What, in your opinion, has been Freud’s most far-

reaching or significant contribution to the theory of

psychoanalysis?

Module: Metapsychology, PS387

Lecturer: Dr. S. J. Costello
Student: Alan Cummins, 1165236
 The theory of the ego, id and superego is Freud’s most far reaching and significant

contribution to the theory of psychoanalysis. This essay will discuss why this second

structural theory of the mind has been chosen over and above Freud’s first structural theory

of the unconscious, preconscious and conscious. Freud’s other metapsychological concepts of

repression, life and death drives, pleasure and reality principles, mourning and melancholia,

narcissism and instincts or drives will be discussed in relation to how the ego, id and

superego all play an intertwined part in mental functioning and therefore must be considered

as vital to the understanding of psychoanalysis.

In choosing the ego, id and superego we must make reference to the topology of the

unconscious, preconscious and consciousness that preceded it. This first theory was discussed

in (Freud, 1912, 1915a) and gives a description of how a psychical act goes through several

phases before coming into full consciousness. Censorship is applied to a representation or

idea as it firstly passes from the unconscious to consciousness and then secondly from a

holding ground of preconsciousness to consciousness. This lays the groundwork for his future

conception of the ego, id and superego but it is insufficient on its own to describe how the

mental apparatus functions and therefore cannot be seen as Freud’s most far reaching

contribution. It should be noted that these two models of the mind are not mutually exclusive

and each intermingle. One does not replace the other, the second model extends the first and

adds to formulate a more complete model of the mind.

In the Ego and the Id (Freud, 1923) we are reminded that psychoanalysis is based on

the premise that there is a conscious and an unconscious, that there are ideas that remain in a

latent state unconsciously but are ready to be brought forward or those that have been

repressed and require the work of psychoanalysis to remove these resistances. This interplay

between states of consciousness and unconsciousness are described by examining the

topological, dynamic and economic relationship between ego, id and superego. For Freud

PS387 Metapsychology Dr. S.J. Costello, Alan Cummins 1165236 Page 2 of 9

there is a ‘coherent organisation of mental processes; and we call this his ego. It is to this

ego that consciousness is attached; the ego controls the approaches to motility… it is the

mental agency which supervises all its own constituent processes’. He expands this further to

note that the ego has parts also in the unconscious ‘something in the ego itself which is also

unconscious, which behaves exactly like the repressed.’. The ego is connected with the

organs of perception, linked to the external world via stimuli impinging on the senses.

Beneath this external surface, but not wholly separated from it rests the internal, the id which

is unconscious. ‘The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in

contrast to the id, which contains the passions.’ The id contains the passions, instincts, all

that we inherit from birth, those things innate in us. The repressed is cut off from the ego and

can be communicated via the id, allowing the unconscious to be brought forth to the ego.

‘…the ego is in the habit of transforming the id’s will into action as if it were its own.’ The

superego is the ‘character of the father… the outcome of two highly important factors… the

lengthy duration in man of his childhood helplessness and dependence, and the fact of his

Oedipus complex.. giving permanent expression to the influence of the parents it perpetuates

the existence of the factors to which it owes its origin.’. The superego is the ego ideal, the

representation of what one ought to do, a conscience and ‘answers to everything that is

expected of the higher nature of man… Religion, morality and a social sense.’ It is an

internalisation of parental prohibitions, prescriptions and ethical ideals, built up with

unconscious identification with significant others, societal norms, conventions and customs.

There are two sub-facets to the superego, namely the ego-ideal, a positive encouraging force

and the ideal-ego as a narcissistic sado-masochistic negative force of punishment. The Ego as

a whole is the process of the ego trying to reconcile the demands of the id with the superego

and the tensions and conflicts around these forms the basis upon which personality is formed.

PS387 Metapsychology Dr. S.J. Costello, Alan Cummins 1165236 Page 3 of 9

Morality is defined in terms of id as amoral, ego striving to be moral and the superego as

super-moral.

The second theory of the mind bears important relation to the concept of the pleasure

and reality principle and later to the concept of the life and death drive as put forth by Freud.

He originally hypothesised that unconscious mental processes ‘strive towards gaining

pleasure; psychical activity draws back from any event which might arouse unpleasure.’

