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106-659: In psychoanalytic theory the “id, the ego and the superego” are three different, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus as Sigmund Freud summarized and defined it in his structural model of the psyche . He developed these three terms to describe the basic structure and various phenomena of mental life as they were encountered in psychoanalytic practice. Freud himself used the German terms das Es , Ich , and Über-Ich , which literally translate as "the it", "I", and "over-I". The Latin terms id, ego and superego were chosen by his original translators and have remained in use. In

212-547: A hypothesis or " just so story as a not unpleasant English critic wittily called it. But I mean it honours a hypothesis if it shows capable of creating context and understanding in new areas." Freud conceived the id as the unconscious source of all innate needs, emotional impulses and desires , including the sexual drive. The id acts driven by aggression (energy), it's "the dark, inaccessible part of our personality". It seems limited to analysis of dreams and neurotic symptoms, and can only be described in terms of its contrast with

318-443: A technical elaboration of the concepts of the soul model: dividing the organism into three instances the id is regarded as the germ from which the ego and the superego develop. Driven by an energy that Freud calls libido in direct reference to Plato's Eros , the instances complement each other through their specific functions in a similar way to the organelles of a cell or parts of a technical apparatus. Further distinctions (as

424-444: A child's super-ego is in fact constructed on the model not of its parents but of its parents' super-ego; the contents which fill it are the same and it becomes the vehicle of tradition and of all the time-resisting judgments of value which have propagated themselves in this manner from generation to generation. The superego aims for perfection. It is the part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes

530-415: A conflict between some of the first Sumerian gods and draws on the earlier myth of the separation of air and earth (‘above’ and ‘below’) in the midst of the cosmic freshwater primordial ocean to clarify their hierarchical relationship. Enlil represents the leading party in the council of gods; the party of Anunnaki around Anu belongs more to the upper heaven, and that of Igigi around Enki more to that below

636-505: A conflict between the ego and the superego; and psychoses , to one between the ego and the external world. The three newly presented entities, however, remained closely connected to their previous conceptions, including those that went under different names – the systematic unconscious for the id, and the conscience/ego ideal for the superego. Freud never abandoned the topographical division of conscious, preconscious, and unconscious, though he noted that "the three qualities of consciousness and

742-453: A cow and even had an affair with Athena, who let him through a back door enter the olymp. Zeus solved this revolt by producing Pandora as Epimentheus' fatal wedding gift, dividing and ruling the titanic brothers. Similarly to Prometheus, Enki defies the orders of the upper gods, who now harbour genocidal intentions against the humans, and proves to be the benefactor of these creatures, who were of course only created as labour slaves to pacify

848-486: A diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted as being half in the conscious, a quarter in the preconscious , and the other quarter in the unconscious . The superego reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly as absorbed from parents, but also other authority figures, and the general cultural ethos. Freud developed his concept of the superego from an earlier combination of

954-490: A different chronology: Atra-Hasis is listed as a ruler of Shuruppak and a "gudug" priest, preceded by his father Shuruppak, who is, in turn, preceded by his father Ubara-Tutu, as in "The Instructions of Shuruppak". This tablet is unique in that it mentions both Shuruppak and Atra-Hasis. Subsequent versions of the flood myth in the Ancient Near East evidently alter (omit and/or editorially change) information about

1060-416: A dove, a swallow and a raven. The raven, the least able to fly, didn't return, so Utanpištim knew that the land – probably still hidden from his view under thick clouds – was accessible again. Atraḫasis descended from his ark and began to offer a food sacrifice to all the gods indiscriminately with a zeal eager to serve. How happy the gods were who had been starving for so long! As if they were flies lured by

1166-472: A given stage become fixated, or "stuck" in that stage. Freud's theory and work with psychosexual development led to Neo-Analytic/ Neo-Freudians who also believed in the importance of the unconscious, dream interpretations, defense mechanisms, and the integral influence of childhood experiences but had objections to the theory as well. They do not support the idea that development of the personality stops at age 6, instead, they believed development spreads across

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1272-575: A greate deluge, as has been handed down many times in the different flood myths of mankind. Probably the relic of a natural catastrophe (melting of glacial ice cap as documented in Drain the Oceans or Platos allegory of Atlantis ), the epic links this flood with the god's intention to eliminate their artificial creatures. The name "Atra-Hasis" also appears, as a king of Shuruppak on the Euphrates in

1378-575: A later Assyrian dialect version, first rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal , though its translations have been uncertain due to the artifact being in fragmentary condition and containing ambiguous words. Nonetheless, its fragments were first assembled and translated by George Smith as The Chaldean Account of Genesis , the hero of which had his name corrected to Atra-Hasis by Heinrich Zimmern in 1899. In 1965, Wilfred G. Lambert and Alan Millard published many additional texts belonging to

