A/ The Purpose of Models, Theories, and Paradigms
We must not forget that models are models, theories are theories, concepts are concepts, and things are things -- objects, persons, phenomena, processes...
Models are meant to help us understand and explain reality but they will never replace reality -- they are simply good, bad, or ugly representations of reality. As such, models are a mixture of 'representative reality' and 'fiction'. The more 'reality represented', usually the better the model. Reality will always have the last word. Models will always be subject to imperfection and criticism relative to what they attempt to do and explain.
With models and theories, we may put up 'arbitrary structural boundaries' where no such boundaries exist in real life. We make 'chunk' reality into 'compartments' that make it easier for us to study what we are studying but in the end, these 'arbitrary conceptual boundaries' and 'fictional compartments' are what they are -- and that is 'convenient fictional-fantasy devices' that can help make it easier to teach what we are teaching, and to study what we are studying, but still, we must not forget that these devices contain as much 'fantasy element' in their 'structural makeup' as they do 'reality representation'. We must not forget the 'as if' element to our model -- for example, our mind-brain and self-personality-character structure seems to function (and dysfunction) 'as if' the inside of our psyche looks and operates like this...
Different models can be used for different functions.
For example, my old 'Hegel's Hotel' model which is in the process of being integrated into the larger (or when I think about it, smaller) model you see represented by the title above: 'The Hegel-Nietzsche-Freud Estate Complex' -- was, and still is -- meant to convey the idea of a massive philosophy-psychology 'hotel' or 'estate' in which you can walk into -- say 50 different rooms -- and study a different philosopher or psychologist, or a different time period in philosophy, or the different cultures and countries associated with different philosophers and philosophies, or different paradigms in psychology....And then we would have The Great Hegelian-Dialectic Common Room -- spearheaded by the dialectic logic of 1.thesis; 2. counter-thesis; and 3. synthesis-integration-synergy.
In contrast, this DGB model of the human psyche -- or named differently after three great philosophical and psychological influences on my work -- Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud -- thus, the current name: 'The Hegel-Nietzsche-Freud Hotel' is a metaphor of the inside of the functioning (and dysfunctioning) 'human mind-brain and personality-character structure-Self'. Different models for different purposes.
Anyway, this is the spirit in which the model below is to be viewed and 'tried out for size' -- not only as a rather 'large' or 'over-sized' (depending on who's interpretation and who's judgment) 30 room 'monster house' or 'hotel' compared to Freud's much smaller and simpler 'three room house' model (id, ego, superego). This does not mean that -- 'implicitly speaking' -- there weren't more 'rooms' in Freud's 1923 model. It is just that my current DGB model aims to add some Object Relations and Existential 'rooms' that were not fully or even barely spelled out in the 1923 model, and just starting to surface in Freud's last two papers in 1938 -- 'Splitting of The Ego in The Process of Defence', and 'Outlines in Psychoanalysis'.
Although there are certain elements of Freud's triadic ego-id-superego model that still work very well -- indeed, it matches up very easily with Hegel's 'thesis-anti-thesis-synthesis' dialectic (or trialectic) formula -- still, this is the 21st century and not Victorian Europe; meaning that there have been significant expansions in Psychoanalytic theory since Freud died in 1939, especially down the Object Relations trail, and if Classical Psychoanalysts and/or extreme Freudian loyalists are not utterly intent on keeping Classical Psychoanalysis exactly the way he created it, then there is plenty of room to expand on the original Freudian model in order to better integrate it with both Object Relations and Humanistic-Existential psychology.
So here below, I have developed what I believe to be a much more 'multi-integrative mainly psychoanalytic' model, that can be used either in its entirety, and/or in its more specific regions and smaller parts. For different functions, we may need only to use 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 'compartments' of the model as opposed to the '30 compartment model'.
This 30 room 'Super-House' is not really as baffling as it might sound like it is -- indeed, I invite you to explore not only all the different rooms but also, all the different 'staircases', 'nooks and crannies' in this (hopefully beautiful) Classic Post Victorian House. If you have ever been to Toronto, imagine Casa Loma (or google it).
