Week 7 and 8 (understanding the cultic mind)

Henry Gonzalez
Professor Lane
Philosophy 8
November 8, 2015

Week 7 and 8 (Understanding the cultic mind)
Write a 500 word (or more) essay using Freud or Nietzsche (or both) with which to analyze a particular situation, event, idea, or person. Be sure to creative in picking your topic since it will be elemental in how you employ a Freudian or Nietzschean understanding.

Lessons from Freud

    Sigmund Freud separated the mind to three parts; the Id, Ego, and the Super Ego. These three parts in the psychodynamic theory lies within levels of the mind unconscious, Preconscious, and conscious. Each part develops at a certain age. First, you have the Id that develops when a baby is born. The mind is barraged with instinctual drives. The Id only wants to satisfy its desires and is based on a pleasure principle. It exists for pleasure and instant gratification. It is fully instinctual and doesn’t follow any logic because it isn’t aware of anything else. The Id creates pressures of urges and it is only released when these urges are met and satisfied. The drive towards pleasure is manifested through sexuality and aggression. The Id is located fully in the unconscious. The second portion of the mind, The Ego develops around three years of age and occupies the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The baby’s mind which was fully Id, through the baby’s experience interacting with the world up to this point develops the upper portion of the Id transforming into the Ego. The Ego is based on the reality principle, what it learns from this experience is that it cannot always get what it wants and not all urges get fulfilled. With the Ego it can decide which of the urges it can fulfill instead of needing and wanting all of them like the Id. What the ego does is that it tries to meet the needs of the Id, but in a realistic sense. It considers the reality of the situation and not let the impulsive reactions of the Id take over that might harm in getting what it wants. The Super Ego develops around age five, it’s where our morality and ethical part develops, and just like the Ego it resides in all three levels. What we learned from our family, society, and religion the Super Ego dictates what is right or wrong. When the super ego needs are met the ego is satisfied with pride, but super ego can affect the ego with guilt when it does not. The Super Ego like the Id doesn’t take into account the reality of a situation it just wants what it thinks is morally right. The Ego then decides which to express in when trying to meet its realistic goals or behaviors. When the Ego decides to express the Id too far a person can become violent, inappropriate, and destructive leading to impulses and self-gratification taking over their lives. When the Super Ego is expressed, a person’s drive is suffered by inflexible morals and high moral standards that they can never be able to achieve. They will suffer from constant feelings guilt. They will be hypercritical in judgment and unbending in every interaction especially with others. For a healthy normal person, it’s the job of the Ego to balance the two other parts of the mind, Freud says if not for this balance a person is mentally ill. This reminds me of my cousin David telling me he stopped seeing his ex-girlfriend Daisy simply because her son Alfred. At first I thought that was a crazy reason. He elaborated to why. Alfred 7 years old, always had to be with her if not he would have a never ending tantrum with anyone else. His Id was overwhelming his personality, it was being expressed to a point that was not normal and it was easily observed by David. Alfred would act out in violence towards him by pulling and spitting at him. He would scream and stomp when he wanted food. So it made dating very uncomfortable. David went on to tell me that he never had a dad and that his girlfriend told him she gave in to him because the kid was so difficult to deal with. David said when they went out he observed she was quiet and the kid just dominated everything they did. What he did one day was when they went to chucky cheese for a birthday part, Alfred wanted to go play with the other kids. David told him if he wanted to go play he had to eat his food first. Of course Alfred threw his fit and said no. he wanted to go play was what his Id urged him only to do. Then David said it again and reasoned that the other kids are playing because they already eaten. Once Alfred understood he said ok and ate his food. He said that Alfred even asked him, “can I go play, I finished my food.” And David let him go. Daisy was so amazed that he got him to do that. David just introduced some morals to Alfred. Alfred understood and used his Ego to decide that to get what he wanted was just a matter of following what he was told. Even though a person could have dominate super Ego or Id it is the Ego that brings them down and prevents them from behaviors that is harmful to the individual.