Running head: CRITICAL ESSAY 1

Freud and Jung Structures of Psyche

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Freud Psyche Structure

Freud identified that id, ego, and superego functioned through the three levels of

awareness in the human mind (Clements, & Talmor, 2016). The three levels are conscious,

unconscious, and preconscious.

Conscious

The conscious mind comprises of what an individual is aware of at any specific point and

time. According to Freud, it consists of what someone is thinking about at that particular

moment, regardless of whether it is in the front or at the back of the mind. Generally, if someone

is aware of something, then it is in his/ her conscious mind.

Preconscious

The preconscious mind consists of the information that is just underneath the surface of

awareness or directly the information that can be known. It can be easily retrieved and brought to

the conscious mind and is often identified as memory or recollection (Clements, & Talmor,

2016). For instance, when an individual thinks about the time taken from the workplace to home,

the information is integrated into the preconscious mind.

Unconscious

The unconscious mind comprises thoughts, memories, and desires buried deep inside in

an individual, which are below the conscious awareness. Although an individual is not aware of

the thoughts and the memories, they present a significant influence on their behavior. They

include fears, violent motives, immoral urges, irrational wishes, unacceptable sexual desires,

selfish needs, and shameful experiences.

Id
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It is a primitive and instinctive element of personality. It comprises all the inherited

components and aggressive instincts. The id is the impulsive and unconscious section of the

human psyche, which retorts directly and instantly to the basic wishes, needs, and desires. The id

remains functional throughout an individual's life, and it is neither affected by time nor

experience as it is excluded from the external world. It is also not influenced by reality, logic, or

day-to-day activities because it functions within the unconscious mind. Freud's pleasure principle

suggested that every wishful thought should be fulfilled instantly regardless of the consequences

(Clements, & Talmor, 2016). After achieving the id, demand individuals experience pressure,

and when denied, an individual experiences tension.

Superego

Superego accommodates the values, and the moral values of society obtained from

parents. It focuses on two systems, namely the conscious and the ideal self. The superego panels

the ids impulses, specifically those outlawed by society, such as aggression and sex. Moreover, it

also persuades the ego to shift to moralistic goals rather than the real ones to strive for perfection.

Ego

According to Freud, the ego is the section of the id that can be adjusted by the direct

influence of the external world. It mediates between the unrealistic id and the external world

(Clements, & Talmor, 2016). The ego functions as the decision making part of the personality. It

works under the reality principle, presenting the methods of fulfilling the demands of the id. The

ego usually presents a compromising or postponing fulfillment to prevent negative

consequences. The ego protects the whole psyche, including health, safety, and sanity which are

in contact with the external world.

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Jung’s Structure of psyche

According to Jung, the Structure of psyche was divided into unconscious and conscious,

which coincided with Freud’s theory on the Structure of psyche. The conscious part comprised

of the Ego and the persona, while the unconscious part contained the Shadow, Anima and

Animus, and other complexes. Jung believed that archetypes were people’s behaviors and

personalities. He divided these archetypes into three core constituents, which included: the Ego,

the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious (Costello, 2019). The personal

unconscious was described to contain memories, including the suppressed ones. And he believed

the unconscious part served as a form of the psychological inheritance. These archetypes were

inherited in a similar way inherent patterns of behavior are inherited. Different components of

the Structure of Jung’s theory are discussed below.

The Persona

As stated earlier, the persona is part of the conscious part, and it shows how different

individuals present themselves to the world. As the name suggests, the persona signifies the

social masks different individuals wear during several circumstances and groups. This mainly

works to shield the negative image presented by the Ego.

The Shadow

The shadow is the unconscious part, and it consists of the life instincts and sex. This

archetype represents an individual’s weaknesses, the desires, the shortcomings, and different

ideas. The shadow represents all of the things which can be said to be acceptable to society and

the behaviors acceptable by personal morals and values. Jung suggested that the shadow can

appear in dreams and also in visions.

The Anima/ Animus

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This is part of the unconscious part of the Structure of psyche; it used as a representation

of true self. Anima is considered as the feminine image in the male psyche, while Animus is the

masculine image in the female psyche. Animus/Anima is not interested in how an individual’s

image is created to others and can be a source of communication with the collective unconscious.

The Ego

In Jung’s Structure of psyche, the Ego represented the conscious part of the mind. This

archetype comprised the emotions, the thoughts, and memories in the brain with which an

individual is aware. The Ego mainly contributes to the feelings of identity and also continuity

experienced. Jung made these suggestions because he believed that the human brain has intrinsic

characteristics due to the evolution from the ancestral past.

Similarity between Jung and Freud Psyche Structures

Jung and Freud had similarities in the belief of the unconscious playing an essential role

in human life. They both had a feeling that there were important aspects of the unconscious that

affected the human personalities the conscious. They also believed in the three parts of the

human brain and the subconscious ideas, the conscious mind as elaborated more below.

Freud believed that the unconscious human brain acted as a bag that the people Carried

All the time with filled natural emotions and ideas repressed. The bag was responsible for the

people's actions, especially when they are in the society because they controlled their morality.

The schema was the center of human life and existence, while the unconscious part of the braid

developed from the ego, superego, and id interaction. The ego helps in meeting the demands of

id in the society, which constitutes repression. Similarly, Jung believed the unconscious part of

the brain was like a vast ocean with no end and ego, and the conscious was like a dim lamp
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shining in small grimy. The little grimly lit light is what illuminate s the reality in the mind of the

human being when conscious but while the unconscious is the real center of the human nature

since it controls human life and existence. He unconsciously holds a lot of the personal

complexity and standards that are collective and a greater unknown world (Colacicchi, 2019).

