Freud - Complete Works (758 page)

New Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis

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   Again and again I have had the
impression that we have made too little theoretical use of this
fact, established beyond any doubt, of the unalterability by time
of the repressed. This seems to offer an approach to the most
profound discoveries. Nor, unfortunately, have I myself made any
progress here.

   The id of course knows no
judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality. The economic
or, if you prefer, the quantitative factor, which is intimately
linked to the pleasure principle, dominates all its processes.
Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge - that, in our view, is all
there is in the id. It even seems that the energy of these
instinctual impulses is in a state different from that in the other
regions of the mind, far more mobile and capable of discharge;
otherwise the displacements and condensations would not occur which
are characteristic of the id and which so completely disregard the
quality
of what is cathected - what in the ego we should
call an idea. We would give much to understand more about these
things! You can see, incidentally, that we are in a position to
attribute to the id characteristics other than that of its being
unconscious, and you can recognize the possibility of portions of
the ego and super-ego being unconscious without possessing the same
primitive and irrational characteristics.

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   We can best arrive at the
characteristics of the actual ego, in so far as it can be
distinguished from the id and from the super-ego, by examining its
relation to the outermost superficial portion of the mental
apparatus, which we describe as the system
Pcpt.-Cs.
This
system is turned towards the external world, it is the medium for
the perceptions arising thence, and during its functioning the
phenomenon of consciousness arises in it. It is the sense-organ of
the entire apparatus; moreover it is receptive not only to
excitations from outside but also to those arising from the
interior of the mind. We need scarcely look for a justification of
the view that the ego is that portion of the id which was modified
by the proximity and influence of the external world, which is
adapted for the reception of stimuli and as a protective shield
against stimuli, comparable to the cortical layer by which a small
piece of living substance is surrounded. The relation to the
external world has become the decisive factor for the ego; it has
taken on the task of representing the external world to the id -
fortunately for the id, which could not escape destruction if, in
its blind efforts for the satisfaction of its instincts, it
disregarded that supreme external power. In accomplishing this
function, the ego must observe the external world, must lay down an
accurate picture of it in the memory-traces of its perceptions, and
by its exercise of the function of ‘reality-testing’
must put aside whatever in this picture of the external world is an
addition derived from internal sources of excitation. The ego
controls the approaches to motility under the id’s orders;
but between a need and an action it has interposed a postponement
in the form of the activity of thought, during which it makes use
of the mnemic residues of experience. In that way it has dethroned
the pleasure principle which dominates the course of events in the
id without any restriction and has replaced it by the reality
principle, which promises more certainty and greater success.

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   The relation to time, which is so
hard to describe, is also introduced into the ego by the perceptual
system; it can scarcely be doubted that the mode of operation of
that system is what provides the origin of the idea of time. But
what distinguishes the ego from the id quite especially is a
tendency to synthesis in its contents, to a combination and
unification in its mental processes which are totally lacking in
the id. When presently we come to deal with the instincts in mental
life we shall, I hope, succeed in tracing this essential
characteristic of the ego back to its source. It alone produces the
high degree of organization which the ego needs for its best
achievements. The ego develops from perceiving the instincts to
controlling them; but this last is only achieved by the
representative of the instinct being allotted its proper place in a
considerable assemblage, by its being taken up into a coherent
context. To adopt a popular mode of speaking, we might say that the
ego stands for reason and good sense while the id stands for the
untamed passions.

   So far we have allowed ourselves
to be impressed by the merits and capabilities of the ego; it is
now time to consider the other side as well. The ego is after all
only a portion of the id, a portion that has been expediently
modified by the proximity of the external world with its threat of
danger. From a dynamic point of view it is weak, it has borrowed
its energies from the id, and we are not entirely without insight
into the methods - we might call them dodges - by which it extracts
further amounts of energy from the id. One such method, for
instance, is by identifying itself with actual or abandoned
objects. The object-cathexes spring from the instinctual demands of
the id. The ego has in the first instance to take note of them. But
by identifying itself with the object it recommends itself to the
id in place of the object and seeks to divert the id’s libido
on to itself. We have already seen that in the course of its life
the ego takes into itself a large number of precipitates like this
of former object-cathexes. The ego must on the whole carry out the
id’s intentions, it fulfils its task by finding out the
circumstances in which those intentions can best be achieved. The
ego’s relation to the id might be compared with that of a
rider to his horse. The horse supplies the locomotive energy, while
the rider has the privilege of deciding on the goal and of guiding
the powerful animal’s movement. But only too often there
arises between the ego and the id the not precisely ideal situation
of the rider being obliged to guide the horse along the path by
which it itself wants to go.

   There is one portion of the id
from which the ego has separated itself by resistances due to
repression. But the repression is not carried over into the id: the
repressed merges into the remainder of the id.

New Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis

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   We are warned by a proverb
against serving two masters at the same time. The poor ego has
things even worse: it serves three severe masters and does what it
can to bring their claims and demands into harmony with one
another. These claims are always divergent and often seem
incompatible. No wonder that the ego so often fails in its task.
Its three tyrannical masters are the external world, the super-ego
and the id. When we follow the ego’s efforts to satisfy them
simultaneously - or rather, to obey them simultaneously - we cannot
feel any regret at having personified this ego and having set it up
as a separate organism. It feels hemmed in on three sides,
threatened by three kinds of danger, to which, if it is hard
pressed, it reacts by generating anxiety. Owing to its origin from
the experiences of the perceptual system, it is earmarked for
representing the demands of the external world, but it strives too
to be a loyal servant of the id, to remain on good terms with it,
to recommend itself to it as an object and to attract its libido to
itself. In its attempts to mediate between the id and reality, it
is often obliged to cloak the
Ucs.
commands of the id with
its own
Pcs
. rationalizations, to conceal the id’s
conflicts with reality, to profess, with diplomatic
disingenuousness, to be taking notice of reality even when the id
has remained rigid and unyielding. On the other hand it is observed
at every step it takes by the strict super-ego, which lays down
definite standards for its conduct, without taking any account of
its difficulties from the direction of the id and the external
world, and which, if those standards are not obeyed, punishes it
with tense feelings of inferiority and of guilt. Thus the ego,
driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality,
struggles to master its economic task of bringing about harmony
among the forces and influences working in and upon it; and we can
understand how it is that so often we cannot suppress a cry:
‘Life is not easy!’ If the ego is obliged to admit its
weakness it breaks out in anxiety - realistic anxiety regarding the
external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego and neurotic
anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id.

   I should like to portray the
structural relations of the mental personality, as I have described
them to you, in the unassuming sketch which I now present you
with:

New Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis

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   As you see here, the super-ego
merges into the id; indeed, as heir to the Oedipus complex it has
intimate relations with the id; it is more remote than the ego from
the perceptual system. The id has intercourse with the external
world only through the ego - at least, according to this diagram.
It is certainly hard to say to-day how far the drawing is correct.
In one respect it is undoubtedly not. The space occupied by the
unconscious id ought to have been incomparably greater than that of
the ego or the preconscious. I must ask you to correct it in your
thoughts.

   And here is another warning, to
conclude these remarks, which have certainly been exacting and not,
perhaps, very illuminating. In thinking of this division of the
personality into an ego, a super-ego and an id, you will not, of
course, have pictured sharp frontiers like the artificial ones
drawn in political geography. We cannot do justice to the
characteristics of the mind by linear outlines like those in a
drawing or in primitive painting, but rather by areas of colour
melting into one another as they are presented by modern artists.
After making the separation we must allow what we have separated to
merge together once more. You must not judge too harshly a first
attempt at giving a pictorial representations of something so
intangible as psychical processes. It is highly probable that the
development of these divisions is subject to great variations in
different individuals; it is possible that in the course of actual
functioning they may change and go through a temporary phase of
involution. Particularly in the case of what is phylogenetically
the last and most delicate of these divisions - the differentiation
between the ego and the super-ego - something of the sort seems to
be true. There is no question but that the same thing results from
psychical illness. It is easy to imagine, too, that certain
mystical practices may succeed in upsetting the normal relations
between the different regions of the mind, so that, for instance,
perception may be able to grasp happenings in the depths of the ego
and in the id which were otherwise inaccessible to it. It may
safely be doubted, however, whether this road will lead us to the
ultimate truths from which salvation is to be expected.
Nevertheless it may be admitted that the therapeutic efforts of
psycho-analysis have chosen a similar line of approach. Its
intention is, indeed, to strengthen the ego, to make it more
independent of the super-ego, to widen its field of perception and
enlarge its organization, so that it can appropriate fresh portions
of the id. Where id was, there ego shall be. It is a work of
culture - not unlike the draining of the Zuider Zee.

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LECTURE XXXII

ANXIETY AND INSTINCTUAL LIFE

LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN
, - You will not be surprised to hear that I have a
number of novelties to report to you about our conception of
anxiety and of the basic instincts of mental life; nor will you be
surprised to learn that none of these novelties can claim to offer
a final solution of these still unsettled problems. I have a
particular reason for using the word ‘conception’ here.
These are the most difficult problems that are set to us, but their
difficulty does not lie in any insufficiency of observations; what
present us with these riddles are actually the commonest and most
familiar of phenomena. Nor does the difficulty lie in the recondite
nature of the speculations to which they give rise; speculative
consideration plays little part in this sphere. But it is truly a
matter of conceptions - that is to say, of introducing the right
abstract ideas, whose application to the raw material of
observation will produce order and clarity in it.