Freud's Definition of the Id

The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all id and only later does it develop an ego and super-ego. The id remains infantile in its function throughout a person's life and does not change with time or experience, as it is not in touch with the external world. The id is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world, as it operates within the unconscious part of the mind. The id operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. When the id achieves its demands, we experience pleasure when it is denied we experience ‘unpleasure’ or tension. The id engages in primary process thinking, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented. This form of process thinking has no comprehension of objective reality, and is selfish and wishful in nature. An individual with an overly dominant id might become impulsive, uncontrollable, or even criminal. Such an individual acts upon their most basic urges with no concern for whether their behavior is appropriate, acceptable, or legal.

CDT's Definition of the Id

A total lack of Awareness of one’s Intention at an adult level. Ignoring the childish element of this, an adult with this kind of construction is completely unaware of their Intention in the moment, their construction of self and their capacity to Choose an alternate way of being. This would translate to an AQ4 profile on the Awareness Quotient scale, with adults completely habituated in their emotional and physical response to stimuli. The way this is described by Freud makes the human seem animalistic. However, if we approach this from a level of construction maturity, then the individual is simply very unaware with a very low Dynamic Intelligence. This is far too nuanced to be taken seriously as an adult way of being, and as such, the CDT version is more useful as a descriptor of the low level, unaware construction of their self.

The ego deals with reality, trying to meet the desires of the id in a way that is socially acceptable in the world.

Freud's Definition of the Ego

The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable. The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society. The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave. If the ego fails in its attempt to use the reality principle, and anxiety is experienced, unconscious defense mechanisms are employed, to help ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good things feel better for the individual. The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational, realistic, and orientated towards problem-solving. If a plan of action does not work, then it is thought through again until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego. An important feature of clinical and social work is to enhance ego functioning and help the client test reality through assisting the client to think through their options.

CDT's Definition of the Ego

This is the most commonly-used phrase when people discuss the Internal perspective of others around them. It is also the most misused. The decision-making aspect of personality is compounded by the notion that personality is real and that decision-making is an Aware process. Personality doesn’t make any decisions. It cannot. Therefore the ego is simply a nominalisation, used to explain another nominalisation: personality. The ego will only be capable of considering society etc if it were to use those socialised Cognitive Intentions from a position of Awareness. However, it seldom does and all responses are habituated. Reality testing doesn’t work in the way Freud thought it did as the level of one’s complexity impacts this capacity greatly. Mastery of the ego could be construed as high Dynamic Intelligence, however, as this is a general principle for Freud, he gives too much credit to people’s capabilities. To this point, unconscious defence mechanisms are only unconscious to the lower level thinker, and thus at the higher levels, they are neither unconscious nor defensive. They will be construed as such by less-DI thinkers though. Ego is essentially an anchor word for an unsolicited external locus of evaluation, and when Dynamic Intelligence is considered, it does not favour the evaluated due to levels of awareness of the evaluator.

CDT's Deconstruction

It is not expected that a person’s ‘self-esteem’ increases with increased ego development, as the two things are not correlated (Pazy, 1985; Weathersby, 2014). The main principle here is that once you recognise that ego is a construct, you can dispense with the label entirely, in favour of a more Dynamically Intelligence individual. Problem solving can be deconstructed into Procedural, Abstract, Details and so on. From a clinical and social work perspective, it would be more beneficial to initially help the client discover their construction of self before testing any reality, as this is also a construct. See CDT Therapy for more information. In order to deconstruct the ego, we must deconstruct personality, and that requires an Awareness of our construction of self, thus reducing the ego effect in its traditional definition.

The superego develops last, and is based on morals and judgments about right and wrong.

Freud's Definition of the SuperEgo

The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection. The superego consists of two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The conscience can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt. For example, if the ego gives in to the id's demands, the superego may make the person feel bad through guilt. The ideal self (or ego-ideal) is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be, and represents career aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behave as a member of society. Behaviour which falls short of the ideal self may be punished by the superego through guilt. The super-ego can also reward us through the ideal self when we behave ‘properly’ by making us feel proud. If a person’s ideal self is too high a standard, then whatever the person does will represent failure. The ideal self and conscience are largely determined in childhood from parental values and how you were brought up. An overly dominant superego might lead to a personality that is extremely moralistic and judgmental. A person ruled by the superego might not be able to accept anything or anyone that they perceive to be "bad" or "immoral."

CDT's Definition of the SuperEgo

The definition is far too big for a 5 year old and is evidence that Freud was making it up. When Freud says: “The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.” There is no objective position from which a person makes a judgment, and no measure of complexity within the judging. Thus, the starting premise is limited. By defining an activity and then trying to suppress it, Freud was missing the point about unconscious IACR, and Choice in one’s actions. From an IACR perspective, the ideal self is any self constructed in context in the moment from a position of Awareness. However, at the higher levels of the AQ, it is not about how one ought to be as there is no need for “must” in any context. The idea of an ideal self is evidence of a complete lack of self-awareness. Should an individual believe there is such a thing, then exposing their missing IACR would help to refocus their Intention. There is no such thing as bad or immoral and thus anyone who professes to have a superego is demonstrating their low Dynamic Intelligence as they cannot see the dialectic.

CDT's Deconstruction

The conscience is very different at different levels of complex thinking. At the lower levels, the fear of being caught is key to avoiding the negative actions. At the higher levels, morality and rules are for other people. Lower levels feel guilt because they cannot construct the reason behind their actions to show Awareness of their Intention. It is a secondary guilty feeling simply because they lack of Awareness of their unconscious Intention. This is why the superego does not work as a description at the higher levels of the AQ because the actor is aware that behaviour is an outcome of our thinking, and they know thinking is constructed. Thus, any outward action from a position of Choice in our thinking is a choice in our behaving. There is nothing to feel guilty about if the action was Chosen from an Awareness position.