SuperEgo

Out of Freud’s three constructs of the self, I’ve been confused most (by far) by the nature of the SuperEgo. No matter what insight I had about it, none seemed to fit quite right. Now I know why: I never had much of one to begin with. If there are three types of intuition: emotional (Id), rational (Ego), instinct (SuperEgo), then I have very little instinct or social intuition. Now that I think about it, Asperger’s disorder (and likely every other derivative of Autism) can be simplified to 3 words: social intuition deficiency.

While the symptoms and manifestations may be different, I believe this difference to not be due to variations of the illness itself, but variations in how each person with this deficiency deals with it, and the environment in which they deal with it. For example, if internalizing and projecting are two different psychological responses to this deficiency, then Autism would be the product of a person with almost no social intuition internalizing, while one who responds by projecting would develop Aspergers.

Freud’s understanding of the SuperEgo was/is vague and incomplete, which is probably part of why Carl Jung spent so much effort clarifying the SuperEgo, using the Collective Consciousness as a supporting construct. The Collective Consciousness is another product of mankind’s spiritual evolution, and is an extension of the SuperEgo, much in the same way the SuperEgo is an extension of the Ego.

At the same time, the SuperEgo provides a link and common ground between one’s Ego and the Egos of the rest of humanity. In other words, the Collective Consciousness is the world’s largest and most basic social network, and the SuperEgo is the router of that network. From this perspective, everyone else would be my “AlterEgos”.

The Ego’s nature requires that one’s reality be Absolute, and although this was possible in the beginning, humanity has increased in complexity so much that a uniform reality is now impossible, absurd to imagine. With the Ego alone, this would inevitably result in a psychological paradox. So the SuperEgo’s role is to act as a counterbalance. If the Ego decides, and the Id desires, then the SuperEgo influences. In essence the SuperEgo is intermediary of life. Now I know that this is different from Freud’s model, in which the Ego was the servant of two masters (the Id & the SuperEgo), but I found that model to be incomplete and flawed (just as Jung apparently did, go figure!)

The SuperEgo’s role is to manipulate the Ego to ensure a compromise between the realities of different people, and the product of that is social intuition. Because I have very little of that, my SuperEgo has very little influence on me, which- for better or for worse, allows me a high degee of independence from many of the core aspects of society and normative culture, but more importantly, freedom from Social Bias.

The greatest disadvantage to this is an inability to naturally fit in. The purpose of intuition is partly to be able to micromanage a great deal of variables without having to think about it- most of the, are normally handled subconsciously (or should I say, “superconsciously”!) , and as a result, most people take the ability to socialize in a “socially appropriate” manner for granted. Even if I somehow were able to determine and understand all these social variables, and successfully apply them consistently (which would be a miracle), I could only pretend. It would never be real, because I would not be utilizing social patterns intuitively.

In my model, the Id os completely independent of the Ego and SuperEgo; because Id is pure desire, and desire is inherently infinite. Aside from that, for the Id to be dependent would create certain conflicts and inconsistencies with the finer points of this model. Perhaps I’m also able to analyze myself as if I have more than one self for the same reason- because I have very little SuperEgo. Everyone has (in a sense) separate selves- it’s just that most of them are able to take it for granted, and so don’t realize it.

My personality on the internet is also a bit different- I’ve even thought of that self as my ‘true self’ — the “intelligent little creature”. Considering the ironic SuperEgo-like semblance, I can’t help but wonder if that when I intuitively identified that part of myself as a kid, I was providing a sort of psychic foreshadowing for a far-into-the-future deeper understanding I would reach of myself. That self is what remains of my SuperEgo.