Jacques Lacan Essay

Jacques Lacan Essay

Task 2) Apply Lacan's theory of 'want' (refer to a single film sequence (of your choice) and refer to his theory.)
- Use film terms (technical & visual) to state how the theory is composed in your chosen sequence.

- The Wolf of Wall Street

In this film by Martin Scorsese, he portrays the main character of world renowned icon Jordan Belfort known for his stairway to the top from being a stockbroker. We see a thirst for wealth right from the start, and we see throughout the film his mannerisms and his thought process changes to become more based around money and wealth, the scene i've chosen to focus on portrays jordan to be doing an inspirational last speech for his team, however ends it by saying 'i'm not leaving' as the thirst for wealth becomes too desirable to change.

Lacan's theory summarised

- Jacques Lacan created the idea of the 'lack' and that it causes desires to arise.

- "Desire is a relation to being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of this or that, but the lack of being whereby the being exists."

- This is similar to the Freudian approach of ID acting on the hedonistic lifestyle whereas the Super ego acts on moral principles and what "lack: relates to is the Ego which is in between.

- From a Freudian approach, the "lack" of hedonistic features strive us to act on moral principles and vice versa.

Trailer of the film

The scene 

Notes from the scene

The shot starts off with Jordan hugging his financial advisor who has suggested him to step down due to the increasing laws he is breaking and suggests he will be getting off much easier with only a couple of years time in prison done, however will live the rest of his life lavish due to the millions he has made while at the company. 
medium close up, long duration shots, constantly changes shot types to long shots to show all the people depending on him.

He describes one of his fellow brokers 'Kimmy' as being one of the original 20, beautiful sophisticated, $3000 Armani suits, drives a brand new Mercedes Benz spends winters in bahamas summers in hamptons, 
mouths thank you and cries to show her admiration for jordan

at 3:24 the camera switches to the audience and pans zooming in and out on people clapping and pointing to him to show their appreciation.

Refers to Stratton as his home.

Even though he's come so far and worked his way up, he isn't ready to stop working towards the top,  become blinded by the fact he's the top he's become an inspiration to everyone.

The impression his desire and want gives fuels everyone within the workplace due to the kind and generous impression he gives off.

You can see that his want ultimately grows too heavy because he retorts to the crowd, 'i'm not flipping leaving' 
'the show goes on'
 'this is my home' 
'they're gonna ned a flipping wrecking ball to take me out of here' 
'they're gonna need to send in the national guard of swat team cus i aint going no where'

Essay

The scene I've decided to analyse is from The Wolf of wall street(Martin Scorsese, 2013) I believe this scene is iconic to analyse as the whole film is about how Jordan's greed and desire for more and more money became the ultimate death of his career as a stockbroker and him himself. I've decided to choose this scene as for me it's the turning point of the whole film where he realises his greed was too big too stop. 


The shot starts with Jordan hugging his financial advisor whom in the scene before agreed with Jordan that he would leave the company due to the progressively worse laws he was breaking and suggests he will be getting off easier with only a couple of years in prison done, however he will live the rest of his life lavish due to the millions he had made at the company. He kisses him to establish to the audience the high admiration he has for him, the camera then pans to Donnie who we know as the audience is Jordan's business partner as they started together in the trade, you can see by Donnie's sorrowed long face he doesn't want to let Jordan leave the company as his best friend. Both of these shots are over the shoulder shots from Jordan to show their love and at the same time sorrow for Jordan leaving the company he made his and many others millions of dollars at.
You can see from the background the amount of Jordan's employee's who completely look up to him as a role model, I really like these two comparing shots as you can see how easily his presence can bring a crowd to cheers. How he is able to silence them all with a hand motion as if he is a teacher to a class of children. In this long shot you can see how may people really look up to Jordan as joint-owner of the company and how many people he has inspired with the same money mindset, this shot's also fairly long with no cuts to ensure the realism of jordan's forthcoming speech.










