The Ego and the Id Brevity

Fear is a feeling of threat or danger.

Three masters

The Ego is confronted by three dangers:

  • The external world
  • The libido of the Id
  • The severity of the Super-ego

With this comes three distinct anxieties:

  • Realistic anxiety from the real world
  • Neurotic anxiety from the Id
  • Moral anxiety from the Super-ego

The Ego tries to balance all of these masters at once. It tries to make the world like the Id, but at the same time it tries to make the Id more flexible to the world by rationalising the Id's demands into socially acceptable behaviors (sublimation).

Freud describes this dynamic like a politician who sees the truth but wants to keep its place in popular favour.

Fear

The Ego is the part of the mind that feels fear. The Ego is where our fight/flight reflex comes from.

Fear it feels comes from three places:

  • The outside world
  • Your desires
  • Your conscience

When the Ego senses something fearful, it converts that fear into anxiety and uses that to make you run away. Afterwards, it protects itself by focusing on things it considers safe. This is how phobias develop, we begin to fear specific things in an attempt to keep ourselves safe.

Exercise Phobias

Try to think of a phobia you have. What is your safe space when you're confronted with this phobia?

It's hard to say why the Ego is scared of things, but generally speaking, when it's scared, it's usually because it wants to avoid being overwhelmed or destroyed and can be linked to a fear of being punished by the Super-ego.

The fear of death

The fear of death comes from two main places:

  • External places: such as being in a life threatening situation.
  • Internal places: such as from mental illness.

The way the Ego deals with the fear of death is by letting go of itself and becoming withdrawn as a way to prepare itself for what's to come.

It's hard to say why the Ego is scared of things, but generally speaking, when it's scared, it's usually because it wants to avoid being overwhelmed or destroyed and can be linked to a fear of being punished by the Super-ego.

Example Melancholia

In the case of melancholia, the Ego feels constantly unloved and hated by the Super-ego to the point that it's unbearable. The Super-ego acts like a protective force, almost like a Mum and Dad within us. If the Ego feels abandoned by these protective forces, it feels constantly in danger and gives up. In a way, since the Super-ego is influenced by our Mum and Dad, it reflects a fear of being separated from Mum and Dad.

Example Neurosis

In the case of neurosis, anxiety comes from a fear of guilt.
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