1484-464: A mighty flood should consume all of humanity. In addition, he made Enki swear before the Anunnaki that he would not speak another word to humans; he then began to consult with the assembled gods about the exact date and duration of the deluge to be unleashed. (Enki in his relation to Enlil can be seen to have parallels to Prometheus rebelling against Zeus. Zeus was also originally the wise leader of

1590-413: A political organisation (primeval Athens), in which the double party of Titans Prometheus and Epimetheus embodied the inferior gods. According to the story, Zeus' character changed after a period of flourishing civilisation: he became stingy and unjust. In any case, these are the arguments Prometheus used to justify his uprising against 'heaven': he stole the god's fire, cheated Zeus out of the best part of

1696-408: A replacement for the topological division into ‘conscious vs. unconscious’, but rather a supplement." Freud conceptualised the structural model because it allowed for a greater degree of precision and diversification. While the need contents of the id are initially unconscious (can become unconscious again as a result of an act of repression), the contents of the ego (such as thinking, perception) and

1802-405: A response to the ambiguous/contradictory use of the terms conscious and unconscious in the first model of the soul. In this ego psychology model of the psyche, the id is a set of uncoordinated instinctual needs; the superego plays the moralizing role via internalized experiences; and the ego is the perceiving, logically organizing agent that mediates between the id's instinctual desires ,

1908-466: A roof "like Abzu " itself. Atraḫasis should not tell anyone about the coming flood, take a large supply of food with him (including live birds and even fish, as the poet added with humorous irony) and keep an eye on the hourglass for seven days from start of the catastrophe. So the priest ' Extremely Wise ' hurriedly left his belongings under a pretence and began building the ship. He invited his neighbours to help and had no scruples about promising them that

2014-411: A seven day feast in honour of Isthar , the goddess of war and sexuality.* Both obeyed. After 9 months, the land of the gods gave birth to its first human child, whose purpose of existence was similar to that of his parents. (* Cf. Gilgamesh epic : there, too, the gods arranged a seven-day sexual act to pacify a kind of cold war. Protagonists are Enkidu: an almost invincible, rebellious animal-man and

2120-429: Is all there is in the id." Developmentally, the id precedes the ego. The id consists of the basic instinctual drives that are present at birth, inherent in the somatic organization, and governed only by the pleasure principle. The psychic apparatus begins as an undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured "ego", a concept of self that takes the principle of reality into account. Freud understands

2226-400: Is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic , recorded in various versions on clay tablets and named for one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-Hasis ('exceedingly wise'). . The narrative has four focal points: An organisation of allied gods shaping Mesopotamia agriculturally; a political conflict between the gods, pacified by creating first human couples; the mass reproduction of this humans; and

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2332-488: Is driven by the reality principle . The ego seeks to balance the conflicting aims of the id and superego, by trying to satisfy the id's drives in ways that are compatible with reality. The Ego is how we view ourselves: it is what we refer to as 'I' (Freud's word is the German ich , which simply means 'I'). The ego balances demands of the id, the superego, and of reality to maintain a healthy state of consciousness, where there

2438-481: Is focused on childhood. This might be an issue since most believe studying children can be inconclusive. One major concern lies in if observed personality will be a lifelong occurrence or if the child will shed it later in life. Psychoanalytic theory is a major influence in Continental philosophy and in aesthetics in particular. Freud is sometimes considered a philosopher. The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan , and

2544-456: Is for the diagnostic process (llness can only be realised as a deviation from the optimal cooperation of all psycho-organic functions), Freud had to be modest and leave structural model in the unfinished state of a torso because - as he stated one last time in Moses and Monotheism - there was no well-founded primate research at the time. Without knowledge of the instinctive social behaviour with

2650-525: Is not conscious, but rather that which is actively repressed from conscious thought. Freud viewed the unconscious as a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, anxiety-producing wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of consciousness by the mechanism of repression. Such unconscious mental processes can only be recognized through analysis of their effects in consciousness. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but they are capable of partially evading

2756-490: Is only minimal intrapsychic conflict. It thus reacts to protect the individual from stressors and from anxiety by distorting internal or external reality to a lesser or greater extent. This prevents threatening unconscious thoughts and material from entering the consciousness. The ten different defence mechanisms initially enumerated by Anna Freud are: repression , regression , reaction formation , isolation of affect , undoing , projection , introjection , turning against

2862-404: Is that the living soul with their needs, consciousness and memory resembles a psychological apparatus to which "spatial extension and composition of several pieces" can be attributed (...) and wich "locus ... is the brain (nervous system)" . Modern technology has made possible to observe the bioelectrical activity of neurones in the living brain. This led to the realisation in which area of