In this picture you can see Jordan talking, the scene cuts back to this mid/close up shot of Jordan talking to emphasise the importance of his speech, his desire has not yet overridden him as he does not know until after the executed speech that he will in turn, not leave due to the family he has created at Stratton. 
He describes one of his fellow brokers 'Kimmy' as being one of the original 20, beautiful sophisticated, wearing $3000 Armani suits, driving a brand new Mercedes Benz, spends winters in Bahamas summers in the Hamptons. He describes her life as this to everyone as it being everyone else in the room's goal in life to also achieve this. Using materialistic items and holidays as being everyone's dreams and hopes shows them as being extremely materialistic, stuck up and shows their desires to be extremely money orientated.
Even though he's come so far and worked his way up, he isn't ready to stop working towards the top, he's become blinded by the fact he's at the top because he's become an inspiration to everyone. The impression his desire and want fuels everyone within the workplace due to the kind and generous impression he gives off. 

After Jordan has delivered the whole speech the camera then pans to his fellow colleagues who are considered as close to him they're shown to create the image of Jordan as the idealistic man and their goals are of Jordan's to one day own Stratton. They're pictured pointing, cheering and mouthing how much they love him to show their complete admiration to their boss.


 This last part from when he shows them that he is not actually leaving the whole crowd goes wild, colleagues jumping and cheering showing their love and support for him as their boss as he's shown care and generosity throughout all their time at Stratton as a fellow stockbroker. 
The long shot shows the reaction of the whole room and how their desires have been made possible from the man standing in front of them, the whole crowd clap to show their complete appreciation for him. The ending scene where they turn into wild animals completed my analysis to show how they've turned inhumane in order to con people out of money and how all their dreams rely on money and working as a stockbroker.

Jacques Lacan Analysis

Jacques Lacan Analysis

In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Lacan argues that the Symbolic order structures the visual field of the Imaginary, which means that it involves a linguistic dimension. If the signifier is the foundation of the Symbolic, the signified and signification are part of the Imaginary order.

Mirror stage

- Initially, Lacan proposed that the mirror stage was part of an infant's development from 6 to 18 months.

- By the early 1950s, Lacan's concept of the mirror stage had evolved: he no longer considered the mirror stage as a moment in the life of the infant, but as representing a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of 'Imaginary order'.

- As Lacan further develops the mirror stage concept, the stress falls less on its historical value and ever more on its structural value. "Historical value" refers to the mental development of the child and "structural value" to the libidinal relationship with the body image.

- It illustrates the conflictual nature of the dual relationship. The dual refers not only to the relation between the Ego and the body, which is always characterised by illusions of similarity and reciprocity, but also to the relation between the imaginary and the real. 

Lack Stage

- Jacques Lacan created the idea of the 'lack' and that it causes desires to arise.

- "Desire is a relation to being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of this or that, but the lack of being whereby the being exists."

- This is similar to the Freudian approach of ID acting on the hedonistic lifestyle whereas the Super ego acts on moral principles and what "lack: relates to is the Ego which is in between.

- From a Freudian approach, the "lack" of hedonistic features strive us to act on moral principles and vice versa.

The Three Lacks Stage

- Lacan distinguishes between three kinds of lack. According to the nature of the object which is lacking

- The first one is Symbolic Castration and its object related is the Imaginary Phallus 

- The second one is Imaginary Frustration and its object related is the Real Breast

- The third kind of lack is Real Privation and it's object related is the Symbolic Phallus

-  The three corresponding agents are the Real Father, the Symbolic Mother, and the imaginary Father. Of these three forms of lack, castration is the most important from the perspective of the cure.

"Lack" link to Freud

The symbolic version of the phallus, a phallic symbol is meant to represent male generative powers. According to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, while male possess a penis, no one can possess the symbolic phallus. Jacques Lacan's Ecrits: A selection includes an essay titled the significance of the Phallus which articulates the difference between "being" and "having" the phallus. Men are positioned as men in so far as they are seen to have the phallus, are seen to "be" the phallus. Women, not having the phallus, are seen to "be" the phallus. The symbolic phallus is the concept of being the ultimate man, and having this is compared to having the divine gift of God.

