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The id, the ego, and the superego
Id
A part -- a very important part -- of the organism is the nervous system,
which has as one of its characteristics a sensitivity to the organism's needs.
The nervous system, as id, translates the organism's needs into motivational
forces (instincts or drives or wishes). This
translation from need to wish is called the primary process.
The id works in keeping with the pleasure principle, which can
be understood as a demand to take care of needs immediately. Just
picture the hungry infant, screaming itself blue. It doesn't "know"
what it wants in any adult sense; it just knows that it wants it and it wants
it now. The infant, in the Freudian view, is pure, or nearly pure id. And the
id is nothing if not the psychic representative of biology.
Unfortunately, although a wish for food, such as the image of a juicy steak,
might be enough to satisfy the id, it isn't enough to satisfy the organism. The
need only gets stronger, and the wishes just keep coming. You may have noticed
that, when you haven't satisfied some need, such as the need for food, it
begins to demand more and more of your attention, until there comes a point
where you can't think of anything else. This is the wish or drive breaking into
consciousness.
Ego
Around this little bit of consciousness, during the first year of a child's
life, some of the "it" becomes "I," some of the id becomes ego.
The ego relates the organism to reality by means of its consciousness,
and it searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that id creates to
represent the organisms needs. This problem-solving activity is called the secondary
process.
The ego, unlike the id, functions according to the reality principle,
which says "take care of a need as soon as an appropriate object is
found." It represents reality and, to a considerable extent, reason.
Super Ego
However, as the ego struggles to keep the id (and, ultimately, the organism)
happy, it meets with obstacles in the world. It occasionally meets with objects
that actually assist it in attaining its goals. And it keeps a record of these
obstacles and aides. In particular, it keeps track of the rewards and
punishments meted out by two of the most influential objects in the world of
the child -- mom and dad. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take
becomes the superego. It is not completed until about seven years of
age. In some people, it never is completed.
There are two aspects to the superego: One is the conscience, which
is an internalization of punishments and warnings. The other is called
the ego ideal. It derives from rewards and positive models
presented to the child. The conscience and ego ideal communicate their
requirements to the ego with feelings like pride, shame, and guilt. The superego
represents society.
The stages
For Freud, the sex drive is the most important motivating force. In fact,
Freud felt it was the primary motivating force not only for adults but for children
and even infants.
It is true that the capacity for orgasm is there neurologically from birth.
But Freud was not just talking about orgasm. Sexuality meant not only
intercourse, but all pleasurable sensation from the skin. It is clear even
to the most prudish among us that babies, children, and, of course, adults,
enjoy tactile experiences such as caresses, kisses, and so on.
Freud noted that, at different times in our lives, different parts of our
skin give us greatest pleasure. Later theorists would call these areas erogenous
zones. It appeared to Freud that the infant found its greatest pleasure in
sucking, especially at the breast. In fact, babies have a penchant for bringing
nearly everything in their environment into contact with their mouths. A bit
later in life, the child focuses on the anal pleasures of holding it in and
letting go. By three or four, the child may have discovered the pleasure of
touching or rubbing against his or her genitalia. Only later, in our sexual
maturity, do we find our greatest pleasure in sexual intercourse. In these
observations, Freud had the makings of a psychosexual stage theory.
The oral stage lasts from birth to about 18 months. The focus of
pleasure is, of course, the mouth. Sucking and biting are favorite activities.
The anal stage lasts from about 18 months to three or four years old.
The focus of pleasure is the anus. Holding it in and letting it go are greatly
enjoyed.
The phallic stage lasts from three or four to five, six, or seven
years old. The focus of pleasure is the genitalia. Masturbation is common.
The latent stage lasts from five, six, or seven to puberty, that is,
somewhere around 12 years old. During this stage, Freud believed that the
sexual impulse was suppressed in the service of learning. I must note that,
while most children seem to be fairly calm, sexually, during their grammar
school years, perhaps up to a quarter of them are quite busy masturbating and
playing "doctor." In Freud's repressive era, these children were, at
least, quieter than their modern counterparts.
The genital stage begins at puberty, and represents the resurgence of
the sex drive in adolescence, and the more specific focusing of pleasure in
sexual intercourse. Freud felt that masturbation, oral sex, homosexuality, and
many other things we find acceptable in adulthood today, were immature.
The Oedipal crisis
Each stage has certain difficult tasks associated with it where problems are
more likely to arise. For the oral stage, this is weaning. For the anal stage,
it's potty training. For the phallic stage, it is the Oedipal crisis, named
after the ancient Greek story of king Oedipus, who inadvertently killed his
father and married his mother.
Here's how the Oedipal crisis works: The first love-object for all of us is
our mother. We want her attention, we want her affection, we want her caresses,
we want her, in a broadly sexual way. The young boy, however, has a rival for
his mother's charms: his father! His father is bigger, stronger, smarter, and
he gets to sleep with mother, while junior pines away in his lonely little bed.
Dad is the enemy.
About the time the little boy recognizes this archetypal situation, he has
become aware of some of the more subtle differences between boys and girls, the
ones other than hair length and clothing styles. From his naive perspective,
the difference is that he has a penis, and girls do not. At this point in life,
it seems to the child that having something is infinitely better than not
having something, and so he is pleased with this state of affairs.
But the question arises: where is the girl's penis? Perhaps she has lost it
somehow. Perhaps it was cut off. Perhaps this could happen to him! This is the
beginning of castration anxiety, a slight misnomer for the fear of
losing one's penis.
To return to the story, the boy, recognizing his father's superiority and
fearing for his penis, engages some of his ego defenses: He displaces his
sexual impulses from his mother to girls and, later, women; And he identifies
with the aggressor, dad, and attempts to become more and more like him, that is
to say, a man. After a few years of latency, he enters adolescence and the
world of mature heterosexuality.
Penis Envy
The girl also begins her life in love with her mother, so we have the
problem of getting her to switch her affections to her father before the
Oedipal process can take place. Freud accomplishes this with the idea of penis
envy: The young girl, too, has noticed the difference between boys and
girls and feels that she, somehow, doesn't measure up. She would like to have
one, too, and all the power associated with it. At very least, she would like a
penis substitute, such as a baby. As every child knows, you need a father as
well as a mother to have a baby, so the young girl sets her sights on dad.
Dad, of course, is already taken. The young girl displaces from him to boys
and men, and identifies with mom, the woman who got the man she really wanted.
Note that one thing is missing here: The girl does not suffer from the powerful
motivation of castration anxiety, since she cannot lose what she doesn't have.
Freud felt that the lack of this great fear accounts for the fact (as he saw
it) that women were both less firmly heterosexual than men and somewhat less
morally-inclined.
Before you get too upset by this less-than-flattering account of women's
sexuality, rest assured that many people have responded to it. I will discuss
it in the discussion section.
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