or seemingly trivial errors while reading, writing and speaking suggested to Freud that what is said and done reflects the working of the unconscious. Jokes especially were an outlet for expressing repressed sexual and aggressive tendencies. For Freud, nothing was accidental.Freud believed that human personality, expressed emotions, strivings, and beliefs arise from a conflict between the aggressive, pleasure-seeking, biological impulses and the social restraints against their expression. This conflict between expression and repression, in ways that bring the achievement of satisfaction without punishment or guilt, drives the development of personality.Freud divided the elements of that conflict into three interacting systems: the id, ego and superego. Freud did not propose a new, nave anatomy, but saw these terms as "useful aids to understanding" the mind's dynamics.The id is a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that continually toils to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce and aggress. The id operates on the pleasure principle - if unconstrained, it seeks instantaneous gratification. It is exemplified by a new born child who cries out for satisfaction the moment it feels hungry, tired, uncomfortable - oblivious to conditions, wishes, or expectations of his environment.As the child learns to cope with the real world, his ego develops. The ego operates on the reality principle, which seeks to superintend the id's impulses in realistic ways to accomplish pleasure in practical ways, avoiding pain in the process. The ego contains partly conscious perceptions, thoughts, judgements, and memories. It is the personality executive. The ego arbitrates between impulsive demands of the id, the restraining demands of the superego and the real-life demands of the external world.Around age 4 or 5, a child's ego recognizes the demands of the newly emerging superego. The superego is the voice of conscience that forces the ego to consider not...