2968-523: Is the older term, and at first, simply meant 'relating to the analysis of the human psyche.' But with the emergence of psychoanalysis as a distinct clinical practice, both terms came to describe that. Although both are still used, today, the normal adjective is psychoanalytic. Psychoanalysis is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as A therapeutic method, originated by Sigmund Freud, for treating mental disorders by investigating

3074-406: Is the organizing principle upon which thoughts and interpretations of the world are based. According to Freud, "the ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world. ...The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions... it is like a tug of war... with the difference that in the tug of war

3180-470: Is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis. Figures like Bruno Bettelheim have criticised the way "the English translations impeded students' efforts to gain a true understanding of Freud" by substituting the formalised language of the elaborated code for the quotidian immediacy of Freud's own language. Psychoanalytic theory Psychoanalytic and psychoanalytical are used in English. The latter

3286-465: The ego ideal and the "special psychical agency which performs the task of seeing that narcissistic satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured...what we call our 'conscience'." For him the superego can be described as "a successful instance of identification with the parental agency", and as development proceeds it also absorbs the influence of those who have "stepped into the place of parents — educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models". Thus

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3392-467: The Garden of Eden, according to which the woman was made from a surgically amputated body part of Adam who had been put into deep narcotic sleep for this purpose, with the argument "It is not good that the man should be alone; therefore let Us make a woman (Eve) who fit to him and do help." Gen. 2.18 ) To complete the construction of humans in the optimal way, Mami encouraged the young couple to celebrate

3498-447: The German reader, Freud's original terms are to some degree self-explanatory. The term " das Es " was originally used by Georg Groddeck , a physician whose unconventional ideas were of interest to Freud (Groddeck's translators render the term in English as "the It"). The word ego is taken directly from Latin , where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and

3604-709: The Id , Freud presents "the general character of harshness and cruelty exhibited by the [ego] ideal — its dictatorial Thou shalt ". The earlier in the child's development, the greater the estimate of parental power. . . . nor must it be forgotten that a child has a different estimate of his parents at different periods of his life. At the time at which the Oedipus complex gives place to the super-ego they are something quite magnificent; but later, they lose much of this. Identifications then come about with these later parents as well, and indeed they regularly make important contributions to

3710-623: The Oedipus complex internalised in the superego - anchored by Freud in the hypothetical murder of the forefather of the Darwinian horde by his sons - has been criticised for its supposed sexism. Women, who cannot develop a fear of castration due to their different genital make-up, do not identify with the father. Therefore, ‘their superego is never as implacable, as impersonal, as independent of its emotional origins as we demand of men...they are often more influenced in their judgements by feelings of affection or hostility.’ - not by fear of castration, as

3816-424: The appropriate parts into logically coherent interpretations (also models ) and rules the muscular apparatus. Since the id's drives are frequently incompatible with the moral prescriptions and religious illusions of contemporary cultures, the ego attempts to direct the libidinal energy and satisfy its demands in accordance with the imperatives of that reality. According to Freud the ego, in its role as mediator between

3922-411: The artificial man suffered from the loneliness of his working day and nothing the gods advised him to do was able to restore his zest for life. So the gods may have decided to give him a wife to cheer him up. Where she came from remains open due to the missing passage – there may have been a similarly conceived act of creation. However, this assumption would conflict with Moses' version of the events in

4028-404: The assembly of all gods that they should first cleanse themselves for everything else. They do. On the fifteenth day of this project, he cut up Geshtu-E – 'ear', 'a god or partie who listened for wisdom' – into pieces (cf. Plato's dissection of the rebellious spherical people into single individuals) and began to create the first human being to the sound of drums. He took clay from the soil of

4134-537: The authors of Old Testament also referred to the epic, so we know the former as Adam and Eve 's creation and latter as the Flood unleashed by the omnipotent but in this case again failing god YHWH . The God-fearing priest Atraḫasis – the only one who was therefore allowed to survive the attempted delation with his wife and sons, ensuring continued existence of artificially constructed humanity – appears there as Noah . The epos taking place according to its incipit , "When

4240-435: The brain the needs for food, skin desire etc. begin to show themselves neuronally; where the highest performances of consciously thinking ego take place (s. frontal lobe ); and that other parts of the brain are specialised in storing memorys: one of the main function of the superego. Decisive for this view was Freuds Project for a Scientific Psychology . Written in 1895, it develops the thesis that experiences are stored into

4346-406: The censorship mechanism of repression in a disguised form, manifesting, for example, as dream elements or neurotic symptoms . Dreams and symptoms are supposed to be capable of being "interpreted" during psychoanalysis, with the help of methods such as free association , dream analysis, and analysis of verbal slips. In Freud's model the psyche consists of three different elements, the id, ego, and