Henri Wallon

- Lacan's concept of the mirror stage was so strongly inspired by earlier work by psychologist Henri Wallon, who speculated based on observations of animals and humans responding to their reflections in mirrors. Wallon noted that by the age of about six months, human infants typically become very interested and devote much time and effort to exploring the connections between their bodies and their images.

-This could be interpreted biblically as the bible notes that Human are dominant race and we were created in "god's image and likeliness" and we can appreciate the higher qualities whereas animals are 1 dimensional and only require the ability to survive and reproduce.

Lacanian Psychoanalysis

Jacques Lacan rereads Freud using the theoretical methodology developed by structuralism. He seeks to anchor psychoanalysis firmly in culture rather than biology. As he explains, he aim is to turn 'the meaning of Freud's work away from the biological basis he would have wished for it towards the cultural references with which it is shot through' (1989: 116). He takes Freud's developmental structure and articulates it through a critical reading of structuralism to produce a post-structuralist psychoanalysis. Lacan's account of the development of the human 'subject' has had an enormous influence on cultural studies, especially the study of film.

According to Lacan, we are born into a condition of 'lack', and subsequently spend the rest of our lives trying to overcome this condition. 'Lack' is experienced in different ways and as different things, but it is always a non-representable expression of the fundamental condition of being human. The result is an endless quest in search of an imagined moment of plentitude. Lacan figures this as a search for what he terms 'l'object petit a' (the object small other); that which is desired but forever out of reach; a lost object, signifying an imaginary moment in time. Unable to ever take hold of this object, we console ourselves with displacement strategies and substitute objects.

Lacan argues that we make a journey through three determining stages of development. The first is the 'mirror stage', the second is the 'fort-da' game, and the third is the 'Oedipus complex'. Our lives begin in the realm Lacan calls the Real. Here we simply are. In the Real we do not know where we end and were everything else begins. The Real is like Nature before symbolisation (i.e before cultural classification). It is both outside in what we might call 'objective reality' and inside in what Freud calls our Instinctual drives (The ID). The Real is everything before it became meditated by the Symbolic. 

The Mirror Phase and The Imaginary

For Lacan, we are born too soon. We can't walk, talk or see. We begin as broken people. At some point, however we encounter an image of ourselves in a mirror and begin to identify ourselves as a distinct person in the world, separate from others. The image seems to be better than us and is external to ourselves, so this identification is problematic in itself. This process is the Mirror Phase and it allows us to enter into the realm of the Imaginary - with the emphasis being on the idea of the image.

This Mirror Phase can act as a metaphor for what we do in the cinema - and this idea was developed by Christian Metz. We sit in the dark , quietly (Metz clearly doesn't go to your average multiplex), and don't move, whilst watching an image of a person who is much bigger, stronger, more intelligent, braver and more resourceful than ourselves. The mirror of the cinema screen doesn't reflect us back but shows whom we'd like to be. I'm no Brad Pitt, but I wouldn't mind being him(well aside from in Meet Joe Black(1998)).

Notes on film clip.

Life, lust, fantasy.

The second you get what you seek you don't want it, desire supports fantasy

only truly happy when daydreaming about future happiness. Living by your wants will never make your happy. Not measure life by what you've obtained, rationality.

Never satisfied, always want more, always driven by desire of something.

A Passage from Andrew M. Butler's 'The Pocket Essential Film Studies' Book, refers to theory Lacan - pages 75-78.

Lacan was a French Psychoanalyst who felt that Freud had been misinterpreted by his followers. In his return to Freud he was to be influenced by the idea of structuralism, partly the anthropology of Levi-Strauss and the signifier/signified split. It is traditional to point out that Lacan is difficult and that some of the translations of his work are poor, but in the transcripts of his seminars he also emerges as a very witty person.

