Ralitsa Strapchenkova
J02358974
Quick Paper 1 – Freud
PSYCH 3010
09/12/2023
Sigmund Freud’s research and theories have had a great impact on the psychology we know
today. Specifically, when it comes to explaining the personality of human beings, Freud’s
theories still have a huge importance. Sigmund Freud differentiates between three levels of
consciousness: the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious level of our mind. He
also defines the core parts of the personality: the id, the ego and the superego. However, the
most interesting question here is how those relate to each other. The three levels of
consciousness show us where or on which level the three parts of the personality are located
and to what extent we have access to them and can control them.
The id contains all our instincts and impulses that are driven by pleasure. Those are located
completely in the unconscious part of our mind. Therefore, we don’t have any access to the
id and cannot control it at all. It can only be partially controlled by the ego.
The ego concentrates on rational thinking and behavior, specifically when it comes to dealing
with the external world around us. It is responsible for handling the impulses of the id in a
socially acceptable way. The ego is located in all three levels of the consciousness, meaning
that there is a part of the ego that is conscious, a part that is preconscious and a third part
that is unconscious to the human being. We can only access and control the conscious part
of the ego. The preconscious part is not accessible at all times but can be accessed upon
request. For example, when we think of certain things or remember something.
The superego is responsible for our moral thinking and behavior. It is connected to the ego,
which allows us to think and behave according to our moral understanding and beliefs. The
superego is, like the ego, spread throughout all three levels of the consciousness, but we can
only access and control the conscious part.
Freud strongly believed that all our behaviors were a result of our impulses from the id, which
lie deeply in our unconsciousness. Therefore, it is important to take a look at how the two
theories relate, in order to understand the human mind and the reason for all our behaviors.