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4452-405: The content of the unconscious is only knowable to consciousness through its representation in a disguised or distorted form, by way of dreams and neurotic symptoms, as well as in slips of the tongue and jokes . The psychoanalyst seeks to interpret these conscious manifestations in order to understand the nature of the repressed. In psychoanalytic terms, the unconscious does not include all that

4558-440: The coordinates of topology , dynamics and economy ) encouraged Freud to assume that the metapsychological elaboration of the structural model would make it fully compatible with biological sciences such as evolutionary theory and enable a well-founded concept of mental health including a theory of human development, which naturally completed in three successive stages: the oral, anal and genital phase. However, as important as this

4664-472: The corresponding structure of cohabitation of our genetically closest relatives in realm of primates, Freud's thesis of Darwin's primordial horde (as presented for discussion in Totem and Taboo ) can't be tested and, if possible, replaced by a realistic model. Horde life and its violent abolition through introduction of mononogamy (as an agreement between the sons who murdered the horde's polygamous father) embody

4770-448: The course of fate . As a permanent legal document the tablet was provided with a seal , a sign mechanically applied by means of a special technique, which in ancient Mesopotamia was regarded as a symbol of a contract. Contracts have been directly related to tribute payments to be made: often parts of the food produced, but generally assistance in battlel or labour, such as the construction of mighty irrigation channels, as described in

4876-463: The coveted territory in peace, to defend it together and to erect impressive monuments such as those at Göbekli Tepe (so the thesis of its discoverer K. Schmidt ). More or less from this date, they also developed agriculture, became sedentary and transformed Mesopotamia's steppe into the blooming landscape that went down in the myths of mankind as the Garden of Eden . In the main, the epic reports on

4982-399: The creation of mankind by Enlil , Anu and Enki — the pantheon of a third generation of earlyest gods ( dingirs ; Sumerian : 𒀭 , lit.   'divines') mentioned in writing. Only the goddess Tiamat – a personification of the saltwater ocean imagined as a giant serpent – and the god Abzu , a symbol of the cosmic freshwater ocean, who both created earth together, represent

5088-480: The culprit whose treachery had once again enabled some humans to survive the genocide what was planned this time. Enki, however, as always never at a loss for creative ideas, devised a way that he hoped would finally solve the problem caused by the quarrelling gods themselves. He decreed that from now on the humans would be familiarised with suffering and death from birth, that there would be barren and untouchable women and that their lifespan would be severely limited from

5194-552: The demands of external reality and those of the critical superego; Freud compared the ego - in its relation to the id - to a man on horseback: the rider must restrain and direct the superior energy of his animal and at times allow for a satisfaction of its urges if he wants to keep it alive and the species healthy. The ego is thus "in the habit of transforming the id's will into action, as if it were its own." In order to overcome difficulties of understanding as far as possible, Freud formulated his "metapsychology" which for Lacan represents

5300-453: The development of the personality ( psyche ). It is a stage theory that believes progress occurs through stages as the libido is directed to different body parts. The different stages, listed in order of progression, are Oral, Anal, Phallic ( Oedipus complex ), Latency, Genital. The Genital stage is achieved if people meet all their needs throughout the other stages with enough available sexual energy. Individuals who do not have their needs met in

5406-505: The differences between consciousness and unconsciousness are. Freud's point of view was that consciousness is directly given – cannot be explained by insights into physiological details. Essentially, two things were known about the living soul: The brain with its nervous system extending over the entire organism and the acts of consciousness. According to Freud, therefore haphazard phenomena can be integrated between " both endpoints of our knowledge " (findings of modern neurology just as well as

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5512-581: The earth (half) sphere. All three parties are bound by the Tablet of Destinies , which Enlil is the only one to possess. In the Sumerian myths, its bestowed on him by the earth mother goddess Ninḫursag herself (cf. Anzu myth ). His aptitude as the greatest warrior and chief strategist of the divine tribal alliance gives him power over the other parties of gods; only he has the ability to transform present circumstances back into their original state – redefining

5618-466: The ego are the product of two key factors: the state of helplessness of the child and the Oedipus complex . In the case of the little boy, it forms during the dissolution of the Oedipus complex, through a process of identification with the father figure, following the failure to retain possession of the mother as a love-object out of fear of castration . Freud described the superego and its relationship to

5724-703: The ego, id and superego agencies (structural model) and the conscious and unconscious psychic systems (topographic model). In the iceberg metaphor the entire id and part of both the superego and the ego are submerged in the underwater portion representing the unconscious region of the psyche. The remaining portions of the ego and superego are displayed above water in the conscious region. The terms "id", "ego", and "superego" are not Freud's own; they are Latinizations by his translator James Strachey . Freud himself wrote of " das Es ", " das Ich ", and " das Über- Ich "—respectively, "the It", "the I", and "the Over-I". Thus, to

