When an individual has a stronger id than superego, delinquency generally occurs. This is because the instant gratification urges of the id are more demanding and have more strength than the urges of the superego. This then leads to the superego being overruled by the id. If an individual’s ego is not strong enough to referee between one’s id and superego then that individual will be susceptible to the urges of the stronger. Having a stronger id than superego is problematic because when this occurs an individual’s unconscious biological drives have the upper hand. The self control of the ‘angel’, or the superego is no longer strong enough to balance out this unconscious biological drive from the ‘devil’, or the id. Serial killers are generally dominated by their id. Their superego, or moral compass has little to no control. It is due to this that they do the things they do. The unconscious, psychological drives that seek immediate gratification are also an indicator used to help the police discover what type of serial killer an individual is (Mucci, 2008). The level of organization or disorder within the crime and the ways their victims are both harmed during the incident and how they are placed to be found after the incident can help to distinguish what kind of control their id has. I find this to be both extremely fascinating and relevant to my life because I will be able to work with this type of information in my future.
As an individual I know that my id, ego and superego are relatively balanced. My ego deals with the external realities it is faced with and in turn allow my superego and id to act accordingly. I have sometimes found that when looking back I do tend to generally stick to the safer option when handling situations. For example, if I have an assignment due on Thursday, and while working on it Wednesday night I am asked by my roommates if I would like to go out to supper with them, I would decline their offer. This is because as fun as a night out with my roommates would be, I know that right now the assignment deserves to be the focus of my attention. My superego does have the tendency to be stronger than my id. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, it can be if I don’t acknowledge it. Staying in opposed to going out when you have an assignment due the next day is a justified action in my opinion. It is when actions become so cautious they are unjustified, or when such a high expectation of behaviour is expected by oneself from oneself that problems may arise. An action that is so cautious it is unjustifiable would be never drinking anything except for water. Yes, pop and juice aren’t the best things for you – but everything is okay in moderation. Limiting oneself strictly to water due to the health concerns of pop and juice would in my opinion be an unjustifiably cautious thing to do. You may be told growing up to eat healthy and drink water because it is the healthy option, this behaviour all the time is the superego outweighing the id and behaving in a way that has you morally exceeding. An example of a high standard that could be potentially problematic is if one has such high expectations for themselves that it is negatively impacting their health. This impact could be physical or psychological and could be due to the stress these high expectations an overactive superego creates. In the example of having such high expectations that it is negatively impacting your health, the ego is not properly refereeing between the id and the superego. The ego is misinterpreting the urgency of succeeding and weighing it above the priority of that individuals physical and psychological health.
The Id, Ego and Superego are terms coined by psychologist Sigmund Freud, and known within he psychoanalytic theory. This theory emphasizes the importance of the unconscious motives within our minds and the conflicts with them that as forces determine our behaviour.
- Id: I interpret the id as being a psychic structure which is present at birth and is fully unconscious which exists to represent our individual psychological drives. It is constantly striving to satisfy the basic physiological drives of the individual in which it exists. When I was taught about it, it was sometimes described as being the ‘devil’ on our shoulder due to the way it pushed you to do your instinct urges and seeks immediate gratification. This is the way I remember it’s characteristics.
- Ego: When learning about the ego I was taught that the ego is the second psychic structure to develop and that it has characteristics such as providing self awareness, planning and implementing a delay of gratification for an individual. When initially learning about the ego I found that it is often referred to as being the ‘referee’ and is mainly conscious. This I understand to be because of the way it balances the power that both the id and super ego have, all while interpreting the outside realities. It could also be considered as being the ‘executive’ part of one’s personality due to its previously stated self awareness, delay of gratification and planning characteristics.
- Superego: The superego is the third psychic structure that I learned about and is what functions as a moral guardian for an individual, or as a moral compass for an individual due to the way it sets high standards of behaviour. This is also why out of the three it is the superego that is often referred to as being the ‘angel’ on your shoulder. I have learned that it develops from one’s ego during early childhood and generally stems from the teachings of parents or religious beliefs.
PIYL 