Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory: Unconscious, Ego, and Defense

Posted on Mar 21, 2025 in Psychology and Sociology

Repressed traumas, unveiled in the past and subsequently forgotten, continue to exert influence. The practice of psychoanalysis reveals several key insights:

  • The structure of life, affective instincts, and their function within the psyche.
  • The inherent obscurity of psychic phenomena.
  • The highly pathogenic nature of repression.
  • The importance of sexual life and its development.
  • The discovery that pathological symptoms represent substitute satisfactions for desires prohibited to the subject.

First Topic of Freud

Freud’s first topical model divides the psychic apparatus into:

  • The Unconscious: Composed of images or content repressed by consciousness. The characteristic of these images or contents is that they strive to enter consciousness but are prevented by a barrier or censorship. They must circumvent this barrier, appearing distorted and unrecognizable.
  • The Preconscious: An intermediate layer between the unconscious and consciousness. Its contents can pass into consciousness through a decision of the subject, such as memories.
  • The Conscious: Consists of the representations present in our consciousness, information, and internal bodily sensations, loaded with affective factors that encourage action.

Second Topic of Freud

In 1920, Freud introduced a new model for the distribution of functions within the psychic apparatus. The instances are now the Id, Ego, and Superego:

  • The Id: Formed by primitive, innate instincts and inherited elements. These pulsations are a combination of two principles: life and death.
  • The Ego: A part of the Id that has been in contact with the external world and has transformed. This transformation is what we call the Ego. The Ego is constituted by our perceptions and represents rationality. It is largely, but not entirely, conscious; some aspects, like representation, are located in the unconscious. The Ego relates to the Id by informing and adapting to the pulses of the circumstances, directing behavior so that effective satisfaction is achieved. Its purpose is self-preservation, which makes the subject adapt to the external world and cope with the Id.
  • The Superego: Represents the archaic and infantile morality of the subject, the conscience formed in childhood at the expense of familial prohibitions. Freud states that the Superego is like a second nature that “monitors and threatens, as parents once watched and threatened the child.”

The Role of the Ego and Defense Mechanisms

When a harmonious development of the three instances is not achieved, illness arises. The only solution is a hierarchical one: a strong Ego that satisfies basic impulses, listens to and copes with the Superego, and does not turn its back on reality. To achieve its goals, the Ego employs tactics to rid itself of impulses and criticisms; these are known as defense mechanisms. The Ego tries to adjust to the environment through these mechanisms. Some examples include:

  1. Repression: Making oneself forget something that could disturb the subject.
  2. Reaction Formation: The subject conceals their motivation and conflict by believing the opposite is true.
  3. Projection: The subject avoids anxiety by attributing their own motives to another person.
  4. Displacement: The anxiety-producing object is replaced by a disguised substitute.
  5. Rationalization: The subject explains their behavior by assigning a socially acceptable reason that masks the actual, unacceptable motive.