What Freud Meant by the Ego, the Id and the Superego
The three parts of every mind
According to the father of psychology Sigmund Freud, there are three parts of the human psyche: the ego, the id and the superego. These are originally Latin terms meaning ‘I’, ‘it’ and ‘upper-I’.
The iceberg is a common illustration of this triple structure of the mind. The part of the iceberg above water corresponds to the conscious parts of the mind. On the other hand, everything beneath the surface is unconscious.
The ego is above the water; the id is beneath. The superego is a bit above and a bit below — partly conscious and partly unconscious. Each part has its own nature and role within the mind. The conflicting interests of these three are the driving force of all human conflicts.
Id/ ‘the it’
“There is nothing in the id that could be compared with negation…nothing in the id which corresponds to the idea of time”
— Sigmund Freud
In the beginning, there was the id. It is the only one of the three parts we are born with. The others develop later out of the id. This part of the mind is all nature and no nurture. Down here all the physiological, animal drives, impulses and instincts run wild.
