are living in, let alone direct them, put the lie to appearances.
Churches have been largely abandoned by a population that longs for distraction
rather than reflection or immersion. The churches today that are thriving seem
mainly to preach the gospel of the market.
And of course, the government is now firmly in the hands of
the wealthiest, those who view profit as the greatest gift society can bestow
upon an individual. Those who are elected to office themselves often rail
against government in favor of the free market. It would seem that the
government’s central purpose is to clear the way of all impediments to the
markets. What passes for morality is something akin to Aleister Crowley’s tenant
“Do what thou wilt.”
This is the answer we’re given, that the id should be the
driving force, that we only need obey the id’s desires and we shall live in the
best of all possible worlds. This is the story we are told because there is no
institution of ego or superego with a powerful enough voice to make itself be
heard over the voices of the market. Turn on your television and see who speaks
through it. Programming is something that exists only as a delivery system for
advertisers. TV programs are the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go
down.
Society has always been based upon a three-legged
foundation, each leg needing to be strong in order to keep it propped up. But
now we have the one leg doing its best to whittle away at the other two,
fearing the limiting power they possess. Balance has been lost.
Tell me if I am wrong. Point out to me where art nowadays
speaks to our deepest yearnings. Tell me that money worship is not rampant in
popular music. Show me religious leaders who hold sway among the general
population, philosophers of note, or social critics who don’t pander to the
all-powerful id. Point out to me where President Trump is something more than a
man-child, an overgrown id. While he may have his moments of tough-talk like an
authoritarian father figure, I can’t help thinking he does this merely to get
attention as a young child might act up in order to get mommy and daddy to
notice him. I truly believe that he lacks even a well-functioning ego, for that
at least would force him to become aware of how he is perceived by the outside
world.
And as for the leader of our nation possessing a superego,
please point out a single instance where Trump has shown even a hint of it.
Have you ever seen Trump and a book in the same picture? Any pictures of him at
the symphony? Have you ever heard him quote a philosopher, author or religious
leader? Wouldn’t you like to think that the leader of the most powerful nation
in the world might ruminate over ideas from Mahatma Gandhi, William Shakespeare,
or Ralph Waldo Emerson, so that they might occasionally intermingle with events
of today and pop out of his mouth instead of words like bigly?
It is impossible today to say anything bad about the
capitalist system we have without being attacked by all sides. Do so, and you
will be said to be a supporter of Stalin. The same tired tropes will be hauled
out: socialism has failed, big government is bad, etc. All such arguments are
founded on an absolute perspective and do not address the issue of balance.
This is the point I bring up, that one aspect of our society, the crudest and
basest of the three, reigns supreme. It has ridden a wave of immense prosperity
that was the result of a rather balanced mixture of id, ego, and superego. The
mere existence of a competing economic and political system, The Soviet Union,
forced us to check our most animalistic impulses. But prosperity and now a loss
of a threat have allowed us to regress into an infantile state. Issues
requiring intelligent thought now receive no more than childish answers.
We as a society have lost the finest attributes that have
made societies throughout history powerful and successful. This is no adult
society we are in but one like a child sucking its thumb and demanding its
wants be met. The problem is, there is no mother or father around to cater to
us, a sad reality we must soon wake up to. Very soon we will realize that there
is more to life than satisfying our most base desires. If we as a society wish
to survive, to live in a healthy and well-adjusted manner, we will need to grow
beyond our simplistic perspective of the id.
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