Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!actnyc!jsb
From: jsb@actnyc.UUCP (The Invisible Man)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: superego/ego/id : some general questions
Message-ID: <769@actnyc.UUCP>
Date: 5 Apr 88 19:12:51 GMT
References: <6171@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <3118@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Reply-To: jsb@actnyc.UUCP (The Invisible Man)
Distribution: sci
Organization: Diet Software
Lines: 44

In article <3118@gryphon.CTS.COM> sarima@gryphon.CTS.COM (Stan Friesen) writes:
)In article <6171@watdragon.waterloo.edu> kmgopinathan@violet.waterloo.edu (Krishna Gopinathan) writes:
)>I've heard the terms superego, ego, and id mentioned a lot but I
)>haven't really seen a clear definition of them.  Can anyone out there
)>in netland explain them?
)>
)>In Management textbooks discussing Transactional Analysis, they mention
)>three states of the human psyche called Parent, Adult, and Child.  Is
)>there any parallel between these and superego, ego, and id?
)
)	Well, I don't really *know*,  but I have gotten a certain general
)impression from my rather sparse reading on the subject. So here are my
)guesses. The id appears to be that part of a persons psyche that is purely
)emotional, it "knows" only reactions, not reasons or ideas. It is "wild"
)and "untamed". The ego, in my impression, is the rational part of ones
)psyche, it is the thinking, logical self. It is the source os ideas and
)reasoning. The superego is that part that is usually called the conscience,
)that is it is the critical, or at least judgemental, self. Is anyone out
)there more familiar with Freudian analysis?

Yes.  The 3 terms are intra-psychic terms and refer to a general theory of
personality developement.  One is born all Id (the Latin word for "it" as
"ego" is for "I".  In early translations of Freud I have seen the terms
I and it used instead of the jargon-sounding Latin terms), developes an ego
from trying to get some pleasure out of the world.  Later one developes a
superego through identfication with the same sex parent in resolving the
Oedipus complex.  There is a large amount of associated theory that makes
use of these concepts (which are not very useful outside this theoretical
framework).
)	And there is a close parallel between the three Freudian terms and
)the more modern terms Parent, Adult, and Child. I believe the switch in
)terminology was in part due to the growing realization that the Freudian
)concepts were too simplistic and a more flexible model was needed. Thus

The Transactional Analysis terms are inter-psychic rather than intra-psychic.
That is, they refer to "ego states" assumed by a participant in an interaction
with another human being.  They are *not* more modern but refer to a different
theory base with different forms of treatment.  As far as I know, Eric Berne
(who created T.A.) comes out of the Freudian tradition and probably accepts
something like the Freudian theory of personality developement.
-- 
286,000 miles per second.  It's not just a good idea, it's the law!

				jim (uunet!actnyc!jsb)