Siegmun Freud, the Austrian Neurologist (1856 -1939), defined the human psyche in terms of the Id, the Ego, and the Super-Ego. The Id is our natural yearning, the Super-Ego is social norms and values, and the Ego is our conscious ability to satisfy the desires of the Id, whilst operating within the boundaries of the Super-Ego. It could be suggested that we find ourselves dancing on a continuum between uncontained desire and rigid conformity, hence the title of my blog. Our health and wellness as individuals and collectively depend upon us finding the right balance for our Id and Super Ego needs to coexist. Unfortunately, due to the massive rate of civilization, urbanization, and technological advancements, we are dominated by the Super Ego, and our Id appears to have gone underground. Hence, the high levels of conflict, dysfunction, and disease we see in the world today, making us a species in crisis. It is time to revisit our understanding of duty and desire to prevent the complete destruction of humanity.
As the world’s human population has grown due to our inherent adaptability and ingenuity, we have organized ourselves into various social groupings. These originally consisted of hunter-gatherer clans, which later became sedentary settlements living off the land, followed by feudal landowners and serfs, principalities, kingdoms, and finally nation states. To govern these ever-larger groupings, religious, legal, and political systems developed to delineate, inculcate, and administer social norms and values. This inevitable civilizing of humans has taken us from the more natural extended family, personal religion, and informal education of village and tribe to the current and somewhat unnatural nuclear family, organized religion, and formal education. In the process, the pressure from the Super-Ego to meet certain social norms and values has grown exponentially, whilst our connection to the Id, and our natural yearnings, has declined exponentially.
In the nature versus nurture debate, B F Skinner’s (1904 -1990) Behaviorist view that we are born blank canvasses who can be conditioned into devils or saints would suggest that nurture and environment wins. Whilst I concur, I am also of the view that our Id, determined by our nature and genes, is vast, powerful, and valuable. The Id represents our heart – desire, whilst the Super-Ego our head – duty. To continue our long and glorious evolutionary journey, we need both. It cannot be either/or, leading to the polarization we see today. It has to be both/and, heart and head, desire and duty. For duty without desire results in slavery, and desire without duty in anarchy. Our education system must facilitate an understanding of both the Id and the Super-Ego, so we are neither devils nor saints, but fully human. We need to teach people of all ages to nurture their nature, a journey within to meet the wild one. The wild one is within everything, it is the life-force, it is sacred, it is peace, freedom, and joy. Through practicing conscious breathing, emotional regulation, the work of mental flexibility, and meditation, you realign your body, heart, head, and soul, for your wild one to be. Then you will awaken and dance your dance between duty and desire.