Hopefully, the brief synopsis of the model, as described below, will bring some clarity to the essence of the model.
Thus, without further adieu, let me try to briefly explain and summarize this new DGB model of the personality from mainly within the paradigm of psychoanalytic thinking.
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B/ The Newest DGB Model of The Personality Under The Influence of Multi-Integrative-Dialectic (Quantum) Psychoanalytic Thinking: Part 1: Largely Subconscious and Pre-Conscious 'Psycho-Structures' and 'Psycho-Dynamics' in The Personality
1. If we start with the concept of 'The GPS' -- our 'Genetic-Potential-Self' ('The Path', Part 1) with all our inborn potential skills, abilities, and a honing device down 'our Existential Path' that we feel most passionate, comfortable, and at home going down...
2. And then we think of a newborn baby being 'ejected' from the mom's womb into what basically amounts to an 'existential abyss' that is entirely dependent on the mother's good will, willingness, and ability to look after the needs of her newborn son or daughter....
3. Freud said that the newborn baby is all 'id' -- all 'need', 'desire', 'impulse', and 'demanding of satisfaction' of his or her biological needs -- specifically, and I am extrapolating and modifying here on Freud's 'psycho-sexual stages of development' -- his or her 'oral' need of 'sucking' and bringing 'nutrition' into his or her little body to keep it alive; and on the other side of the fences, his or her 'anal-detoxification' need to be cleaned up after having expelled waste matter from the body; and finally, the maternal nurturing and touch of the mother to generate a 'trust bond' and 'attachment' figure that the baby can generally count on to not only satisfy its nutritional and detoxification needs, but also its attachment needs as well.
4. To modify Freud's concept of the 'Id' in order to make it more compatible with Kleinian theory and Fairbairnian theories of Object Relations, and 'the splitting of the ego', I have created a concept that Freud mentioned oh so briefly in the last paper of his life, An Outline of Psychoanalysis (1939), and which is more in tune with my own 'dialectically integrative way of thinking' -- specifically, Freud used the term 'id-ego' or 'ego-id', either of which I fully endorse, not as a concept that is only relevant in the child's infancy when his or her 'ego-id' is as of yet 'undifferentiated'... but will become differentiated, according to Freud, and at that point we will no longer have any use for the term 'ego-id' or 'id-ego', so sayeth Freud.
5. Well, I have lots of use for the concept of the id-ego -- even in our adulthood -- but first, I will describe how either the 'Pre-Oedipal' or 'Oedipal' id-ego -- and I will focus here on the latter can SPLIT during the process of a 'compensatory network of possible defenses' that are created under the influence of what I will call 'OPTSDT' which stands for 'Oedipal Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder-Transference'.
6. Here is how the id-ego can 'split' utilizing and extrapolating on probably the most important aspect of Kleinian Object Relations theory:
i/ The Love-and-Acceptance Wanting Id-Ego;
ii/ The Assertive-Problem-Solving Id-Ego;
iii/ The Phobic-Schizoid (Scared, Withdrawn, Distancing) Id-Ego;
iv/ The Narcissistic-Hedonistic Id-Ego;
v/ The Depressed (Chronically and/or Acutely Frustrated) Id-Ego;
vi/ The Paranoid-Schizoid (Angry, Withdrawn, Distancing) Id-Ego;
vii/ The Paranoid-Confrontational (Angry, Assertive, Righteous) Id-Ego;
7. These 'Post-Kleinian-DGB Positions' listed above become crystalized and locked up inside our 'EMLCDF' -- 'Experience-Memory-Learning-Compensatory-Defense-Fantasy' Transference Templates...as a network of different possible ways to deal with a similar type of 'trauma' in the future of which usually one or two different types of defenses are prototypically emphasized and dominant to the person's 'transference-lifestyle repetition compulsion and profile pattern'.
