There is a good chance that you have watched some television show or a movie where they referenced Sigmund Freud (pronounced froid). Most likely, when they referenced Freud, they made some comment dealing with sex and someone's mother. These comments are referring to Freud's Psychosexual Stages, which is a theory of human development. I will not be talking to you about that today, despite it being important in the history of psychology, I do not support this theory.
Freud came up with plenty of theories, and there is one that almost everyone (at least in more western societies) is already aware of, they just don't know it yet. I would like to talk about Freud's theory about the id (if you say the word stupid, the end is how you pronounce id), the ego, and the super-ego. Even if those terms are unfamiliar, I would bet that you are already familiar with the concepts. Here is a hint:
The concept of an angel and a devil on your shoulder is basically Freud's theory dealing with the id, the ego, and the super-ego.
The id is the imaginary devil that appears on the shoulder. The id is a pleasure-seeking part of the mind, it ignores the possible consequences, and focuses on the possible pleasure that can come from a behavior. It lacks morals, and is self-serving. Freud described it as a “striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs...”
While the imaginary angel on the shoulder is the super-ego. It is also known as someone's conscious. It represents our ideals, our sense of right and wrong. It is trying to keep the id under control so that we can act in socially accepted ways.
The last piece is the ego, which is represented by our head stuck between the angel and the devil on our shoulder. The ego is basically the judge, it mediates between the id and the super-ego, in order to come up with the proper action to take. It pretty much weighs the pros and cons between what the id and the super-ego want.
A problem with this theory is that there is no way to support it. We cannot prove the existence of an id or a super-ego. All we are aware of is that when we have to make a decision, there is an inner conflict that we listen to.
So the next time you see a movie or a television show where someone listens to an angel and a devil on their shoulder, remember where it came from.
Hi there is a way to look at this the sympathetic nervous system is the ID the parasympathetic nervous system is the super-ego and the ego is the prefrontal cortex trying to figure out what it all means
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ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much explanatory as to why such identified evil or hell connections (ie intuitive, pleasure areas) are associated with certain concepts along with the angelic social behavior keeping a public approach around certain people to maintain/control that acceptable moral behavior in society. Wonder if the internal conflict could branch out to other behavioral patterns in human behavior. Hmmm, perhaps we should further test that theory for more understanding, shall we.......
ReplyDeleteBeam me up, Scotty...
verry nice
ReplyDelete