The War Inside You.
Have you ever felt like you were at war with yourself? Like there are multiple versions of you constantly in conflict with each other? Well, if you look at what Freud has to say, you’re probably right.
Sigmund Freud is one of the most renowned personalities in the world of psychology. Although some of his work is highly controversial and possibly untrue, his contributions to the field of psychology are undeniable and are highly celebrated even today. Freud is known as the father of psychoanalysis, a school of thought in psychology which focuses on the unconscious mind, the forces that influences it and how it shapes our psyche.
According to Freud, our personality is composed of three elements: the id, the ego and the super ego. Everything we do, feel or think is somehow a manifestation of these three elements or the conflict between them. He also said that these three elements are constantly at “war” with each other, which manifests itself as anxiety or discomfort.
You know the feeling of an endless battle going on inside you we talked about? Yeah, this is what’s going on. Let me explain.
First, we need to understand what the id, ego and superego are to find out why they are in conflict and how to mitigate this.
Elements of Personality.
1. The Id.
This is the most primal part of your psyche. It works on the pleasure principle. The id strives to obtain your most basic needs i.e., food, water, warmth, sex etc. And it wants them now. The id is impatient and pushes us to satiate its desires as soon as it wants them. And it agitates the body if it does not get what it wants. That strong craving for chocolate your having? It’s the id. That aggressive affection you feel for your partner? That’s the id. That undue jealousy you feel when someone you like laughs with someone else? You guessed it, it’s the id at play. The id is the part of your personality which forms after birth, making it the most innate element to your personality.
2. The Ego.
The ego, on the other hand, develops as you grow up and learn that the world is not working only to cater to your demands. You don’t always get what you want and even if you do it’s not necessary that you get it when you want it. The Ego works on the reality principle. It is the rational part of your personality. It is not innately strong like the id, rather it gains its strength from your sense of reasoning and self-discipline.
3. The Superego.
The superego is the moral part of your personality. It works on the moral principle, determining what is right and what is wrong. The superego is shaped by the values and principles taught to you by your parents, teachers and society. The force of the superego is somewhat stronger than that of the ego as its foundation lies deeper. The superego stems from emotion rather than cognition, making it sometimes as strong as the id.
The Battle Within.
These three forces are constantly at odds with each other, with the id and the superego taking more extreme stances and the ego trying to play the role of the mitigator between them. The id and the superego despise each other, each thinking that the other is detrimental to our being. When the id craves chocolate, the superego bashes it by saying that a strict and healthy diet should be adopted. The ego tries to rationalize a solution acceptable to both parties like eating the chocolate but working out extra hard that week to burn all the calories.
The ego also tries to deal with the impulses of the id and the superego individually. For example, if the id asks you to go out with your friends in the middle of busy work week, the ego tries to delay acting on this impulse. It rationalizes how acting on the impulse would be detrimental and would compromise future fun getaways with friends. Similarly, you’re in a situation where you have to lie in order to save someone close to you from harm. The superego would push you to tell the truth no matter the consequences. But the ego will rationalize that protecting people close to you is far more wrong than a little white lie, and that the right thing would be to do the lesser evil to achieve the greater good.
All this conflict in your head creates a significant amount of anxiety and discomfort, which can be exhausting. You need to train yourself to subdue this battle inside.
How to Subdue the War.
If I claim to tell you about a method through which you will never face any internal conflict in life, that would be a lie. However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot gain control of your internal conflict and mitigate it to ensure that the peace lasts longer.
The simple principle at play here is that only the forces that are well-fed grow stronger. If you feed your carnal id impulses i.e., fulfilling every id impulse without any check and balance whatsoever, the hedonistic animal inside you that strives on debauchery will grow stronger. On the other hand, if you feed your superego, the fundamentalist hardliner inside you that pays no heed to circumstantial exceptions will grow stronger. Also, if the ego gets to strong, you would become this uber-rational robot that is completely oblivious of what emotions are.
So, the correct approach would be to feed each force in the appropriate amount. Although, it would be better if you strengthen the ego more relative to the other two, as it would not only allow you to control your emotional side but would also provide you with the right amount of rational and critical thinking that is necessary in a world where emotions are constantly exploited.
To sum it all up, there are shades to your personality which become a source of internal conflict. However, you can attain a significant amount of internal peace if you bring these forces under your conscious control.