8. At this point, the ego-id's or id-ego's freshly learned 'Traumacy-Fantasy Transference Complexes' (TFTCs) become 'screened and/or edited the first time over' as they either attempt to 'escape' or are 'conditionally or unconditionally released' from the transference templates and funnelled into what I will call 'The Ego-Id or Id-Ego Vault'. At this point, a more differentiated and adult or parentally introjected part of the id 'splits again'. This time we have one part of the 'Main Adult Ego' 'identifying' with the needs and impulses of 'the more childish id-ego', while the other part of the main adult ego identifies with the 'parental, righteous superego'... The first part of our main adult ego is more prone to let our 'id-ego' out of the 'dissociative-isolation ward' of the id-ego vault and into the conscious or pre-conscious personality. The second part of our main adult ego which is more stringently identifying with our paternal, righteous superego is more prone to keeping our id-ego locked up tightly inside our id-ego vault.
9. A third part of the main adult ego splits again, this time into a 'pre-conscious, compromise-forming, 'symptom-forming', 'dream, fantasy, and nightmare creating', 'projecting', 'sublimating', 'projectively-identifying', 'displacing', 'transferring' ego-state which we will call the 'pre-conscious ego';
10. To summarize so far, from the deepest depth of the personality to the 'pre-conscious' personality, these are the ego-states, the psycho-structures, and the psycho-dynamics that I will be using...
C/ First Stage (Deepest, Most Primal) Sub-Ego-States
1. The GPS (Genetic Potential Self);
2. The Deepest Abyss;
3. The Primal, (Disorganized, and Partly Organizing) Ego-Id;
4. The Trauma-Fantasy Transference Templates;
5. The Ego-Id Vault;
6. The Pre-Conscious, Compromising Ego;
Part 2: The Unconscious, Pre-Conscious, and Conscious Ego-States
10. At this point, the 'split ego complexes' of the Pre-Oedipal and Oedipal period (birth to 6 or 7 years old) become transplanted into the adult ego complex -- even if there is still an underlying 'child-like' current to these 7 conceptualized ego-states (not unlike Berne's TA model);
D/ Second Stage, Mainly 'Child-Like' or 'Under'-Ego-States
7. The Love and Acceptance Wanting ('Omega') Ego-Id;
8. The Assertive, Problem-Solving Adult-Becoming Ego-Id;
9. The Phobic-Schizoid (Omega) Ego-Id;
10. The (Manic) Depressive (Omega-Beta) Ego-Id;
11. The Narcissistic-Hedonistic (Beta) Ego-Id;
12. The Paranoid-Schizoid (Beta) Ego-Id;
13. The Paranoid-Confrontational ('Beta') Ego-Id;
E/ Third Stage, Life Challenges, Ego-States
14. Home Base or Base Camp (Family and Friend Rootedness);
15. Nietzsche's Rope;
16. The Top of Nietzsche's Abyss Under The Rope, Under The Friendly Mountain of Comfortable, Stable Being, and Under The Mountain of Uncomfortable, Anxiety-Provoking, Becoming;
17. The 'Bipolar Twin Mountains of Being and Becoming';
18. The Mountain Top of Having Become -- and Celebrating this 'Becomingness' or 'Self-Actualization' (The Path, Part 3);
F/ Fourth Stage, Adult Ego-States;
19. The Public Persona Ego;
20. The Main Adult Problem-Solving Ego;
21. The Private-Shadow (Primal, Uncivilized) Id-Ego;
22. The Feeling Ego and Phenomenology of Spirit (The Path, Part 2);
23. The Creative (and Destructive) Fantasy, Projection, Dream and Sublimation Ego;
24. The Body Ego;
G/ Fifth Stage Parental Super-ego States;
25. The Overt, Righteous, Conditionally Loving Superego;
26. The Covert, Paranoid-Schizoid Superego;
27. The Narcissistic-Hedonistic Superego;
28. The (Manic) Depressive Superego;
29. The Phobic, Non-Nurturing Superego;
30. The Overt, Encouraging, Nurturing Superego.
That will do for now.
Yeah, I know it's kind of overwhelming...
And to be sure it is far from perfect....
However, it does allow us -- both as theorists and as a therapists -- to do a few extra things with the model, that you can't do with the old Freudian one.
So for now, we will let it stand as it is.
Cheers!
-- dgb, May 9th, 2014,
-- David Gordon Bain
