Define repression, instinct, id, ego, and superego. What are the life instincts and the death instinct?
According to Freud, he saw that his patients had kept their shameful or embarrassing memories in the unconsciousness mind. They did not reveal those memories in their conscious state. Freud derived the term resistance. He said, the mind resisted the bad or shameful memories and resists their coming out to the conscious mind.
He formulated the repression principle. According to this principle, the person represses any bad memory, to the act of unconsciousness and does not let it come in the conscious state. The unpleasant memories or ideas are all pushed to the unconsciousness state very far away from the conscious state.
Id was defined by Freud as being the act consciousness. He said that the Id does not understand the concept of reality, and acts only to relieve tension and stress. He said that Id operates to get immediate relaxation and satisfaction and does not bother about the reality or the consequences to be faced afterwards.
Freud wanted to investigate these unconscious states to help patients, give in to their bad memories and told them to overcome their fear or resentment. He also said that dreams told our repressed desires.
Ego defined by Freud was an extension of Id. He said that like Id has no concerns with reality, the ego is very much concerned with the reality. Ego acts as a mediator between the Id and the reality. The Id craves for immediate satisfaction while the ego is fully aware of the surrounding and manipulates Id to regulate in a functional way. Ego derives its power from Id and cannot exist without the Id.
Super-ego is the third part of Freud’s theory of personality. He said that superego develops in a child when the child is taught to behave by the parents. The reward or punishment of an act makes a child learn to differentiate between the, correct and wrong way of living. This act first is instilled by the parents, is taken up by the child when he or she grows up. Superego understands morality and the person strives for perfection.
Superego is that’s why, always in conflict with Id as it takes control of the reality also. While ego is there to support Id, superego completely attempts to make Id perish or inhibit it.
Freud classified instincts into two. The first was life instincts. The life instincts were hunger, sex, and thirst. They are the creative forces of life and lead to self-preservation and are driven by the libido. While the death instincts are the destructive forces. It can be inwards like suicide or outwards like anger and aggression.