5830-549: The ego. It has no organisation and no collective will: It only demands immediate gratification of its instincts according to the pleasure principle . It is oblivious to reason and the presumptions of ordinary conscious life: "contrary impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other. . . There is nothing in the id that could be compared with negation. . . nothing which corresponds to the idea of time." The id "knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality. ...Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge—that, in our view,

5936-403: The epic Atra-Hasis. As far as the male groups of gods were concerned, the separate task of reproduction fell to the seven divine wombs, the shassuratu presided over by Ninḫursag ( Mami ). The plot of the epic follows a simple pattern: As is well known, this genocidal project failed. The reason for this divine misadventure was not so much the human's shipbuilding skills ( Noah's Ark ), but

6042-517: The epic, including an Old Babylonian copy (written c. 1650 BC) which is the most complete recension of the tale to have survived. These new texts greatly increased knowledge of the epic and were the basis for Lambert and Millard’s first English translation of the Atrahasis epic in something approaching entirety. A further fragment was recovered in Ugarit . The epic of Atra-Hasis contains the myth of

6148-481: The essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Freud introduced his "structural model" of the soul. It describes the instincts of the unconscious as the primary process, which the consciousness - the secondary process - values according to its socialisation and directs in relation to the reality. This second model - further refined and formalised in subsequent essays as The Ego and the Id - represents

6254-438: The evolutionary as well as cultural-prehistorical core of psychoanalysis. It stands in contrast to the religiously enigmatic reports about the origin of monogamous couples on earth as an expression of divine will, but closer to the ancient trap to pacify political conflicts among the groups of Neolithic mankind. (See Prometheus ' uprising against Zeus, who created Pandora as a fatal wedding gift for Epimetheus to divide and rule

6360-435: The father figure and Oedipus complex thus: The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (under the influence of authority, religious teaching, schooling and reading), the stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on—in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt. In The Ego and

6466-433: The feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of patients. These studies contributed to the development of the psychoanalytic theory. In psychoanalytic theory, the unconscious mind consists of ideas and drives that have been subject to the mechanism of Repression : anxiety-producing impulses in childhood are barred from consciousness, but do not cease to exist, and exert a constant pressure in the direction of consciousness. However,

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6572-464: The female temple servant Shamkat, endowed with all advantages necessary for that purpose. Enkidu, who had previously destroyed so many animal traps with his fierce group of relatives, fell into this new type of trap. After having sex for 7 days, he was ‘weakened’: the herd of animals he had been leading fled into the steppe in horror. He was shocked of his lonely separation, but Shamkat tried to comfort him: "Don't grieve; you have knowledge now, just like

6678-477: The fertility goddess Nisaba to devastate the land with storms and dry up the harvests. Enki – dwelling in the lower part of sky – told his priest Atraḫasis what to do about it each time: Only Adad and Nisaba should sacrificed, the other gods should left to starve. The pious priest acted according to this divine advice; Adad and Nisaba were so ashamed of this undeserved favour that they abandoned their endeavour. Enlil now completely enraged against Enki and decreed that

6784-774: The first generation. The gods Enlil, Anu and Enki are also known as Anunnaki and Igigi , the superior and the inferior gods. They seem to have been united in an organization similar to that which existed in Greece between Zeus – as ‘pure spirit or air’ the leading party – and the groups round Poseidon (ocean) and Hades (earth). It is not unlikely that the story refers to the era of the Neolithic Revolution , when Homo sapiens, similar to chimpanzees evolving in small autarkic hordes, began to establish political inter-group organisations. Instead of fighting each other as before, this groups of hunter-gatherers concluded to share

6890-662: The flood and the flood hero found in the original Atra-Hasis story. In particular, a lost, intermediate version of the Atra-Hasis flood myth seems to have been paraphrased or copied in a late edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh ( Tablet XI ). This modern addition of Gilgamesh , known as the 'standard version', is traditionally associated with the Babylonian scribe Sîn-lēqi-unninni ( circa 1300–1000 BC), though some minor changes may have been made since his time. Regarding

6996-645: The flood story took place after or during the rule of Ubara-Tutu. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, first recorded in the 17th century BC (i.e., the Old Babylonian Empire ), the hero is named Ziusudra , who also appears in the Instructions of Shuruppak as the son of the eponymous Shuruppak, who himself is called the son of Ubara-Tutu. The "Sumerian King Lists" also make no mention of Atra-Hasis, Utnapishtim, or Ziusudra. Tablet "WB 62", however, provides

7102-573: The formation of character; but in that case they only affect the ego, they no longer influence the super-ego, which has been determined by the earliest parental images. Thus when the child is in rivalry with the parental imago it feels the dictatorial Thou shalt —the manifest power that the imago represents—on four levels: (i) the auto-erotic, (ii) the narcissistic, (iii) the anal, and (iv) the phallic. Those different levels of mental development, and their relations to parental imagos, correspond to specific id forms of aggression and affection. The concept of