(Freud, 1911), forming the pleasure principle. Reality and the external ‘presented in the mind

no longer what was agreeable but what was real, even if it happened to be disagreeable’ and

formed the Reality principle. These work with and against each other via the process of

repression to exclude those things that produced unpleasure and held with the reality of a

situation. This relates to the second topology in terms of the relation of the ‘pleasure-ego

which can nothing but wish, work for a yield of pleasure, and avoid unpleasure’ and the

‘reality-ego need do nothing but strive for what is useful and guard itself against damage’.

The pleasure principle (as id) as unconsciousness and the reality principle (as ego) as

consciousness gave early indication of the importance of the ego, id and superego in mental

life and by understanding why people engage in phantasy, day-dreaming, the content of

dreams, the primary motivations for psychical acts and the means and wherefore of

repression the work of psychoanalysis could begin. Taking this work further Freud, 1920

further illustrates that ‘under the influence of the ego’s instincts of self-preservation, the

pleasure principle is replaced by the reality principle’ and that the ego perceives pleasure and

unpleasure. The resistance put up in a person is done so by the ego and it ‘operates under the

sway of the pleasure principle’. Freud states that the ‘essential subject of psycho-analytical

study are the result of a conflict between the ego and libidinal cathexis of objects.’ The

concept of pleasure and unpleasure was taken a step further to relate to the death drive or

destructive instinct as opposed to the life drive or Eros. However the life and death drive exist

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not in one of ego, id and superego but exist and have effect everywhere. In attempting to

relate the life and death drives, Freud mentions the earlier concept of ego and object instincts

(1915a). Ego instincts are related to self-preservation in a defensive conflict and are in

opposition to sexuality, with the ego as a repressing, defensive agency. The life and death

drives relate to love and hate and the starting point of stimuli internally or externally from the

ego is of important consideration and only once the component instincts have been

synthesised within the total ego can love be a consideration.

Carrying on the discussion of (1915a), Freud talks of the ‘rejection based on

judgement (condemnation)’ with ‘repression a preliminary stage of condemnation’ with this

being one of the vicissitudes of instincts. Repression is a cornerstone of psychoanalysis but

‘repression is not a defensive mechanism which is not present from the very beginning, and

that it cannot arise until a sharp cleavage has occurred between conscious and unconscious

mental activity – that the essence of repression lies simply in turning away, and keeping at a

distance, from the conscious’. Repression and the unconscious are correlated and the

superego acts as the repressing agency. Repression creates substitute satisfactions and

formations in the psyche, it tries to move away from unpleasure but in doing so leaves behind

symptoms or if an instinct is not sufficiently repressed brings about anxiety. It is via the

return of the repressed that the psychoanalyst works.

Narcissism is defined by Freud as ‘libido that has been withdrawn from the external

world [and] and has been directed to the ego’.(1914) He describes being in love as ‘an

impoverishment of the ego’ with parental love being a search for immortal ego ‘achieved by

taking refuge in the child… parents’ narcissism born again.’ Narcissism relates to repression

and the formation of an ego-ideal with ‘the formation of an ideal … a conditioning factor of

repression… subject’s narcissism … displaced on to this new ideal ego… seeks to recover it’.

The narcissistic structure of one’s self, in terms of ego, id and superego and the relationship

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to others, to object choice, and childhood formation of sexuality constitute human relations

for adult-life. The formation of an ideal in the superego heightens the demands on the ego

and this in turns favours repression or the use of sublimation to avoid repression. Freud sees

conscience as ‘a special psychical agency which performs the task of seeing that narcissistic

satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured.’ This formation of an ideal ego is under the

influence of internalisation of parental rules, hopes and aspirations which falls under the

narcissistic tendencies of the parents. ‘The development of the ego consists in a departure

from primary narcissism and gives rise to vigorous attempt to recover that state… by means

of the displacement of libido on to an ego ideal imposed from without; and satisfaction is

brought about from fulfilling this ideal.’ Analysis aims to work with such narcissistic egos

and deconstruct it to discover the underlying full-speech of the patient. Freud also points to

the fact that the conception of an ego ideal opens avenues into the discussion of group

psychology, families, class and nations.

