 FREUD’S ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY

Freud saw human beings torn between biology and culture. Id, superego, and ego are the three
elements of personality defined in Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. According to him,
Id represents the human being’s innate basic drives, which are unconscious and demand
immediate satisfaction. Under this element, he emphasized the basic human needs of an
individual -- LIFE INSTINCT (EROS) and DEATH INSTINCT (THANATOS). Life instinct is a
need for sexual and emotional bonding. These instincts are those which deal with basic survival,
pleasure, and reproduction. Death instinct on the other hand, is an aggressive drive or an
instinctive "pressure toward death" that stands in stark contrast to the instinct to survive,
procreate, and satisfy desires. It is an instinct of destruction directed against the external world
and other organisms. Based on this, we can define the Id as the dark part of our personality that
strives for immediate gratification of individual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure
principle.

Superego works in contrast to the Id. It is the cultural values and norms internalized by an
individual. It operates as our conscience, telling us why we cannot have everything we want. It
strives to act in a socially acceptable manner and controls our sense of right and wrong. It usually
stands in opposition to the desires of the Id because of their conflicting objectives.

The Id’s demands often oppose the superego’s, so the ego attempts to mediate between the two. It
is a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of
society. A person with good ego strength is able to effectively handle  the dueling forces, while
those with too little or too much ego strength can become too unyielding and disrupting. The key
to a healthy personality is therefore a balance between the id, ego and superego.