Lacan solves one criticism that can be aimed at Freud's versions of the Oedipus complex: what bout single parent or same-sex families who seem to be able to produce well-adjusted individuals? The father is here replaced by the phallus - also a signifier for our patriarchal society - and the Name of the Father, which functions with the threat of castration. Anyone - an uncle, a stepfather, a woman, even the mother - can function as the phallus.

The child desires to be desired by the mother but the mother desires the phallus. The child therefore attempts to become a phallus for the mother and to become the centre of her world. The child fails and the result differs according to sex. The male is reassured that even if he's failed now, one day all this will be his, he may yet become the phallus. In the meantime, he has the compensation of language, which Lacan calls the symbolic order. The female cannot fully access the symbolic order (which is patriarchal) and can only console herself wit thoughts of a time before she was castrated ... But this, perhaps, is to get ahead of ourselves.

The Mirror Phase And The Imaginary

For Lacan, we are born too soon. We can't walk, talk or see. We begin as broken people. At some point, however, we encounter an image of ourselves in a mirror and begin to identify ourselves as a distinct person in the world, separate from others. The image seems to be better than us and is external to ourselves, so this identification is problematic in itself. This process is the Mirror Phase and it allows us to enter into the realm of the Imaginary - with the emphasis begin on the idea of the image.

This Mirror Phase can act as a metaphor for what we do in the cinema - and this idea was developed by Christian Metz. We sit in the dark, quietly (Metz clearly doesn't go to your average multiplex), and don't move, whilst watching an image of a person who is much, bigger, stronger, more intelligent, braver and more resourceful than ourselves. The mirror of the cinema screen doesn't reflect us back but shows whom we'd like to be.

The Symbolic Order And The Real
As part of the Mirror Phase the individual becomes anchored in language - he or she is spoken to or spoken of, and is located in time, space and language. This language it so be understood in terms of Saussure's network of signifiers and signifieds, as explored in Chapter 5. Signifiers can be exchanged for other signifiers in an endless chain of signification. 
After the child has gone through the Mirror Phase, the Oedipus complex follows and the child faces the signifier of the phallus or Name Of The Father. The male child emerges rom this and can enter the Symbolic Order - one day he will be associated with the phallus, but in the meantime he must make do with the system of exchange that includes the patriarchal social system. In contrast, the female child can only console herself with the (fake) memory of the time before she was castrated, when she was associated with the phallus, and cannot fully enter into the Symbolic Order.
From a feminist point of view, this is as problematic as Freud's analysis, but some feminists such as Julia Kristeva have argued that women must find their own, non-patriarchal order or language of babble, which she calls the semiotic. Most films follow a masculine structure, a liner narrative which begins with a disruption to the social order, and then various attempt to reinstate it successfully. A feminine structure might be different - see for example the works of Sally Porter and Jane Campion, or even Derek Jarman, where episode outweighs the entire story. 
Aside from the imaginary and the Symbolic, Lacan posits the dimension of the Real, which is that which exists before and beyond language, and cannot be symbolised. The Real is the moment when Tyler Durden is a unified whole before his breakdown, or the flash frames which intervene in the first half of the film, or the moment when you appear to see the edges of the film.

Youtube video's explaining

References
-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan
-) A Passage from 'The Pocket Essential Film Studies' Book, refers to theory Lacan - pages 75-78 (may 2005 Andrew M. Butler)
-) Main information from One Drive powerpoints on Kec Moodle.
-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agTYUU4gTOo (September 2016, 'Then & Now')
-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkAXsR5WINc (September 2009, 'YaleCourses')

Freudian Essay

Freudian Analysis

Task 2) Apply Freud's theory of 'the self' (refer to a single film sequence (of your choice) and refer to the Id, Ego and the Superego.)
- Use film terms (technical & visual) to state how the theory is composed in your chosen sequence.

