The Lady With The Pet Dog Analysis

The epic poem, “The Iliad,” written by the Greek poet Homer, contains many occurrences of the psychologist Freud’s approach of the three systems of Superego, Id, and Ego. Superego, the little angel on one’s shoulder, is considered to be the voice of our moral compass (conscience) that speaks from the unconscious mind on the difference between real and ideal situations. It strives for perfection with tracking what we ought to behave like. Id, opposite to Superego, is the little devil on the other side of one’s shoulder. Its unconscious energy strives to satisfy the basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress. To balance these two systems, the Ego becomes the mediator and compromiser to keep both content. One’s Ego focuses on responses to the real world, stemming from the reality principle. It contains our partly conscious perceptions, thoughts, judgements, and memories.

The unconscious mind houses the preconscious, a small section that houses material that is non-threatening, and easily brought to mind. But deeper in the unconscious mind are the instinctual drives, the wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are kept hidden from out conscious selves because of the conflicts and pain they would cause if they were brought to bear every day. Psychoanalytic personality theory tells us that the personality consists of three separate, but forever intermingling elements, id, ego, and superego. The id section of a personality is by far the largest, the only section that we are born with, and the section that contains the unconscious thoughts, it is raw, unorganized, and from the time of birth it tries to reduce tension caused by our primary drives. The ego, a section that develops soon after birth, balances the instinctual desires of the id and the realities of the outside world. Last of course is the superego, the final personality structure that is developed in childhood, and represent the rights and wrongs of society, contained within the superego is the conscience, the part of us that prevents us from behaving in a morally deplorable way and is responsible for guilt. Psychoanalytic personality theory is not without its virtues; Freud’s proposed five psychosexual stages – oral, anal, phallic-oedipal, latency and genital – are all supported in life.

The unconscious contains the instincts, those driving force for all human behavior. In Freud’s later writing he revised the conscious- unconscious distinction and came up with the id, ego and superego. The id is the unconscious, the least accessible part of the personality. The id includes the sex and aggressive instincts. Freud wrote, “We call it…a cauldron full of seething excitations. [The id] knows no judgments of value, no good and evil, no morality” (Freud, 1933, p 74). The id seeks immediate satisfaction without regard for the circumstances of reality. The id operates under the pleasure-seeking principal. For example, a newborn’s mind consists only of the id, which is responsible for the satisfaction of physical desires. The id, represents a human being’s most primitive desires, and a person ruled only by the id would do everything strictly for his or her own pleasure, breaking societal norms in the process and risking punishment. (SparkNotes, 2007)

Freud strategized that the personality was composed of three elements; the id, ego, and superego. The id is the component of personality that is present from birth, and is exclusively unconscious. “According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality” (Cherry,1). On the other hand, the ego is the element of the personality that is responsible with reality. “According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world” (Cherry, 1). It

In Joyce Carol Oates’ story entitled “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” the main character Anna fits Sigmund Freud’s definition of neurotic: “the ego and id become involved in an internal battle Freud calls neurosis” (Bressler 130). In addition to the ego and id, Anna’s superego also comes into play within her struggle. Throughout Oates’ story, the reader sees Anna’s internal conflict between the id, which dominates her personality, the ego, and the superego, which results in her neurosis. Oates makes it clear that the most dominant component of Anna’s psyche is the id, as she did not have the ability to resist her impulsive desires.

The Psychodynamic Approach was first approach by Sigmund Freud; he dealt with the understanding that personality came from our unconscious state of mind. And that unconscious state interacted to determine our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings (Bernstein, 425). Freud also created the psychoanalytical theory stating that personality led the way to handling psychological disorders. He divided personality into three main topics; which are the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the basis of each human being’s instincts we are all born with. It is the immediate wants I crave; it may show more selfish side. The ego is the part that subdues the id and calms it down. It allows me to think and realize certain actions may upset someone else around me. The superego is

Freud attempted to explain how the unconscious functions by dividing it into three structures, the id, ego, and superego. The id holds our primitive instincts that demand immediate gratification, because it operates on the pleasure principle (McLeod, 2010). Similarly, the ego also seeks pleasure. However, instead of seeking immediate gratification, the ego acts realistically in order to avoid potentially negative consequences that may arise. On the other hand, our superego represents our conscious. It encompasses the morals and values we learn by society and our parents as we go through the stages of

Freud believed that the human personality consisted of three interworking parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, the largest part of the mind, is related to desires and impulses and is the main source of basic biological needs. The ego is related to reasoning and is the conscious, rational part of the personality; it monitors behavior in order to satisfy basic desires without suffering negative consequences (Boundless.com). The superego, or conscience, develops through interactions with others (mainly parents) who want the child to conform to the norms of society (Boundless.com). Freud believed that our adult lives were shaped by childhood experiences, meaning that if children did not receive the proper nurturing, that the child would be stuck in that stage or behaviors

Freud’s structural and topographical model of personality, revolves around the id, ego and superego (McLeod, 2008). As a newborn, I was born with my id which allowed me to get my basic needs met. As an infant, I would cry if I was hungry or tired or just wanted to be held, I did not think of anyone else. The second part of my personality started around when I was three years old, and according to Freud this is when I began to develop my ego. An example of this would be if I was hungry I would want to satisfy my id, but at the

In Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” the main character, Anna, represents the “Id, Ego, and Superego” characteristics defined by Sigmund Freud. Anna is in a battle with her morals (Superego) and feelings (Id), being confined to a marriage and detesting her affair. Because Anna is forced to balance a failing marriage, and loving her husband, while also loving a man who’s not her husband, and not loving him because she can’t, builds stress inside her and leads to an increase in rash desires and actions.

Freud described humans as having three essential components that built personality. The three components were the id, the ego, and the superego. He described the id, as being what governed an infant’s drive to overcome their primitive biological desires. According to his theory infants had no other goal than to release the tension that built up when their

There are three parts to Freud’s theory which are id, ego and superego. Anna’s character goes through the ID phase of Freud’s theory, which states that “the ID, the largest portion of the mind, is the source of basic, biological needs and desires” (Berk,2014, p.12). In the movie Anna’s ID is arising from the frustration of having to tend to all of Kate’s medical needs in order to save her. In the Ego aspect of Freud’s development, it is stated that this portion faces increasingly complex of tasks that reconcile the demands of the ID. “The doctors started taking things from her the moment she was born.

Identify one strength and one weakness of Freud’s concept of the ego, id and superego in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour.

Most every person you or I will ever meet have at least once has sat down and thought about who they are. Not just how they appear to those around them, but dove beneath the surface to what even we do not know about ourselves. I would liken who I am to Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, as my personality is unbalanced. Of the three components of my personality the Id is usually the strongest component but, yet in any given moment the strength of a component could change dramatically. When I need to mind the needs of others while still satisfying my own, my ego becomes the dominant component. My superego often takes over the dominant role when I am in trouble, in need of a conscience or something demands my full respect. I found some resonance when reading the Hemingway classic “Hills like White Elephants” and in a much stronger way to elements of the short story “The Hounds of Fate” by Saki.

Part of Freud’s theory was that the Id, Ego and Super Ego were in constant conflict with each other. It involves the Id wanting immediate satisfaction and the super ego who wants the id/person to behave leaving the ego constantly trying to resolve the issue.