Freudian Analysis Of Oedupis

3050 Words13 Pages
Freudian analysis of Oedipus The theory of psychoanalysis is primarily concerned with the development of the human personality; it was Freud who presumed that human personality is a three part system, consisting of the id, ego, and the superego. "The id is said to contain all the instinctual drives that seek immediate satisfaction and like a small child (they are said to operate on the "the pleasure principle"); the ego contains the conscious mental states, and its function is to perceive the real world and to decide how to act, mediating between the world and the id (it is governed by "the reality principle"). Whatever can become conscious is in the ego (although it also contains elements that remain unconscious), where as everything in the id is permanently unconscious. The superego is identified as a special part of the mind that contains the conscience, the moral norms acquired from parents and others who were influential in early childhood; though it belongs to the ego and shares it's kind of psychological organization, the superego is also said to have an intimate connection with the id, for it can confront the ego with rules and prohibitions like a strict parent. If at an early stage the child is exposed to an environment that consists of overly aggressive and dominant parents the development of that child’s superego may become a tad bit cruel, causing an adverse reaction within the psyche of that child. The result is the emergence of the Oedipus complex. When the superego exerts an unhealthy harsh influence upon the psyche of the child burdening it with an immense amount of moral guilt and shame. The id will tend to lash out at the superego by expending a powerful gust of instinctual psychic energy directing it toward the ego. In an attempt to unconsciously encourage the ego to revolt against the extreme moral influence of the superego Hypothetically
Open Document