- Gothika

For the Freudian Analysis I focussed on the film Gothika, which in summary is a psychiatrist who awakens as a patient in the mental institution she works in, with no memory of the murder she's accused of committing. As she tries to regain her memory, a vengeful spirit manipulates her.

The Trailer of the film.

Id:
starts off as: Rachel Parsons
secretly: Dr. Doug Grey
becomes: Sheriff Ryan

Ego: Dr Miranda Grey

Supergo: Dr Pete Graham
secretly: Rachel Parsons

The scene

Notes from video 

(with pictures to represent my connotations)
starts from: 35:50 - 40:55
light placed above miranda. 
Low Key lighting, natural lighting coming from a window source and two singular light bulbs
Black man constantly within the light showing his good intentions 

lightbulbs over Pete and miranda head when Pete and sheriff walking in

Pov shot from sheriff high angle to look down on miranda

Pete in the back pull focus, so he's always there over her shoulder.

slightly central angle as he is focused from an over the shoulder shot we can see he is the one in the more powerful position.

miranda on her own to visualise vulnerability and aloneness. - juxtaposed by not alone

Scene gets faster and faster as the accusations and the tension rises shots get quicker and quicker 

Dr Pete graham has the lightbulb placed directly above his head, showing his position in the scene as the superego. He defends Miranda despite no evidence as she has never pursued behaviour or done anything like this before - also the secret affair conspiracy they were going to have - but never actually did.

Camera constantly moving as if were her mind going round and round..

I need her to look me in the eye and tell me why she did it, standing up to influence and establish his power

Dr Pete walks into the scene 'thats enough' trying to resolve and defuse the situation 
Sheriff ' you wanna see some shock treatment look at that'
Miranda don't look at them Pete

miranda looks even when influenced by superego not to.
Close up of miranda zooming in showing her and the audience frustration as we are as confused as her.

The hand thats on her back by doctor Pete graham shows his consideration for her also the sheriff is placed on the right hand side as if on the edge of society and shown in power, looking down on miranda who is placed central.

Dr Pete tries to calm her Sheriff pictured unbothered and confused but standing up and tall and wears his badge proud

Essay

In my chosen film, it portrays a psychiatrist who becomes a patient in the mental institute in which she works in. 

There is a particular long shot close to the beginning of the scene that suggests right from the off the intentions of each man. There are lightbulbs intentionally placed over heads of Miranda and Pete however not over the Sheriff showing him in darker light. Before the Sheriff sits, there is a quick point of view shot from the sheriff at high angle to look down on miranda as he is in a position of power against her, reflecting his Id.

In the first clip the Sheriff is shown to be full with anger and rage, we see him from over the shoulder shots from behind miranda connoting his distance from her mentally and psychically, when the shots are reversed to show Miranda they are close up which initially distinguishes the audiences closeness to Miranda compared to the distance they feel with the Sheriff. In the background of the shot we identify Pete to be the superego, the shot is composed completely to make Pete look like the 'angel on her shoulder' as if he is literally 'in the back of her mind' to try and guide her in case she makes any mistakes. Despite the situation in which Miranda has been put in she remains calm and composed which we categorise her now as the Ego. 

