Do I know you ?

The human mind is one of the most mysterious things ever. If you are curious by nature you can’t help but fall for psychology. The best thing of psychology is that it is not as definitive as Mathematics. At the same time, it is not as vague as art. It is something in between. And it titillates a curious mind as nothing else can.

I am writing this post to talk about a well known model to describe the structure of human psyche. This model was proposed by Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychologist considered the father of psycho-analysis. He proposed the existence of three different elements in the human psyche. These are not physically different compartments in the brain but virtual elements. The foremost and the most basic is the “id”. This element completely works on the pleasure principle. It is the one which any child is born with. All it wants is immediate gratification of all its senses. This is the ‘animal like’ facet of our personality. This is what we call the basic instinct of any human being.

Next comes “ego”. This is the reality factor. This is the element which is responsible for us dealing with reality.  When the id makes unreasonable demands, it is the ego which weighs in the pros and cons of the same and either allows that behavior or delays or abandons it.

Ego is followed by “Super-ego” in human beings. This is the element which holds all the morals and standards. Following these morals and standards leads to feeling of accomplishments. The “conscience” is part of this element. Going against this may lead to feelings of guilt and remorse even if they satisfy the id and the ego.

The id, ego and the super ego work together to shape human behavior. The amount of power residing with each of these varies from person to person. Conflicts are bound to arise but it is the ego strength of the person which as to resolve them.

Till now whatever we discussed was intuitive, nothing “new” about it, right? Right. Here is the part which for me was the gold nugget from this whole story. The two images are depictions of the concept representing the three elements in two different formats. The second one is my favorite. It broadly represents what percentage of human psyche is governed by which element. The “id” wins hands-down. The very idea of using the iceberg analogy communicates how much the personality of a person is shaped by the “id”. I started thinking about how in day to day life people’s perceptions of others are based on that freakishly small tip of the iceberg. People are very quick to form opinions. My guess is for more than 95% of the people, we think we know them better than we actually do. It’s very common to notice somebody’s behavior in public or among friends, which is excessively regulated by the ego and the super-ego and accordingly act or react. I wonder why isn’t there aren’t any interview round corresponding to “actually knowing” a candidate before hiring. We need to tap into their “id” which lies all the way down there in the unconscious part of the brain.  

Happy thinking !