7208-455: The fruits of this great civilising project as they saw fit. After 40 years, however, the lesser gods rebelled and refused to do strenuous labor. At night, they surrounded the dwelling place of Enlil , who was considered the main god of Sumerian civilisation, the seperator of air and earth in the midst of the cosmic ocean. Enlil was surprised and called for Anu and Enki. Nusku, one of the sons and Enlil's ambassador here, tried to negotiate with

7314-405: The god of deadly diseases so much that as soon as he had begun his pandemic work, he ceased to eliminate people. Tablet II is about the unstoppable increase in overpopulation. After another 1200 years there were many more humans, they roamed around like roaring herds of cattle. Because the gods in upper part of heaven could no longer even sleep, Enlil sent Adad and, again 1200 years later,

7420-477: The gods had to work like humans ( inuma ilu awilum = when the gods were humans)", there was a quarrel between the upper Anunnaki and the Igigu, the lower gods. While the latter had the task of ensuring the supply of the land through construction of irrigation canals, for which they must dig out the beds of big rivers, the Anunnaki ruled from above – presumably watching over the implementation of their plans and dividing

7526-740: The gods!" See also Adam's and Eve's enjoyment of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, in Eden. ) 1200 years later, humans had multiplied to such an extent that they disturbed the gods with their noise. Enlil was annoyed and decided that Namtar , his god of the dead's realm , should carry off most of humans with frost fever, so a great extinction began. Enki, probably worried that he would end up having to work again himself, approached his faithful priest Atraḫasis and advised him to do following: The other gods should no longer be worshipped, but only Namtar. This flattered

7632-536: The id and reality, is often "obliged to cloak the (unconscious) commands of the id with its own preconscious rationalizations , to conceal the id's conflicts with reality, to profess...to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding." Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean the sense of self, but later expanded it to include psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing , control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The ego

7738-518: The id as "the great reservoir of libido ", the energy of desire as expressed, for example, in the behaviours of sexuality, the incorporation of food or the baby-care (maternal love). In general, the nature of libido is that of Platonic Eros , a universal desire that is inherent in all life instincts. They constantly strive to compensate for the processes of biological decay, rejuvenating the species of living beings by means of their metabolism and reproduction . Complementing this constructive aspect of

7844-410: The id's instinctive needs within limits, adapted to reality and submissive to the superego. Thus "driven by the id, confined by the superego, repulsed by reality" the ego struggles to bring about harmony among the competing forces. Consequently, it can easily be subject to "realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the superego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of

7950-415: The id, which co-operate despite their apparent incompatibility: The organism has the urge to 'synthetically' regenerate by integration of suitable molecules or energy into itself, for this purpose it must first deconstruct the ingested food complexes: the ‘analytical’ effect of stomach acid. The ego acts according to the reality principle . It analyses complex perceptions (things, ideas, dreams), synthesises

8056-458: The immense destruction, and Mami ( Belet-ili ) raised serious accusations against Enli: "Why didn't you, the greatest warrior of all gods, fight the rebels" (instead of constructing humans)?! A few lines are missing here again, but these can be added according to the Epic of Gilgamesh: After the ark is stranded high up on Mount Nisir, Uta-napišti (the name of Atraḫasis in the Epic of Gilgamesh) sends out three birds - presumably at daily intervals:

8162-417: The individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency, commonly called " conscience ", that criticizes and prohibits the expression of drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. Thus the superego works in contradiction to the id. It is an internalized mechanism that operates to confine the ego to socially acceptable behaviour, whereas the id merely seeks instant self-gratification. The superego and

8268-433: The interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the patient's mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind, using techniques such as dream interpretation and free association. Also: a system of psychological theory is associated with this method. Freud began his studies on psychoanalysis in collaboration with Dr. Josef Breuer , most notably in relation to the case study of Anna O. Anna O.

8374-549: The libido, the author later postulated an inherent death drive , the Thanatos that has a decomposing effect and seeks "to lead organic life back into the inanimate state. For Freud, "the death instinct would thus seem to express itself—though probably only in part—as an instinct of destruction directed against the external world and other organisms" through aggression. Since libido energy encompasses all instinctive impulses, Eros and Thanatos are regarded as fundamental forces of

8480-659: The lifespan. They extended Freud's work and encompassed more influence from the environment and the importance of conscious thought along with the unconscious. The most important theorists are Erik Erikson (Psychosocial Development), Anna Freud , Carl Jung , Alfred Adler and Karen Horney , and including the school of object relations . Erikson's Psychosocial Development theory is based on eight stages of development. The stages are trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generatively vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. These are important to

