In Freud's theory, the ego mediates among the id, the super-ego
and the external world. Its task is to find a balance between
primitive drives, morals, and reality while satisfying the id and
superego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and
allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when
consequences of these actions are marginal. Ego defense mechanisms
are often used by the ego when id behaviour conflicts with reality
and either society's morals, norms, and taboos or the individual's
expectations as a result of the internalization of these morals,
norms, and taboos.
The word ego is taken directly from Latin where it is the
nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is
translated as "I myself" to express emphasis. Ego is the English
translation for Freud's German term "Das Ich."
In modern-day society, ego has many meanings. It could mean ones
self-esteem; an inflated sense of self-worth; or in philosophical
terms, ones self. However, according to the psychologist Sigmund
Freud, the ego is the part of the mind which contains the
consciousness. Originally, Freud had associated the word ego to
meaning a sense of self; however, he later revised it to mean a set
of psychic functions such as judgement, tolerance, reality-testing,
control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual
functioning, and memory.
In a diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind,
the ego is depicted to be half in the consciousness, while a
quarter is in the preconscious and the other quarter lies in the
unconscious.
The ego is the mediator between the id and the superego; trying to
ensure that the needs of both the id and the superego are met. It
is said to operate on a reality principle, meaning it deals with
the id and the superego; allowing them to express their desires,
drives and morals in realistic and socially appropriate ways. It is
said that the ego stands for reason and caution, developing with
age. Sigmund Freud had used an analogy which likened the ego to a
rider and a horse; the ego being the rider while the id being the
horse. The horse provides the energy and the means of obtaining the
energy and information need, while the rider ultimately controls
the direction it wants to go. However, due to unfavorable
conditions, sometimes the horse makes its own decisions over the
rocky terrain.
When the ego is personified, it is like a slave to three harsh
masters: the id, the super-ego and the external world. It has to do
its best to suit all three, thus is constantly feeling hemmed by
the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It is said
however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring
to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts
with the pretending to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego
is constantly watching every one of the egos moves and punishes it
with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority. To overcome this,
this ego employs method of defense mechanism. Denial, displacement,
intellectualization, fantasy, compensation, projection,
rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression and
sublimation were the defense mechanisms Freud identified. However,
his daughter Anna Freud clarified and identified the concepts of:
undoing, suppression, dissociation, idealization, identification,
introjection, inversion, somatization, splitting and
substitution.