The shot pans around them slowly to show both reactions and also the long table in between them to show the distance between them. The Sherif suddenly switches in the sentence 'why did you do it?' which classify's him as being the Id, uncontrollable and indistinctive. His urges are unruly as he switches in almost 20 seconds. From this single accusation, the tone of the film changes, the shots become more and more personal (closer) the shot durations become faster and faster as the tension is building up.
Pete calls out on the Sheriffs behaviour 'thats enough' to try control him in a way but the Id cannot be controlled once it has that mentality to want, in this case it's the Sheriff's want to find out why Miranda killed her husband -his best friend. 
Miranda is shown through close ups as the ego we the audience align with her as she is a woman in a vulnerable state. Some close ups show the light from the windows reflecting on her face to show the chiaroscuro effect, which we see the light in her but also the evil. The
camera constantly panning around the table mimicking Miranda's mind going round and round as she has no answers for the Id and is defenceless. We see the Id(Sheriff) stand up as if he is in a position of authority and the camera angles slightly change to show again how he is looking down on Miranda to establish his dominance over her, Pete now becomes a important device in this scene as he is resembling significant connotations of the superego, trying to keep between the Id and Ego by resolving the situation. Pete retorts 'you said no shock treatment' in a way of trying to control the Id, however the Sheriff responds by retorting his words and getting photos from the crime scene of Doug (Miranda's late husband) cut up.
The superego in this scene (Pete) replies saying 'stop it'. 'what are you doing', 'Miranda don't look at them', this is repeated few times, trying to control the ego's urges, nevertheless even when influenced not to by the superego, her Id takes over and she looks.
The scene ends with Pete trying to console Miranda as she is manic with range and disturbed, as the superego tries to do, the Id who has finished his part in trying to rile the ego up, stands and is shown in an establishing shot standing calm and collected as he has done his job as the Id.

Freudian Analysis

Freudian Analysis

Task 1) Explain Freud's theory of 'the self' (use images and refer to the Id, ego and Superego.)


-The id is the 'horse'. It is the undeveloped indistinctive part of our brain, responsible for the urger and desires we try to repress.

-The ego is the 'driver' of the chariot, and the rational part of our brain. It is able to guide the id, but never has full control - just as the driver is aware that if the horse wants to go in a different direction, he is ultimately powerless to stop it.

-The superego is the chariot driver's father, sitting behind him, pointing out his mistakes. It is the part of our brain responsible for criticism and moralising.

"Film operates on much the same principle... film speaks directly to the unconscious. The language of dreams is one that is not an abstract form of communication such as narrative, but is the one that is filled with images they carry hidden meanings on latent level. Just so is the language of film organised so that only a part of the film is communicated in a narrative form - sound and images make up the majority of the effect" (Kluge, 1999).

This diagram is the perfect example of the id, ego and the superego.

Therefore, the nature that is film can be, to a degree, deconstructed in order to unveil a universal understanding of our thoughts and behaviours that through identification, contributed towards our enjoyment of the film as it acts as a release mechanism of these id included impulses.

Freudian Analysis of each term

The Id : The most primitive drive, concerned only with fulfilling pleasure. Has sometimes been referred to as the irrational and emotional part of the mind. It is often regarded as being selfish, because it's concerned only with its own self-satisfaction. Babies and young children are often used as examples because they're usually driven by the pleasure and instant gratification principles. Key word : want.

The Ego : Based on the reality principle. The ego is capable of understanding that one's own desires may vary for people around (reality), and is willing to make this consideration. The ego tries to meet the basic needs of the id but also takes into account the real world. The ego understands that actions have effects, whether positive or negative, and tries to balance out thinking before carrying out decisions/actions. Key word : balance.

Superego : based on moral principles instilled by rearing and moral/ethical restraints placed upon by caregivers. The superego encompasses an individual's ideals, goals, and conscience as well as society's. The superego is concerned with what others will think and stands in opposition to the id. The superego acts to perfect and civilise our behaviour. key words : morals, compromise.

More Examples

Film : Batman the Dark Knight Rises.

- The Id - The joker (Unconscious Desires/The 'repressed' - set free without conscience).

- The Ego - Bruce Wayne (The conscious)

- The Superego - Alfred (Father figure/morals/guidance)


- Batman can be found between The Id and The Ego (one half Ego & one half Id).

- The Superego will regulate 'pleasure', it will censor the Id, but will also license it.

- Freud explained that his famous model for the brain function in the 1927 publication, The Ego, and the Id. Since then, the theory has been explained with reference to a horse and chariot.

