Id, Ego and SuperEgo

Sigmund Freud proposed that the human personality was made up of 3 elements: id, ego and superego.

The id is the unconscious and impulsive part of our mind that needs immediate gratification of instincts. It seeks to satisfy primitive, sexual, aggressive and all other wishful impulses, regardless of the consequences. The id is irrational, illogical and has no understanding of reality or the ways in which the everyday world functions.

The ego is the more rational part of the mind. It works in conscious awareness of the external world, and hence is the decision making component of one’s personality. The ego sometimes hinders immediate satisfaction of the id’s demands to avoid any immoral behaviour or behaviour that is looked down by society.

The super ego is the moral conscience of the personality. It is basically all the values learnt by the individual from society and family, as well as an understanding of what is right and wrong. It controls the id’s irrational demands to satisfy aggressive needs and also aids the ego to function in a moral context, and not just a rational one.

Here’s an easy example to understand this. The id of a girl who wants an ice cream cone, tells her to grab it and eat it, in order to satisfy her hunger. But the ego, keeping the reality of the situation in mind, reminds the girl that if she grabs the cone without permission, she will be punished. So the girl asks her mother for permission, and on doing so the super ego makes the girl feel proud, thus justifying that her behaviour was morally correct.