8586-592: The name of the flood hero is Utnapishtim , who is said to be the son of Ubara-Tutu , king of Shuruppak : "Gilgamesh spoke to Utnapishtim, the Faraway... O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu." Many available tablets comprising the Sumerian King Lists support the lineage of the flood hero given in Gilgamesh by omitting a king named Shuruppak as a historical ruler of Shuruppak, implying a belief that

8692-409: The neuronal network through "a permanent change after an event" . Freud soon abandoned this attempt and left it unpublished. Insights into the neuronal processes that permanently store experiences in the brain – like engraving the proverbial tabula rasa with some code – belongs to the physiological branch of science and lead in a different direction of research than the psychological question of what

8798-531: The outset (in biblical terms to 120 years), in the hope that their reproduction would be regulated in future. With this promise that the gods would have sufficient living space of their own on earth for all time, Enlil could be content and make peace with Enki. In later versions of the flood story, contained in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Eridu Genesis , the hero is not named Atra-Hasis. In Gilgamesh ,

8904-400: The passions in the id." The ego may wish to serve the id, trying to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts, while pretending to have a regard for reality. But the superego is constantly watching every one of the ego's moves and punishes it with feelings of guilt , anxiety , and inferiority. To overcome this the ego employs defense mechanisms . Defense mechanisms reduce

9010-512: The philosophers Michel Foucault , and Jacques Derrida , have written extensively on how psychoanalysis informs philosophical analysis. When analyzing literary texts, the psychoanalytic theory is sometimes used (often specifically with regard to the motives of the author and the characters) to reveal purported concealed meanings or to purportedly better understand the author's intentions. Atra-Hasis Atra-Hasis ( Akkadian : 𒀜𒊏𒄩𒋀 , romanized:  Atra-ḫasīs )

9116-476: The position of our planet in the universe, for exampel), but this only contribute to the spatial " localisation of the acts of consciousness ", not to their understanding. In the topographic model of the soul, his first one, Freud divided mental phenomena into three regions: the Conscious, of whose contents the mind is aware at every moment, including information and stimuli from internal and external sources;

9222-415: The preconscious, whose material is merely latent (not directly present to thinking and feeling, but capable of becoming so without great effort); and the unconscious, which consists of biological needs and impulses that are made inaccessible to the conscious mind as a result of traumatic experiences in such a way that Freud describes this process as the pathological act of repression . With the introduction of

9328-512: The psychoanalytic theory because it describes the different stages that people go through life. Each stage has a major impact on their life outcomes since they are going through conflicts at each stage and whichever route they decide to take, will have certain outcomes. Some claim that the theory is lacking in empirical data and too focused on pathology . Other criticisms are that the theory lacks consideration of culture and its influence on personality. Psychoanalytic theory comes from Freud and

9434-425: The quarrelling between the gods. Finally, they seal their fate as well as that of mankind by agreeing on a utopian method to regulate the reproduction of their creatures to a bearable level. Two aspects of Athra-Hasis were adopted in the Epic of Gilgamesh around 1200 BC: the primal scene of the 7-day lasted mating of an rebel with a temple prostitute ( Enkidu's domestication ) and the devastating deluge. Obviously ,

9540-477: The rebellion of the sub-gods around Enki.) Tablet III contains the flood myth . Well informed with all details, Enki went to his priest's reed hut, but waited until Atraḫasis began to lie down to sleep. Then, speaking cunningly to the hut's wall so as not to breach the contract, Enki told 'it' what to do: ‘ Separate yourself from your house, build a ship, spurn your possessions, save your life .’ The ship should be cube-shaped and also be watertight from above with

9646-481: The rebellious party, but had no success. Enlil, who also was the benevolent, wise leader of all the gods, did'nt want a battle with the risk of serious injuries and deaths, and to avoid this he came up with the idea of starting to produce humans from a sacrifice to do the hard labour instead of the rebellious gods. He asked Mami – leader of the 7 goddess wombs – to do this. Mami declared that she could only fulfil this request with Enki's assistance. Enki, agreeing, advised

9752-419: The reward would soon come richly from heaven. The deadline was pressing, so he organised a big party to attract more workers. He himself was unable to eat during the lavish feast, so nauseous was he with fear of the impending punishment of the gods. When Adad gathered the clouds and the winds began to roar from all ends of the world, Atraḫasis and at least one fertile woman (the masters sons too) climbed into

9858-427: The scent, they swarmed in from all sides to the altar's fire and began to feast to their hearts' – for which they later endowed Anthrahais-Noah with their immortality in gratitude and settled him with his wife on the island of Dilmun on the distant edge of the world (see Gilgamesh flood myth ). Enlil, however, who as a wise ruler was responsible for the welfare of this great civilisation, was still furious with Enki,