Mourning and Melancholia (1917) gives illustration of the relationship between ego,

id and superego. ‘Inhibition and circumscription of the ego is the expression of an exclusive

devotion to mourning’ and ‘when the work of mourning is completed the ego becomes free

and uninhibited again. Melancholia displays a larger scale ‘diminution in self-regard’ where

the patient regards themselves (egos) as worthless. The ego is a reflection of ‘object-loss...

transformed into ego-loss... the shadow of the object’. Suicide is explained via the second

theory of the mind. Freud states that the strength of self-love which is wrapped up in our

narcissistic egos is difficult to perceive as self-destructive but that ‘the ego can kill itself

only… if it is able to direct itself against the hostility which relates to the objects in the

external world.’ The ego is overwhelmed both in love and in suicide. Mania comes about by

the ego overcoming the loss of an object and taking that bound energy and rebinding to a new

object.

PS387 Metapsychology Dr. S.J. Costello, Alan Cummins 1165236 Page 6 of 9

 The proceeding paragraphs have given brief discussion of how the second theory of

the mind, ego, id and superego are wrapped up in the mental functioning of man. Love, death,

drives, instincts, religion, suicide, mourning, depression, group psychology, conscience,

consciousness and unconsciousness are all indelibly interlinked and described by the

functioning of the ego. For this reason the ego, id and superego have been chosen as the most

far-reaching contribution made by Freud. The model could not have come into existence with

the precursor of the consciousness, preconsciousness and unconsciousness and repression but

it incorporates all his metapsychological works into an over-arching, if incomplete, theory.

Briefly it is important to give some note to the benefactors of the theory of ego, id and

superego. This will illustrate the means by which Freud’s work has had a major contributing

factor. Loosely grouped as ego psychologists those such as Hartmann, Spitz, Mahler, and

Jacobson have progressed Freud’s initial conception and importance of the ego and expanded

on it. Heinz Hartmann, building on the work of Freud’s ego theory and the work of Anna

Freud’s defence theory gave rise to a widening of psychoanalytic theory to general human

development through investigating not only conflictual but adaptive aspects of psychic

functioning and the relationship to the environment. Spitz, Mahler, and Jacobson studied

infant behavior and their research described and explained early attachment issues, successful

and faulty ego development, and psychological development through interpersonal

interactions. There have equally been many criticisms of the theory of the ego from both

philosophical and psychoanalytic backgrounds. Lacan sees ego not in terms of dualism but as

a tripartite of Real, Imaginary and the Other. Sartre denies Freud’s conception of

consciousness and unconsciousness as a dualistic ego, id and superego and stated

‘Consciousness absolutely can not derive from anything, either from another being, or from a

possibility, or from a necessary law. Uncreated, without reason for being, without any

connection with another being, being-in-itself is de trop for eternity’ (Sartre, 1943).

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Essentially he denies consciousness as being a conception but rather an activity and

completely denies personality as being under the control of unconscious processes such as the

id and superego. Descartes sees man as a thinking being, consciousness and by association,

the internal censor of superego and id as falsifications. In summary the model of the ego

functions to carry out reality testing, impulse control, regulate affect, judgement, relation to

objects, enact a defensive mechanism, provide an overall synthesis to personality and the

treatment of symptoms by means of psychoanalytic theory. It has had significant and far-

reaching contributions both to psychoanalysis and more generally psychology.

PS387 Metapsychology Dr. S.J. Costello, Alan Cummins 1165236 Page 8 of 9

References

Freud, S. (1911). ‘Formulations On The Two Principles of Mental Functioning’

Freud, S. (1912). ‘A Note On The Unconscious In Psychoanalysis’

Freud, S. (1914). ‘On Narcissism: An Introduction’

Freud, S. (1915a). ‘Instincts and Their Vicissitudes’

Freud, S. (1915b). ‘The Unconscious’

Freud, S. (1915c). ‘Repression’

Freud, S. (1917). ‘Mourning and Melancholia’

Freud, S. (1923). ‘The Ego and The Id’

Freud, S. (1920). ‘Beyond The Pleasure Principle’

Sartre, J.P. (1943). Being and Nothingness.

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