Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, once came up with a theory. It was meant to help explain how our personalities function.
According to him, there were 3 principal elements at play:
1. Id — illogical and egoist impulses
2. Ego — preconscious self-control
3. Superego — society and social reality, moral norms and forbidden acts
For a healthy personality to exist, a balance between these 3 elements was required.
First, Freud called the id the unconscious mental compartment where our pleasures and desires were the top priority.
The superego resided in our conscious and unconscious, pushing us towards the ideal self as portrayed by other members of our society.
Finally, the ego functioned by satisfying our impulses in a realistic manner. In other words — through our conscious, preconscious, and unconscious — the ego was responsible for finding ways to ensure our actions were acceptable in the real world.
In more simplistic terms, the id was our childish side, the superego our adult side, and the ego the negotiator between the two.
War is on the streets. It has always been there. While there may not be a noticeable amount of bloodshed and disorder, the battle for attention from the people and control of the culture remains ever-present.
Theodore Dalrymple thus describes our modern evolution as “a society of victims”.
He writes:
Finally, there is the role of anger.
We do not think of it as a sin any longer but as the sign of a generous heart, at least when felt and expressed on behalf of others.
To live your life without anger is to be complacent and self-satisfied.
And since the state of the world gives plenty of scope for those seeking an occasion for anger, we may be angry on behalf of others all the time.
The greater our anger, in fact, the greater our generosity of spirit.
And since our anger is noble and generous, when we act out of such anger, we suppose that we are acting generously.
An atmosphere of rage is concomitantly one of righteous (or self-righteous) cruelty.
The point of artistic works seems to be to counteract this transformation of the highly informed individual. While the superego used to protect the individual from carrying out acts of cruelty born from rage, it turns out that the reverse has now taken place.
Artistry’s role might then be to help readjust this disequilibrium. To wake up the id.
If the superego is now predisposed to the feeling and the acting out of anger, the id must be brought out — not to suppress it, but rather — to convert it into something that the ego can handle with care.
The senses of beauty, surprise, and wonder must be applied onto the individual if they wish to remain healthy and sane.
Of course, this quick fix would only have substance if we subscribe to Freud’s Theory of Personality.
Nevertheless, I have a job to do. I have no time to lose faith in any individual.
This is very distilled and helpful. It relates to something that occurs to me from time to time: We were not built to know about every tragedy and horror that is going on around the world all day, every day as it happens. But we can’t ignore it either. Art can bridge the gap?