Finished!...Jan. 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 2012...
A/ Introduction: A Contrast Between Fichte's Conceptualization of 'The Ego' and Freud's Conceptualization of The Ego and What The Difference Means Relative To Modifying and Extending Freud's Model of The Psyche
As far as my research goes back, and as I have indicated in other essays, Johann Gottlieb Fichte was the first (German) philosopher who I know of to use the concept of 'ego' which effectively is a synonym for 'self' in the way that he used it. I am not sure whether or not Kant used the concept of 'ego' before Fichte. Regardless, other than Descartes and the other rational idealists (Plato, Spinoza, Leibniz) -- and even including the rational idealists, Fichte was the first philosopher to really focus in on 'the subjectivity of the human ego or self'. I don't know if Fichte has ever been called 'the father of phenomenology' but if he hasn't, perhaps he should.
If 'ego' in German -- up until Freud started to use it -- meant 'self' or 'psyche', then perhaps we should not get too 'freaked out' if we consider both 'the id' and 'the superego' to be separate 'conceptual and/or phenomenological divisions or compartments of the ego' -- or, in two or four words, separate 'ego states' with separate 'ego-functions' that conceptually divide each of these ego states from how ever many separate ego states we may conceptualize....
In this regard, perhaps Freud might have been better served by calling 'the id' -- 'The Narcissistic Ego' or 'The Dionysian Ego', or 'The Hedonistic (Pleasure-Seeking, Pain-Avoiding) Ego'....even though, with the last label, there are 'different types and levels of both pleasure-seeking and pain-avoiding' -- some of which are deemed more 'morally and/or socially and/or legally acceptable' than others, meaning that some may be deemed more 'acceptable' to our internal Superego than others...
However, Freud chose to use the term 'id' which I believe has been translated into English as 'The It' which means that Freud considered the id to be a 'dissociated and/or repressed compart of The Self, The Psyche -- or The Ego....(in The Fichtean sense).
Worded otherwise, the id might be considered to be a 'primitive, uncivil, mainly dissociated compartment of the ego'... But of course, Freud didn't want this potential 'semantic confusion' between 'the id' and 'the ego'.....Regardless, this potential for confusion still stands -- because 'the id' is a particular set of 'ego functions' that are often 'dissociated' from the rest of the ego because they are deemed too 'primitive, too uncivil, too unsocial' to share with ourselves even, let alone anyone in our public world.
Thus, by this type of semantic analysis of the two concepts -- and particularly, the philosophical history of 'the ego' -- Freud was getting it 'backwards' when he stated that 'the ego was a more evolutionarily advanced derivative of the more primitive id'; rather, the id probably could have, and should have, been better conceptualized as the first primitive, evolutionary stage of the ego. In this regard, the id would also have been viewed as our first, most primitive and often uncivil 'ego state' with a particular set of 'self-contained biological and psychological ego functions built around our most demanding internal needs, impulses, drives...'
Now, to be clear, this wasn't Freud's perspective back in 1923 when he created these three concepts of 'id', 'ego', and 'superego'; rather, this is my perspective now looking back on these three concepts now from a different light -- the light that I am shining on them now.
So let me be absolutely clear in this regard: I view the 'id' as being an 'ego-state' involving a particular set of 'ego functions'. So much for 'Classical' Psychoanalysis....as I just turned it upside down like Freud did in 1896.
So with this in mind, and without further ado, let me quickly go over the newest version of my DGB model of the psyche....Let it be clear that this model didn't come out of the workwork or visit me during a dream -- it has been 40 years in the making starting with the first two 'psychology' books I read in 1972; Maltz's 'Psycho-Cybernetics'; and Hayakawa's 'Language in Thought And Action'...
Along the way, this model has picked up influences from Erich Fromm, Alfred Adler, Fritz Perls, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Eric Berne, Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn, Harry Guntrip, Heinz Kohut, Jeffrey Masson, not to mention such noted Western (and one Eastern) philosophers as Anaximander, Lao Tse, Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, Diogenes, Aristotle, Epicurus, Epictetus, Spinoza, Sir Francis Bacon, Locke, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Doestevsky, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida....This model has been a 'slow train coming'....
2/ The DGB Model Of The Psyche
Ba./ The More Conscious Elements of The Personality...
I have broken down Freud's 'superego' into three parts or three 'superego-states':
1. 'The Nurturing Superego' (Transactional Analysis would call this our 'Nurturing, Internalized Parent');
2. The 'Narcissistic Superego' (An internal 'superego-state' we like to go in order to mix 'power and pleasure' or, often more specifically, 'power and sex');
3. 'The Righteous Superego' (Transactional Analysis calls this 'superego state' our 'Critical Parent' -- looking to enforce 'ethical, legal, religious, theoretical, and/or practical rules' of subjectively construed 'good conduct' -- the problem is that 'ethical, legal, religious, theoretical, and/or practical righteousness' can be construed in a million different ways depending on the individual State, Institution, Corporation, Culture, Religion, or Individual...);
4. 'The Shadow-Id-Ego' (That part that burns inside us but we don't generally let loose..except sometimes consciously or subconsciously, in 'allusions to immediacy'...)
