The structure of Personality and Language; Freudian theory of personality and Lacanian Linguistics.

An overview of freudian theory

Sigmund Freud began publishing his works towards the end of the 1800s shocking both the academic and clinical settings of the Victorian city of Vienna. Freud in fact advanced a developmental model of the structure of personality, consisting of a tripartite system in which human consciousness “the surface of our mind” stands as a marginalized and inaccurate representation of who we really are. Freud in fact presented individuals as possessing three composite layers that interact with one another to form our character; the Id, the Super Ego and the Ego.

The Id, perhaps the most important structure within this system, derives its power from biological and instinctual forces that according to Freud rule our thoughts and feelings from deep within. The id acts according to the Pleasure Principle; it seeks to have his needs satisfied. Comparable to a two year old child who lacks the teachings of socialization, the Id never takes “No” for an answer and acts out in despair when his cravings are not met.

The Super-Ego instead, develops around age five, as children become more and more exposed to the moral and ethical restrains that our family first, and then our society imposed upon us. The Super Ego values societal norms above all. It provides individuals a set of necessary imperatives that must be followed in order to become model citizens whatever our role might be in society. Confronted with the passions and impulses that spring from the Id, the Super Ego floods the Ego with anxiety and rebukes those instinctual thoughtscondemning their existence within the person.                              

The Ego, hit with contradicting messages from opposite directions assumes the role of mediator, negotiating between the two other layers of personality. The Ego acts according to the Reality principle regulating the pressure put forth by the Id transforming its satisfaction into a form of behavior condoned and accepted by the Super Ego.

According to Freud individuals are most healthy when the Ego is in charge. An overdeveloped Id or an overactive Super Ego can bring about those psychopathologies that Freud believes may be extinguished through the use of Psychanalysis.

 Lacan, a psychoanalyst himself, appears to have begun his own explorations of the human psyche going about the process form a Linguists perspective.  

As Ashley Shelden mentions in her blog post, Desire stands as an essential element not only for Freudian theory but also for Lacan’s understanding of human existence. Lacan in fact, exposes the connection between the system of Language (with its infinite pursuit of meaning) and human life (during which individuals strive for an unachievable Identity.) Both conditions result from the impossibility for humans to exist outside of the restrictive system of language and hence share an indefinite search for the inexistent center.

In Freudian theory also, desire plays a central role, as according to psychoanalysis human behaviors and consequently their existence as well is determined by irrational biological motivators that can only be censured by one’s Ego because deemed to be horrifying by societal conventions (and the Super Ego.)

In this connection I believe that, the Freudian Theory of Personality overlaps the Lacanian view of human existence that can be described as residing with the realms of the Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real.

Accordig to Lacan in fact, human beings live embedded within the Symbolic world, outside of which there is nothing that we can understand as we are a product of that same language that shapes and creates our world. Yet, perhaps unconciously, we can sense the presence of the Real, that which cannot be represented and yet more closely resembles our memory of being a “body in bits and pieces.” First  experiecened as infants, then as toddlers this moment precedes what Lacan calls the “Mirror Stage” which instilled within us a desire for an illusory identity promised by our reflection of an Image. This Image, or idea of one’s own idenity exists only within the realm of the Imaginary.

Both unachiavable realms, the Imaginary and the Real, can be compared to the Id and Super Ego which  are also hidden underneath the executive Ego that dominates and constrains our personality’s behavior.

Perhaps Freud’s understanding of psychopathologies can shine some light on our everpresent desire to abandon the Symbolic world and live by our Ids, forgetting the superimposed image of the Imaginary realm that our Super Ego deceptively tells us must be pursued.