Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsThe IdEgoSuperegoThe Interaction of the Id, Ego, and SuperegoWhat Happens If There Is an Imbalance?
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
The Id
Ego
Superego
The Interaction of the Id, Ego, and Superego
What Happens If There Is an Imbalance?
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According toSigmund Freud, human personality is complex and has more than a single component. In his famous psychoanalytic theory, Freud states that personality is composed of three elements known as the id, the ego, and the superego. These elements work together to create complex human behaviors.
“The id is considered the basis of sexual and aggressive energy and is largely held in the unconscious, emerging as illogical or wishful thinking,” explainsShannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD, associate professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky. “The superego is one’s conscience and is established via identification with parental figures or social groups at large. The ego is tasked with balancing reality with the demands of desire (id) and morality (superego).”
Each component adds its own unique contribution to personality, and the three interact in ways that have a powerful influence on an individual. Each element of personality emerges at different points in life.
According to Freud’s theory, certain aspects of your personality are more primal and might pressure you to act upon your most basic urges. Other parts of your personality work to counteract these urges and strive to make you conform to the demands of reality.
Here’s a closer look at each of these key parts of the personality, how they work individually, and how they interact.
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Examples of the Id
Although people eventually learn to control the id, this part of personality remains the same infantile, primal force throughout life. It is the development of the ego and the superego that allows people to control the id’s basic instincts and act in ways that are both realistic and socially acceptable.
The Ego
Everyone has an ego. The term ego is sometimes used to describe your cohesive awareness of your personality, but personality and ego are not the same. The ego represents just one component of your full personality.
The ego operates based on thereality principle, which strives to satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses.
In many cases, the id’s impulses can be satisfied through a process ofdelayed gratification—the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place.
The term ego is often used informally to suggest that someone has an inflated sense of self. However, the ego in personality has a positive effect. It is the part of your personality that keeps you grounded in reality and prevents the id and superego from pulling you too far toward your most basic urges or moralistic virtues. Having a strong ego means having a strong sense of self-awareness.
Freud compared the id to a horse and the ego to the horse’s rider. The horse provides power and motion, while the rider provides direction and guidance. Without its rider, the horse would wander wherever it wished and do whatever it pleased. The rider gives the horse directions and commands to get it where it wants it to go.
Examples of the Ego
Imagine that you are stuck in a long meeting at work. You find yourself growing increasingly hungry as the meeting drags on. While the id might compel you to jump up from your seat and rush to the break room for a snack, the ego guides you to sit quietly and wait for the meeting to end.
Instead of acting upon the primal urges of the id, you spend the rest of the meeting imagining yourself eating a cheeseburger. Once the meeting is finally over, you can seek out the object you were imagining and satisfy the demands of the id realistically and appropriately.
The Superego
The last component of personality to develop isthe superego.
The superego has two parts:
The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behavior. It suppresses all the id’s unacceptable urges and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than on realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
Examples of the Superego
For example, if you give in to the urges of the id, the superego is what will cause you to feel a sense of guilt or even shame about your actions. The superego may help you feel good about your behavior when you suppress your most primal urges.
Other examples of the superego include:
When talking about the id, the ego, and the superego, it is important to remember that these are not three separate entities with clearly defined boundaries. These aspects are dynamic and always interacting to influence an individual’s overall personality and behavior.
With many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the id, ego, and superego. “A central theme of Freud’s work is that id, ego, and superego are always in conflict and the specific nature of these discrepancies determines one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (or personality),” says Sauer-Zavala.
Freud further assumed that it takes a lot of mental energy to keep the id’s desires in the unconscious; however, unconscious thoughts must go somewhere and are likely to be expressed in another form that may not be under one’s control (e.g., as symptom, dream, joke, slip of the tongue, or behavior).—SHANNON SAUER-ZAVALA, PHD
Freud further assumed that it takes a lot of mental energy to keep the id’s desires in the unconscious; however, unconscious thoughts must go somewhere and are likely to be expressed in another form that may not be under one’s control (e.g., as symptom, dream, joke, slip of the tongue, or behavior).
—SHANNON SAUER-ZAVALA, PHD
Freud used the termego strengthto refer to the ego’s ability to function despite these dueling forces.A person who has good ego strength can effectively manage these pressures, while a person with too much or too little ego strength can be unyielding or disruptive.
According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id, the ego, and the superego.If the ego is able to adequately moderate between the demands of reality, the id, and the superego, a healthy and well-adjusted personality emerges. Freud believed that an imbalance between these elements would lead to amaladaptivepersonality.
“Freud believed that mental health difficulties (anxiety, depression) arise when ‘the ego has lost the capacity to allocate the [id] in some way’ (Freud, 1920), adds Sauer-Zavala. “Freud noted that, in many cases, the symptoms experienced are as bad or worse than the conflict they were designed to replace. Though the symptom is a substitute for the instinctual impulse, it has been so reduced, displaced, and distorted that it looks more like a compulsion or even an illness than a gratification of the id’s desire.”
For example, 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.