Film : Fight Club

- The Id - Tyler Durden (Unconscious Desires/The 'repressed' - set free without conscience).
- The Ego - The narrator (The conscious/IKEA lifestyle - comfortable)
- The Superego - Initially : 'The Self-help groups'
                          Then : 'The Fight Clubs'
                          Then : 'Project Mayhem'
The Superego will regulate 'pleasure', it will censor the Id, but it will also licence it.

- Freud explained that his famous model for the brain function in the 1927 publication, The Ego, and the Id. Since then, the theory has been explained with reference to a horse and chariot.

Analytical Approach:

- Freudian analysis can be used as a 'framework' to explain character motivations.

- Film/s explore/s the relationship between the 3 components of 'the self' - Id/Ego/Superego

A Passage from Andrew M. Butler's 'The Pocket Essential Film Studies' Book, refers to Freud theory 
Pages 72-73.

'Id, Ego And Superego'

In the 1920's Freud began to write of a three-part structure to the mind, although it had at least five parts. There was the conscious Perception System, the Preconscious , consisting of things forgotten, the Ego (part preconscious, part unconscious), the entirely unconscious Id, and 'between' the last two, the Superego.
The Id is formed from the desires of the individual and can be seen in the untrammelled behaviour of Tyler Durden - who steals, screws and hurts what he wants. When he has a desire he acts upon it, even if this causes pain or inconvenience to others. This should be contrasted with the Ego as represented by the narrator, who noticeably fails to take advantage of Marla when he is examining her breasts for cancer, who has to be cajoled into hitting Tyler and who has reasonably comfortable lifestyle courtesy of the IKEA catalogue. Between the two of them, presumably is the real Tyler Durden, who has been traumatised by some event into having a split personality - one half entirely Ego, the other Id.

This leaves the Superego to account for, which is formed out of the wreckage of the Oedipus complex and is created by interjecting patriarchal power into the psyche. The Superego is the regulator of pleasure - it will censor the Id, but it will also license it. In Fight Club the Superego occurs in a number of forms; initially the self-help groups (which allow acts of aggression) and Project Mayhem. The Superego may also be identified with the police, who enters the narrative at various moments of crisis.'

Psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behaviour is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego

Freud has been influential in two related, but distinct ways. He simultaneously developed a theory of the human mind and human behaviour, and a clinical technique for helping unhappy (i.e. neurotic) people.

More information

According to Sigmund Freud, human personality is complex and has more than a single component. In his famous psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements. These three elements of personality - known as the id, the ego, and the superego - work together to create complex human behaviours.

Each component not only adds its own unique contribution to personality, but all three elements interact in ways that have a powerful influence on each individual. Each of these three elements of personality emerges at different points in life.

The Id

-The Id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
-This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes the instinctive and primitive behaviours.
-According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality.

-According to Freud's theory, certain aspects of your personality are more primal and might pressure you to act upon your most basic urges. Other parts of your personality work to counteract these urges and strive to make you conform to the demands of reality.
The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate attempt to eat or drink.

The Id is very important in early life because it ensures that an infant's needs are met. If the infant is hungry or uncomfortable, he or she will cry until the demands of the id are satisfied. Because young infants are ruled entirely by the id, there is no reasoning with them when these needs demand satisfaction. Imagine trying to convince a baby to wait until lunchtime to eat his meal. Instead, the id requires immediate satisfaction, and because the other components of personality are not yet present, the infant will cry until these needs are fulfilled.

However, immediately fulfilling these needs is not always realistic or even possible. If we were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find ourselves grabbing the things that we want out of other people's hands to satisfy our own cravings.

This sort of behaviour would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable. According to Freud, the id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle through the use of primary process thinking, which involves forming a mental image of the desired object as a way of satisfying the need.

The Ego

-The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing 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.
-The ego functions in both the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.

