Carol gave you two delightfully funny Father’s Day cards, then you had an excellent early lunch at Longhorn Steak House (even though Jen has the day off). Still early afternoon and after Carol washes and dries her hair you and the cat are off to Cleveland for another week of service to Kim and Paul. You are coming home next Friday evening for the weekend of work and chores as well as your Class of 1960 picnic next Sunday. After that, you return to Cleveland until the thirtieth, when you are visiting cousin David and Marsha in Massillon.
I have been considering ‘sincerity’ (free of pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy) as it appears to be connected to honesty and authenticity of personal character. You spoke of gear work and regions of the soul. How is this business of ‘sincerity’ going to work in the book? And, why is it important in terms of the story as well as contentment in heartansoulanmind?
These regions are a different perspective of Freud’s definitions of id, ego and superego. This is a human being going into the psychological aspects of mind. I am giving perspective from the soul first, then the heart and then the mind (it makes no difference if it is soul to mind to heart) as this is not a point A to point B operation. ‘Humanity’ encompasses the unit, if you will, not a partial unit. A dead person in the books stands, sits or lies in the totality of herorhis humanity past and present. A body-shape comparison can be made with Freud's id, ego and superego becoming as the metaphysical body-unit of each and total heartansoulanmind.
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(Edited from Wikipedia)
Id, ego and super-ego are . . . are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the ego is the organized, realistic part; and the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role.
Even though the model is structural and makes reference to an apparatus, the id, ego and super-ego are functions of the mind rather than parts of the brain and do not correspond one-to-one with actual somatic structures of the kind dealt with by neuroscience. . . .
Id
The id is the unorganized part of the personality structure which contains the basic drives. The id contains the libido, which is the primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. The id acts according to the “pleasure principle”, seeking to avoid pain or displeasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension.
The id is unconscious by definition:
In the id, "contrary impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other out....There is nothing in the id that could be compared with negation...nothing in the id which corresponds to the idea of time."
Developmentally, the id precedes the ego; i.e. the psychic apparatus begins, at birth, as an undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured ego. Thus, the id: "...contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitution — above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us." . . .
The id is responsible for our basic drives, "knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality...Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge — that, in our view, is all there is in the id." . . . Freud considered that "the id, the whole person...originally includes all the instinctual impulses...the destructive instinct as well." as Eros or the life instincts.
Ego
The ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief. At the same time, Nanda concedes that as the ego "attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak the Ucs. [Unconscious] commands of the id with its own Pcs. [Preconscious] rationalizations, to conceal the id's conflicts with reality, to profess...to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding."
. . . The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us."The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world ... The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces." Still worse, "it serves three severe masters...the external world, the super-ego and the id." Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the id and super-ego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. "Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality, struggles...[in] bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it," and readily "breaks out in anxiety — realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id." It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is constantly feeling hemmed by the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It is said, however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while pretending to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every one of the ego's moves and punishes it with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority. . . .
"The ego is not sharply separated from the id; its lower portion merges into it... But the repressed merges into the id as well, and is merely a part of it. The repressed is only cut off sharply from the ego by the resistances of repression; it can communicate with the ego through the id." (Sigmund Freud, 1923) In a diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted to be half in the consciousness, while a quarter is in the preconscious and the other quarter lies in the unconscious.
In modern English, ego has many meanings. It could mean one’s self-esteem, an inflated sense of self-worth, or in philosophical terms, one’s self. Ego development is known as the development of multiple processes, cognitive function, defenses, and interpersonal skills or to early adolescence when ego processes are emerged.
Super-ego
Freud developed his concept of the super-ego from an earlier combination of the ego ideal and the "special psychical agency which performs the task of seeing that narcissistic satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured...what we call our 'conscience'." For him "the installation of the super-ego can be described as a successful instance of identification with the parental agency," while as development proceeds "the super-ego also takes on the influence of those who have stepped into the place of parents — educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models."
The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organised part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt. . . . The super-ego works in contradiction to the id. The super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. The super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways.
The super-ego's demands often oppose the id’s, so the ego sometimes has a hard time in reconciling the two. . . .
In Sigmund Freud's work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), he also discusses the concept of a "cultural super-ego". Freud suggested that the demands of the super-ego "coincide with the precepts of the prevailing cultural super-ego. At this point the two processes, that of the cultural development of the group and that of the cultural development of the individual, are, as it were, always interlocked." Ethics are a central element in the demands of the cultural super-ego, but Freud (as analytic moralist) protested against what he called "the unpsychological proceedings of the cultural super-ego...the ethical demands of the cultural super-ego. It does not trouble itself enough about the facts of the mental constitution of human beings."
Translation
The terms "id", "ego", and "super-ego" are not Freud's own. They are latinisations by his translator James Strachey. Freud himself wrote of "das Es," "das Ich," and "das Über-Ich"—respectively, "the It", "the I", and the "Over-I" (or "I above"); thus to the German reader, Freud's original terms are more or less self-explanatory. Freud borrowed the term "das Es" from Georg Groddeck, a German physician to whose unconventional ideas Freud was much attracted (Groddeck's translators render the term in English as "the It"). The word ego is taken directly from Latin, where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis.
Figures like Bruno Bettelheim have criticized the way "the English translations impeded students' efforts to gain a true understanding of Freud." by substituting the formalised language of the elaborated code for the homely immediacy of Freud's own language.
Edited from: Wikipedia: id, ego, superego
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[In these books] As a host to the heartanmind the soul is built to accept this psychological machinery into itself but “The It”, “The I”, and the “Over-I” are locked in with the soul (as the female) accepting the male oriented heartanmind/or/mindanheart. That should be enough sexual gratification to meet most anyone’s needs as heart and mind are both male for demonstrational purposes here; comrades-in-arms, so to speak. – Amorella
What a fun sense of humor Amorella. I am instantly reminded of the sexual aspects of our hybrid character Diplomat.
I set the focus for books and blog, boy. – Amorella
This is a better explanation than ‘gear-works’.
We are not to the ‘gear-works’ and region yet; this is on the coupling of psychological media. The above so called id, ego, and superego is the “metaphysical body shape” of heart-and-soul-and-mind.
A (be)foreskin so to speak.
At least you didn’t apologize for your naturally rising humor. Post for now, my young friend. - Amorella
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