Final Thoughts
Freud’s theory provides one conceptualization of how personality is structured and how the elements of personality function. In Freud’s view, a balance in the dynamic interaction of the id, ego, and superego is necessary for a healthy personality.
“Freud’s accounts of the nature of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors have largely fallen out of favor,” admits Sauer-Zavala. “People began to question whether differences in people’s personalities could accurately be reduced to sexual and aggressive impulses. In fact, there is limited research support for Freud’s theories.”
While the ego has a tough job to do, it does not have to act alone. Anxiety also plays a role in helping the ego mediate between the demands of the basic urges, moral values, and the real world. When you experience differenttypes of anxiety,defense mechanismsmay kick in to help defend the ego and reduce the anxiety you are feeling.
7 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol.2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666Pulcu E.An evolutionary perspective on gradual formation of superego in the primal horde.Front Psychol.2014;5:8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00008Bargh JA, Morsella E.The Unconscious Mind.Perspect Psychol Sci.2008;3(1):73-9. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.xCarhart-harris RL, Friston KJ.The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas.Brain. 2010;133(Pt 4):1265-83. doi:10.1093/brain/awq010Schalkwijk F.A New Conceptualization of the Conscience.Front Psychol.2018;9:1863. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01863Kovačić petrović Z, Peraica T, Kozarić-kovačić D.Comparison of ego strength between aggressive and non-aggressive alcoholics: a cross-sectional study.Croat Med J. 2018;59(4):156-164. doi:10.3325/cmj.2018.59.156Churchill R, Moore TH, Davies P, et al.Psychodynamic therapies versus other psychological therapies for depression.Cochrane Database Syst Rev.2010;(9):CD008706. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008706Additional ReadingCarducci, B.The psychology of personality: Viewpoints, research, and applications. John Wiley & Sons; 2009.Engler, B.Personality theories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing; 2009.
7 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol.2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666Pulcu E.An evolutionary perspective on gradual formation of superego in the primal horde.Front Psychol.2014;5:8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00008Bargh JA, Morsella E.The Unconscious Mind.Perspect Psychol Sci.2008;3(1):73-9. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.xCarhart-harris RL, Friston KJ.The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas.Brain. 2010;133(Pt 4):1265-83. doi:10.1093/brain/awq010Schalkwijk F.A New Conceptualization of the Conscience.Front Psychol.2018;9:1863. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01863Kovačić petrović Z, Peraica T, Kozarić-kovačić D.Comparison of ego strength between aggressive and non-aggressive alcoholics: a cross-sectional study.Croat Med J. 2018;59(4):156-164. doi:10.3325/cmj.2018.59.156Churchill R, Moore TH, Davies P, et al.Psychodynamic therapies versus other psychological therapies for depression.Cochrane Database Syst Rev.2010;(9):CD008706. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008706Additional ReadingCarducci, B.The psychology of personality: Viewpoints, research, and applications. John Wiley & Sons; 2009.Engler, B.Personality theories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing; 2009.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol.2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666Pulcu E.An evolutionary perspective on gradual formation of superego in the primal horde.Front Psychol.2014;5:8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00008Bargh JA, Morsella E.The Unconscious Mind.Perspect Psychol Sci.2008;3(1):73-9. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.xCarhart-harris RL, Friston KJ.The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas.Brain. 2010;133(Pt 4):1265-83. doi:10.1093/brain/awq010Schalkwijk F.A New Conceptualization of the Conscience.Front Psychol.2018;9:1863. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01863Kovačić petrović Z, Peraica T, Kozarić-kovačić D.Comparison of ego strength between aggressive and non-aggressive alcoholics: a cross-sectional study.Croat Med J. 2018;59(4):156-164. doi:10.3325/cmj.2018.59.156Churchill R, Moore TH, Davies P, et al.Psychodynamic therapies versus other psychological therapies for depression.Cochrane Database Syst Rev.2010;(9):CD008706. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008706
Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol.2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666
Pulcu E.An evolutionary perspective on gradual formation of superego in the primal horde.Front Psychol.2014;5:8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00008
Bargh JA, Morsella E.The Unconscious Mind.Perspect Psychol Sci.2008;3(1):73-9. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.x
Carhart-harris RL, Friston KJ.The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas.Brain. 2010;133(Pt 4):1265-83. doi:10.1093/brain/awq010
Schalkwijk F.A New Conceptualization of the Conscience.Front Psychol.2018;9:1863. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01863
Kovačić petrović Z, Peraica T, Kozarić-kovačić D.Comparison of ego strength between aggressive and non-aggressive alcoholics: a cross-sectional study.Croat Med J. 2018;59(4):156-164. doi:10.3325/cmj.2018.59.156
Churchill R, Moore TH, Davies P, et al.Psychodynamic therapies versus other psychological therapies for depression.Cochrane Database Syst Rev.2010;(9):CD008706. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008706
Carducci, B.The psychology of personality: Viewpoints, research, and applications. John Wiley & Sons; 2009.Engler, B.Personality theories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing; 2009.
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