We have three people inside us. The third person is here!

hai friends...how are we?

I mentioned to you that every individual is composed of three persons inside. Id and ego are the two people.

The third person is super ego. Who is he? He is the one formed inside us when we were young children…he tells us the ‘dos and don’ts’. i.e. what we should do, how to do it and what we should not do!

How he was formed inside us?

When we were young children, we did many things. Our parents corrected us and told us many dos and don’ts. They also taught how to do an activity. It taught us the method of doing and the quality standards. They are the ‘values and ideals of the society’. Parents reward or punish when the children follow or don’t follow them. The super ego is developed in response to the rewards and punishments meted out by the child at the hands of the parents. During this process the children understand them in their own way and form their ‘principles of life or principles of their living’. This process is called Introjection.

Super ego is the last to be formed in an individual after the formation of id and ego. Super ego represents the ‘moral objectives’. It ‘stands for the ideal rather than for the real’. It uncompromisingly strives for perfection rather than operating at pleasure principle.

Whatever is regarded improper by parents and lead to punishment is shun in the conscience. Whatever is hailed by the parents and leads to reward are developed as values and ideals for the child. 

Introjection refers to the mechanism through which this incorporation of the indoctrination of the parents takes place.

The conscience adopting the doctrines of the parents would punish an individual when he transgresses them by invoking feelings of guilt. 

The conscience would reward the individual when he adopts himself to the doctrines of the parent by evoking a sense of pride in himself.

So, during the child hood parental control gives us the ‘super ego’ component. Once it forms properly as ‘principles of life’ inside the person, it takes over and gives the ‘self control’ component for the individual.

Super ego has several functions to discharge. It has to inhibit the id impulses, especially the id’s ‘sexual’ and ‘aggressive’ impulses. These two impulses are the ones usually tabooed in the society.

It has to influence the ego to substitute moralistic goals for realistic goals. It has to constantly strive for perfection.

The super ego is also irrational in its nature, like the id. It tries to exercise control over the instincts. The ego merely tries to postpone instinctual gratification. But, the super ego tries to block it once and for all. The super ego is evolved during the Oedipal stage (4-5 years of age up to 7 years of age) as well as with the resolution of the Oedipal complex (a boy gets possessive about his mother and remove the father and a girl wants to possess her father and remove her mother – this is called Oedipus Complex) on through adolescence.

So, now we know all the three people inside. Id is the mad guy, unavoidable guy, animal like guy inside who pushes us for many wants and needs with urges. He puts us in trouble. Ego is the guy who manages id, assesses the environment and goes by reality so that we don’t land up in troubles and at the same time meet the urge needs. Super ego is the self control, the principles of life, the value systems developed in us due to good parenting. 

If the parenting is bad, then the super ego component is weak and the individual is without self control, good principles of life and value systems. Id should be moderate, ego and super ego should be strong.

These three people constitute personality of an individual and we now know how to shape these three people and rear them inside us!

Hope it was a good and useful read.

  
bye guys and gals...keep reading...keep rocking...sometimes make some comments too!

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