The schema makes as much of what is made from the unconscious and the conscious to enable a

person to become whole and to develop the individual.

Both Freud and Jung had a similarity in their explanation of the individual psyche and a

description of the dreams. They all agreed that the dreams hosts then feeling of the feelings and

the thoughts arising from the desire to which are intolerable or painful the conscious

responsiveness. This enabled Jung to develop the ideas of the complex centers that control the

life of the human being in many diverse ways. This resulted in a more structured way of

understanding the individual nature of the human being unconscious expression through the

psychoanalysis method and hence the adoption of the term in modern psychology.

Psychic differences

The unconscious mind

The main disagreement between Jung and Fraud was the difference between the concepts

on the conceptions and unconscious.

Freud’s Stand

Fluid suggested that the unconscious mind was the core of the suppressed feelings, upsetting

memories, and the significant pushes of gender and violence. Freud suggested that this was a

storage facility for unseen sexual needs. He additionally adds that the effect leads to neuroses or
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what is referred to as mental illness. Freud points out that the thoughts of one revolves around

three structures, the id, the ego, and the superego (Cherry, 2016). The id is associated with the

formation of unconscious drives, especially sex. The ego is generally about the conscious

perception, memories, and what people think, enabling one to deal with reality efficiently. The

superego attempts to link the drives of the id via socially acceptable behaviors.

Jung’s Stand

The human psyche similarly was divided into three parts. The difference arises because

Jung divides the unconscious into the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective

unconscious. According to Jung, the conscious is the ego; the personal unconscious is pointed

out as the memories which generally include the recalled and suppressed memories.

Additionally, Junk suggests that the psyche is our experiences as classes or understanding that

human is born with.

Dreams:

Freud’s Stand

According to Freud, an individual can be learned by interpreting their dreams. He

suggested that the most profound needs that humans have are not acted upon when one is not

awake. According to Freud, the reason behind this is because most discerning needs are the

`considerations of reality, the ego, and morality, the superego. Contrary to sleep, the restraining

forces are made to be weak, and one might experience our desire through dreams. Freud

additionally had believes that our dreams can access anxiety or suppressed, which provokes the

thoughts most significantly the sexually repressed needs (Niaz, Stanikzai, & Sahibzada, 2019).

He suggested that the infuriating feelings cannot be entertained directly due to fear of anxiety

and embarrassment.
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Jung’s Stand

According to Jung as well, he believed that dream evaluation allowed a window in the

unconscious brain. Contrary to Freud, Jung had no belief that the information in the dreams was

indispensable sexual or disguising the true meaning (Zhang, 2020). The difference arises where

Jung’s ideas focused mostly on symbolic imagery. Jung believed that dream meaning could be

different in consideration of the dreamers’ association.

Relationship between Freud and Jung began in the year 1906 from the fact that they were

both psychiatrists. They exchanged their publications, but Jung had some discomfort with Freud,

who was an atheist. However, the relationship between the two developed and became intense

after the second meeting since they both had creativity, was imaginative, highly intelligent, and

was charismatic. Freud took Jung as his successor and referred him as his son, while Jung

referred Freud as a smart person. Therefore, this made Freud dependent on Jung's letters and

could assault him in case of a delay. The relationship between the two, at times, turning to be full

of anxieties where there was no period where they were seen to be either stable or happy. These

differences could predict their possibilities to break up. The relationship between the two broke

up entirely in the year 1913, where the two psychiatrists continued to hate each other and never

wished to ever meet again for the rest of their lives.

The cause of this breakup was brought about sex with religion, where Jung could say that

Freud's take on sex was spiritual. Freud, at this time, regarded himself as a militant atheist. The

difference becomes intense because it felt hard to assume his views on religion and Christianity.

Jung holds to Christianity because his position with Christianity views was hereditary. On the

other hand, Freud could not change his views on sexuality and remained steadfast, maintaining
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his take on psychological theories on the sexual cores. These differences could be seen as early

as when Jung wrote his first letter to Freud taking a different dimension from Freud's view on

psychopathology due to sexual factors. In reply to Jung's message, Freud could acknowledge

their differences in opinion and indicated that he hopes that they could later agree. Freud did not

leave his take and continued to elaborate on religious phenomena by using psychoanalysis,

which Jung kept disagreeing with.

This unsettling differences brought finally to the breaking of the strong bond between the

two psychiatrists and finally being apart. Freud's disagreements with Jung's pious interest on

religion and mysticisms and expressions of collective unconsciousness made respond to Jung's

letter by writing a nasty break up letter to Jung in the year 1913. The letter's main message was

that Freud had abandoned his relationship with Jung completely.

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References

Cherry, K. (2016). The Id, Ego and Superego: The Structural Model of Personality. About. com.

Clements, C. J., & Talmor, U. (2016). Toward a transpersonal structure of the psyche.

Colacicchi, G. (2019). A Freudian’s Journey into Jung’s World.

Costello, M. S. (2019). Lu Xun and Jung’s Model of the Psyche.

Niaz, A., Stanikzai, S. M., & Sahibzada, J. (2019). Review of Freud’s Psychoanalysis Approach

to Literary Studies. American International Journal of Social Science Research, 4(2), 35-

44.

Zhang, S. (2020, April). Psychoanalysis: The Influence of Freud’s Theory in Personality

Psychology. In International Conference on Mental Health and Humanities Education

(ICMHHE 2020) (pp. 229-232). Atlantis Press.