5. 'The Central Ego' (That mediates between all other element of the 'whole ego or self', and particularly here between The Shadow-Id Ego and The Personna Ego);
6. 'The Personna Ego'(which communicates with the outside world, usually holding 'Shadow-Id' elements back, or at least partly back for purposes of 'social diplomacy');
A new set of 'ego-states' -- or more precisely, 'underego states' -- has been developed based on 'object relations' studies to contrast against the 'superego states' listed above; and these are:
7. 'The Nurturing Underego' (appeases and pleases our superego states and/or our Central Ego);
8. 'The Narcissistic Underego' (aims to 'wrestle' power, egotism, pleaure, sex...away from the superego states); and
9. 'The Righteous Underego' (aims to wrestle power and righteousness away from the superego states);
Moving into the more subconscious elements of the personality, we have:
C/
10. 'The Dream Weaver' (DW...weaves our dreams, fantasies, artistic creations, and nightmares together while we are awake or sleeping);
11. 'The Transference-Lifestyle Template' (TLT)....our learnings from the past in order to deal better with the present and future than we have in the past...includes the Jungian concepts of 'Anima' and 'Animus' as well as 'Archetypes' in modified forms...as well as memories and learning of all types);
12. 'The Subconscious Shadow-Id Vault' (Bound Subconscious Shadow-Id Energy just forming and starting to consciously articulate itself...);
13. 'Our Terrifying Abyss of Perceived Existential Self-Failure and/or Loss of Self-Identity Combined With A Mixture of Such Emotios as: Panic, Anxiety, Existential Guilt, Moral Guilt, Depression, Grief, Anger, Rage, Hate, Aggression, Violence...';
14. Our Internal Place of Celebratory Self-Achievement and/or Spiritual Renewal based on 'peak moments';
15. Our Genetic, Potential Self or GPS (Our genetic skills, existential potentials, mythological symbols, and whatever else has been passed onto us by genetics/hereditary....in order to best 'actualize' or 'fulfill' our evolving existence...
Now, metaphorically speaking, we have a 'huge 15 room post-Freudian-Jungian-Adlerian-Gestalt... fully renovated mansion' to work inside of as opposed to a 'much smaller 3 room Classic, Victorian Freudian House -- unrenovated and very much in need of 21st century renovation...'.
For some -- or many -- of you, your immediate complaint may be that the model is too big, too cumersome, too convoluted, too complicated, too wordy awkward with the terminology...Yet what can be more awkward than Jung's use of the terms 'anima' and 'animus' -- I still have to look them up to re-establish which one is the 'Father Transference Figure' (FTF) and which one is the Mother Transference Figure (MTF)...I would prefer to use the shortforms 'FTF' and 'MTF' -- or lengthen them out -- and then there should be quicker clarity.
The model can be viewed as basically the same Freudian Classical Model -- surrounded by an Object Relations Model. With more of a 'basement foundation' in terms of our 'transference templates and the transference complexes within these templates' and how to become more aware of what they are.
We can go the 'mythological route' if we find that useful. The 'Nurturing Superego' could be construed as being 'built partly from the archetype images' of 'Gaia' (Mother of The Earth) and/or 'Hera' (Mother of Marriage and Family). In similar fashion, 'The Righteous Superego' could be construed as being built partly from the archetype image of 'Apollo' as our 'Shadow-Id-Ego' could be construed as being built partly from the archetype image of 'Dionysus'. Likewise our 'Narcissistic Ego' could obviously be construed as being built partly from the archetype mythological figure of 'Narcissus'. (Narcissus -- egotism, selfishness, self-centredness -- and Dionysus -- hedonism, pleasure-seeking, sensuality, sexuality, 'addictive bliss' -- generally have a close relationship connection between each other, although not necessarily).
There's also a 'Transactional Analysis' influence, and a 'Guntrip-Object Relations' influence, in terms of the idea of the 'schizoid personality' often erecting a sophisticated network of 'anal ego defenses' in order to fend off the potential 'panic reaction' to the overwhelming awareness of an underlying 'schizoid void or abyss of no self and no self-esteem'. This is based on the premise of 'extreme dissociation' between our 'Social Personna' and our 'Shadow-Id-Ego' (in my terminology) -- our Shadow-Id-Ego representing 'the heart and soul of our personality -- both creatively and destructively' in a way that either brings us into contact and congruence with our GPS -- in terms of a self-perception of our 'meaningful existential self-achievements' and resulting sense of 'self-fulfillment' or 'self-actualization' -- or not. (This Guntrip influence extends also into my Jungian and Frommian 'humanistic-existential' influence.
Anyway, for those of you who are quick to judge, I say....'Be patient.....let's see how the model works itself out....It can always be reduced if parts of it are not particularly useful in a particular case, as the model is full of multiple bi-polarities, and as a therapist, you will likely want to only work on one bi-polarity at a time....like a 'topdog-underdog' (superego-underego) polarity or a 'narcissistic-altruistic' polarity, or a 'personna-shadow' polarity', or a 'nurturing-righteous' polarity or a 'passive-aggressive' polarity, or a 'Dionysian-Apollonian' polarity, or an 'Enlightenment-Romantic' polarity...
Let's see how our new model works compared to the old one...
And then we can make further adjustments to the model as we go along, if need be...
And of course, the model will become easier to work with, the more you understand it, and become familiar with using it, assuming you are open-minded enough to want to give it a try...
We need some case examples and more definitive notes of descriptive clarification and extrapolation...
Coming soon...
-- dgb, January 4th, 5th, 2012,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