Although people eventually learn to control the id, this part of personality remains the same infantile, primal force all throughout life. It is the development of the ego and the superego tat allows people to control the id's basic instincts and act in ways that are both realistic and socially acceptable.

Ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs and costs and benefit of action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process a delayed gratification - the ego will eventually allow the behaviour, but only in the appropriate time and place.

Freud compared the id to a horse and the ego to the horse's rider. The horse provides the power and motion, yet the rider provides direction and guidance. Without its rider, the horse may simply wander whatever it wished and do whatever it pleased. The rider instead gives the horse directions and commands to guide it in the direction he or she wishes to go.

The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through the us of secondary process thinking, in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary process.

For example, imagine that you re stuck in a long meeting at work. You find yourself growing increasingly hungry as the meeting drags on. While the id might compel you to jump up from your seat and rush to the break room for a snack, the ego guides you to sit quietly and wait for the meeting to end. Instead of acting upon the primal urges of the id, you spend the rest of the meeting imagining yourself eating a cheeseburger. Once the meeting is finally over, you can seek out the object you were imagining and satisfy the demands of the id in a realistic and appropriate manner.

The Superego

The last component of personality to develop is the superego.
The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalised moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society - our sense of right and wrong.
The superego provides guidelines for making judgements.
According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.

There are two parts of the superego:
The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviour that the ego aspires to.
The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviours are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse.

The superego acs perfect and civilise our behaviour. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious.

The interaction of the Id, Ego and Superego

When talking about the id, the ego and the superego, it is important to remember that these are three totally separate entities with clearly defined boundaries. These aspects of personality are dynamic and always interacting with a person to influence an individual's overall personality and behaviour.
With so many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the id, ego and superego. Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego's ability ti function despite these duel-ing forces. A person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage these pressures, while those with too much or too little ego strength can become too unyielding or too disrupting.

What happens if there is an imbalance?
According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id, the ego and the superego.
If the ego is adequately moderate between the demands of reality, the id, and the superego, a healthy and well-adjusted personality emerges. Freud believed that an imbalance between these elements would lead to a maladaptive personality. An individual with an overly dominant id, for example, might become impulsive, uncontrollable, or even criminal. The individual acts upon his or her most basic urges with no concern for whether the behaviour is appropriate, acceptable, or legal.

An overlay dominant superego, on the other hand, might lead to a personality that is extremely moralistic and judgemental. This person may be unable to accept anything or anyone that he or she perceives as "bad" or "immoral".

The Meditating Ego

The id, ego, and superego interact constantly. Ultimately, though, it’s the ego that serves as the mediator between the id, the superego, and reality. The ego must determine how to meet the needs of the id, while upholding social reality and the moral standards of the superego.

A healthy personality is the result of a balance between the id, ego, and superego. A lack of balance leads to difficulties. If a person’s id dominates their personality, they may act on their impulses without considering the rules of society. This can cause them to spin out of control and even lead to legal troubles. If the superego dominates, the person can become rigidly moralistic, negatively judging anyone who doesn’t meet their standards. Finally if the ego becomes dominant, it can lead to an individual who is so tied to the rules and norms of society that they become inflexible, unable to deal with change, and incapable of coming to a personal concept of right and wrong

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REFERENCES
-) Most of the facts are from a Powerpoint from John Wright on the HNC one drive folder.

-) https://www.psychologistworld.com › psychologists › sigmund-freudhttps://www.simplypsychology.org › psychosexual
-) A Passage from Andrew M. Butler's 'The Pocket Essential Film Studies' Book, refers to Freud theory Pages 72-73.
-) https://www.verywellmind.com/the-id-ego-and-superego-2795951
-) https://www.thoughtco.com/id-ego-and-superego-4582342
-) https://study.com/academy/lesson/id-ego-and-superego.html
-) https://www.dummies.com/education/psychology/understanding-the-id-ego-and-superego-in-psychology/
-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRtItnRRV1M&t=56s
-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRZQGFYpZY
-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC7KNAyDt4I