Freud

• 'conscience as an aspect of the super-ego'
• person's development determined by childhood events
• What are the three elements of the mind?

  1. Id
  2. Ego
  3. Super-ego
• What is the id?

  • the unconscious and instinctive part of the personality at the level of its basic physical and emotional needs
  • contains eros - the instinct for love, sexuality and satisfaction
  • contains thanatos - the drive for aggression, violence and death
• What is the ego?

  • the rational self which mediates between the desires of the id and what the world lets us have
• What is the super-ego?

  • the controlling, restraining self
  • develops around the age of 3-5
  • controls impulses that can be damaging to society (such as eros and Thanatos)
• Conscience an important role in developing a person's morality
• Acts as an 'inner parent'
• Part of the super-ego that judges and threatens with punishment (functional part)
• What is the conscience nothing more than?

  • a left-over expression of our childhood training
  • an expression of the wishes of one's parents
• If God does figure in the conscience:

  • only another control mechanism
  • biggest guilt-trip of all
• View reduces the value of the conscience
• An active conscience = a guilty conscience