... I will ask a question here and hope somebody notices it.

What is the difference and interplay between the Id and the Ego in traditional psychoanalytical theory?
Could there be a reason for New Age Guru;s telling their followers to believe in them and fight the ego?

I found something along the lines of what i was looking for:Freud, New Introductory Lectures p. 110

I like the topic but my psychology is a little rusty and as my wife always reminds me it was just a gcse.

its been a while since my psychology degree!!

far as I remember freud put forward that there are the id ego and super ego - The Id is the instinctual part of us - the one that is there from birth and is kinda like the kid in us it is all about pleasure and said to contain the libido life and death instincts - the super ego is the like the straight laced moralizing part of us and the ego the more practical and realistic part of us that spends its time attempting to negotiate and balance the needs of the id and super ego often through defense mechanisms. Conflict arises as the ego attempts to meet the needs and mental ill health is caused. Or summat like that. Then there is something about conscious and subconscious the id being entirely in the subconcious.


i guess new age gurus asking people to fight the ego is like saying embrace your instincts and your inner child - do not compromise.

Hmmm...we should have a psych subform..without fraud though, of course.
I was reading this the other day. It just confused me but maybe you can wrap your mind around it:
youarenotsosmart.com/2012/04/17/ego-depletion/

that was an interesting read cheers Night Gaunt

really relevant if you subscribe to that sort of stuff.

I kinda liked freuds work when I was studying it made quite a bit of sense to me - it was the cogntive stuff I always used to struggle to get my head round.

thoreau wrote: I haven't looked much into his work, his whole "sex as the premise of everything" threw me off. Other than that i'm pretty fascinated with psychology, i do like to study behavior in my spare time but i'll bet an actual psychologist will tell me this is derived from the inability to comprehend my own behavior

I can really recommend Freud on the Uncanny I got it from the library the other day, it's a collection of Freud's smaller essays & a good introduction to his theories.
I think the super-Ego is defined as a societal construct, the voice of authority, headmasters, parents etc within, when I read about it I thought there would probably be some conflict between the Ego and super-Ego, I felt the super Ego would be regulating the Id and influencing the way the Ego interacts with the world, I thought about how the super Ego of a religious and non religious individual would differ..

I have no qualifications

im not happy with ego, super ego and id.. it seems too simple of a solution for such a complex machine. i like psychology but i also hate it too, trying to tell me how i think. i want to figure that out myself.

batou wrote:
How do you think you know when thinking you like psychology becomes knowing you like psychology?

Thanks for that article Night Gaunt:

well oi i go back to just floating above the ground and saying i know nothing.

I think this video explains it pretty well. I like the channel name it comes from too. When he discusses a good balance between ego, id and super ego as an ideal it made me think of the principles of Buddhism.