9964-443: The self, reversal into the opposite, and sublimation . In the same work, however, she details other manoeuvres such as identification with the aggressor and intellectualisation that would later come to be considered defence mechanisms in their own right. Furthermore, this list has been greatly expanded upon by other psychoanalysts, with some authors claiming to enumerate in excess of one hundred defence mechanisms. Freud's take on

10070-420: The ship and sealed its entrance hatch from inside with earth pitch . The ark swirled like a pot on the waves of the mighty flood thundering down from the open floodgates of the cosmic primordial ocean. And how furious Enlil was at his foiled plan to destroy mankind! - The other gods, however, suffered from hunger, as they were unable to find any more humans to feed them in the midst of the raging chaos. They cry at

10176-404: The steppe (Mami was regarded as the primordial mother earth , so the divine wombs come into play here), mixed it with some of the spilt blood and added a touch of cosmic water, bringing it to its living form. When the creature awoke, Mami approached, handed it a carrying basket and taught it to work for the gods from then on. ( Here is a gap in the tablet in which it could have been described how

10282-399: The structural model, Freud intended to separate the terms unconscious and conscious from their spatially opposing meanings by formulating the three instances of id, ego and superego, which interlock with each other through their specific functions in a similar way to the organelles of a cell or parts of a machine, for example. The subdivision of the psyche outlined in the structural model is not

10388-430: The superego (memory; imprinting) can be both conscious and unconscious. Freud argued that his new model included the option of scientifically describing the structure and functions of the mentally healthy living being and therefore represented an effective diagnostic tool for clarifying the causes of mental disorders: Transference neuroses correspond to a conflict between the ego and the id; narcissistic neuroses , to

10494-569: The superego . The id is the aspect of personality that is driven by internal and basic drives and needs, such as hunger, thirst, and the drive for sex, or libido. The id acts in accordance with the pleasure principle . Due to the instinctual quality of the id, it is impulsive and unaware of the implications of actions. The superego is driven by the morality principle. It enforces the morality of social thought and action on an intrapsychic level. It employs morality, judging wrong and right and using guilt to discourage socially unacceptable behavior. The ego

10600-402: The teams fight against one another in equality, while the ego is against the much stronger 'id'." In fact, the ego is required to serve "three severe masters...the external world, the superego and the id." It seeks to find a balance between the natural drives of the id, the limitations imposed by reality, and the strictures of the superego. It is concerned with self-preservation: it strives to keep

10706-532: The tension and anxiety by disguising or transforming the impulses that are perceived as threatening. Denial , displacement , intellectualization , fantasy , compensation , projection , rationalization , reaction formation , regression , repression , and sublimation were the defense mechanisms Freud identified. His daughter Anna Freud identified the concepts of undoing , suppression , dissociation , idealization , identification , introjection , inversion, somatization , splitting , and substitution. In

10812-408: The three provinces of the mental apparatus do not fall together into three peaceful couples...we had no right to expect any such smooth arrangement." The iceberg metaphor shows nothing of the physiological (real) structure of the brain, the possible organic correspondences of the three psychic instances or their functions. Instead it is a commonly used visual metaphor depicting the relationship between

10918-429: The times before that flood, on one of the Sumerian King Lists . The oldest known copy of the epic tradition concerning Atrahasis can be dated by colophon (scribal identification) to the reign of Hammurabi ’s great-grandson, Ammi-Saduqa (1646–1626 BC). However, various Old Babylonian dialect fragments exist, and the epic continued to be copied into the first millennium BC. The story of Atrahasis also exists in

11024-566: The titanic brothers; Plato's myth of spherical men cut into isolated individuals for the same reason; and the similarly resolved revolt of inferior gods in the Flood epic Atra-Hasis ). Additional important assumptions are based on it, such as the Oedipus complex , the origin of moral-totemic rules like Incest taboo and, not least, Freud's Unease in Culture . Nonetheless, due to the lack of ethological primate research, these ideas remained an unproven belief of palaeo-anthropological science – only

11130-605: Was subject to a number of psychosomatic disturbances, such as not being able to drink out of fear. Breuer and Freud found that hypnosis was a great help in discovering more about Anna O. and her treatment. Freud frequently referred to the study on Anna O. in his lectures on the origin and development of psychoanalysis. Observations in the Anna O. case led Freud to theorize that the problems faced by hysterical patients could be associated with painful childhood experiences that could not be recalled. The influence of these lost memories shaped

11236-435: Was the case with ‘Little Hans’ in his conflict with his father over his wife and mother. However, Freud went on to modify his position to the effect "that the majority of men are also far behind the masculine ideal and that all human individuals, as a result of their human identity, combine in themselves both masculine and feminine characteristics, otherwise known as human characteristics." Freud's basic metapsychological thesis

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