The Id, Ego, and Super-ego

In Class

Mr. Isley talked to our class about psychology when Ms. Jackson was in Borneo for a WWW trip (lucky!). He introduced one of Sigmund Freud's theory - the Three Parts of Personality. The three parts of personality are our id, ego, and super-ego. Our id is our natural pleasure zone, essentially where our deepest desires lie. Our ego is what we show to the public, or what others see of us. Our ego consists of our rational thinking and logical mind. Last but not least, or super-ego is the part of us which holds our morality and rules.

As illustrated in the figure above, our three parts of personality is like an iceberg. The whole of our id is hidden underwater, half of our ego is seen, while only partial of our super-ego is above sea level. I then asked Mr. Isley, if our id is in the unconscious part of our mind, how much do we know about our id? I think I was asked who knows me the most, I would say myself. However, if most of our id is hidden, how much do we actually know about ourselves? In the public, we act with rational thought and in a way that society expects us to act. If our id is what we truly want, then does what we show in the public consider as fake?

In the four Ways of Knowing, emotion and reason are the ones that come from ourselves. If our super-ego exists, then our reason is not what we truly think, but rather how we are taught and expected to think. Does that then mean that emotion is the only way we can find out how we feel about things and matters? How does one then define how they feel through emotions? How are emotions determined? Does an accelerating heartbeat rate mean nervousness or something else? How can one decide? I guess the ultimate question is - how much do we know about ourselves?

Source of image: http://digitalciv.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/iceberg.jpg