In Freud's view what is the difference between the ego, id and superego, and how do they interact - Essay Example

The Id Freud conceptualizes the id in terms of uncoordinated instincts, and as the unorganized part of the personality structure, the id only contains basic instinctual drives, and is present from the time individuals are born (McLeod). The id is the origin of human needs, wants, desires, and impulses, especially the sexual and aggressiveness-related drives, and it is governed by the pleasure principle, which is the psychic force that arouses the tendency to seek the immediate gratification of impulses as soon as they emerge.

The id encompasses the libido, the primary source of the instinctual force, and it seeks to avoid pain or un-pleasure aroused by the rise in instinctual forces; in this respect, the id demands immediate satisfaction. When individuals satisfy their needs or drives, they experience pleasure; however, since the id does not care about reality or the needs of other people but its own satisfaction, it is not a stable personality. The fact that the id is present right from birth implies that it encompasses all the inherited traits, and the minds of babies being purely id-oriented, it implies that the id is important in babies since it contains the life instincts that are very important for pleasurable survival.

For instance, when babies are hungry, they cry to be fed, and when they are wet, they also cry for their diapers to be changed; in this respect, the id enables the babies to seek immediate gratification. This explains why babies have no sense of wrong or right as the id knows no judgment of value, of what is wrong or right; in that respect, so long as there is a need it must be satisfied immediately. The Ego The ego, unlike the id, is the organized, realistic component of the psyche, which only acts according to the reality principle, and seeks to grant the id satisfaction in realistic ways that are beneficial in the long term rather than only in the short term.

In this regard, Freud perceives the ego to be an individual’s conscience that makes them understand that their own desires may vary considerably from those of other people around them. In that sense, the ego will try to meet an individual’s needs but at the same time, it will consider the reality in the surrounding world since it understands that actions have consequences or effects, which may be positive or negative. The ego, therefore, plays a very fundamental function in individuals since it tries to balance thinking before carrying out decisions or before taking actions, to ensure that they bring benefits in the end rather than pain.

The reality principle governing the ego is the regulating mechanism, which enables individuals to delay satisfying their immediate needs and drives until the appropriate time. For instance, the ego will enable individuals to wait patiently at a restaurant for their food, rather than grab food off other people’s plates; without the ego, individuals would be grabbing things from people as soon as they have felt a need that needs to be satisfied immediately. The Super Ego Unlike the id and the ego, the super ego plays a very fundamental moralizing role in the psyche since it aims for nothing short of perfection by incorporating ego’s ideals and punishing misbehavior with guilt feelings (Eugenes).

According to Freud, the super-ego incorporates the learnt values and morals of society, which are gained from interactions within family and