Freud conceptualized the mind, or the psyche, as consisting of three levels of consciousness:
the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. The conscious mind consists of what we are aware of
at any time. Consciousness is only the tip of the iceberg, to Freud's Metaphor. The Preconscious consists of
the parts of mind which people are not aware but which can be brought to consciousness without much effort. The
unconscious embodies the parts of the mind that cannot be brought directly to consciousness.
Freud also conceptualized the psyche as having a fixed amount of psychic energy, the sexual part of
which is called libido. Freud divided the psyche into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego.
While the id is completely unconscious, the ego and superego span all three levels of awareness.
THE ID. The id is the original reservoir of psychic energy and is present from birth. Aggresive, sexual, and other impulses from the id always demand immediate gratification. Thus the id is said to operate on the pleasure principle, continually pressing for the immediate discharge of any bodily tension. One way the id reduces tension is to create an image of what it wants. This image, cannot be distinguised from reality, is known as Wish Fulfillment, but wish-fulfilling mental images themselves cannot reduce tension. After all, hungry people cannot eat images. This failure of the id to deal with the reality opens the way for the ego to come into being.
THE EGO. Te ego comes into existence to deal with the objectives, outside world, and to satisfy the id's wishes and instinctive demands. The ego obeys the reality principle in contrast to the id's pleasure principle. The reality principle, because it has to deal with the objective, "real" world, aims to suspend the pleasure principle until food, in this example, is found. The ego is, thus, the executive of the personality. It controls actions and chooses outcomes. A person with a weak ego may be dominated by the wish- fulfilling fantasies of the id and fail to deal effectively with objective reality, spending, instead, a disproportionate amount of time in fantasy and daydreaming.
THE SUPEREGO. The superego is concerned with the mortality, with what is "right" and what is "wrong". It consists of two distinct parts: the ego-ideal and the conscience. The ego-ideal's primary interest pertains to what is right and virtous. It holds up an image of ideal behavior and perfection and says "yes" to mormally good things. Conscience, on the other hand, watches primarily over what is bad. It says "no" to wishes that are morally wrong. Indeed it attempts to censor certain impulses from the id and prevent them from entering the consciousness of the ego.