In this text we will deal with the concepts of the Psychic Apparatus. We will focus, for now, on the Freudian definition of the concept.

Freud's Psychic Apparatus

The Freudian concept of psychic apparatus designates a psychic organization that is divided into instances. These instances - or systems - are interconnected among themselves, but have distinct functions. From this concept Freud presented two models: the topographic division and the structural division of the mind.

We can resort to other authors, Freud's commentators, to better understand the concept. According to Laplanche, Freud's concept of psychic apparatus would be an expression that highlights the characteristics that Freudian theory attributes to the psyche. These characteristics would be its capacity to transmit or transform a determined energy, and its differentiation in instances or systems.

Laplanche also says that when he refers to the question of the psychic apparatus, Freud suggests an organizational idea. But even if he deals with the internal arrangement of the mental parts, and even if he deals with the connection between a certain function with a specific psychic place, he does not limit himself to this. Freud also indicates the existence of a temporal order to these parts and functions.

It is important to understand that the mental divisions that Freud indicates do not have the character of an anatomical division. There are no fixed and well-defined compartments in the brain, as the theories of brain localization indicate. What Freud indicates, mainly, is that the excitations follow a certain order, and this order is related to the systems of the psychic apparatus.

RETURNING - Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious

As we saw in the texts I posted earlier, the human mind is not formed only by its conscious part. Its unconscious part would be, for Freud, more determinant in the formation of personality, including. In this sense, the psychic life could be measured according to the individual's degree of awareness of the phenomenon.

In case you don't remember or didn't understand what the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of the human mind are, here is a short summary:

• The Conscious relates to the phenomena of which we are aware, those that we can think about through reason, those whose actual existence is clear to us.
• The Pre-conscious is the environment of those phenomena that are not "in our face" at any given moment, but which are not inaccessible to our reason. Pre-conscious phenomena are those that are about to reach consciousness, to transition to the conscious level.
• The Unconscious is the terrain of obscure phenomena. Fears, desires, impulses... Everything that the mind avoids in order not to suffer, inhabits the unconscious. We have access to these phenomena only by means of flawed acts, dreams, or psychoanalytic analysis.

It is important, finally, to understand that there is a certain fluidity between these three domains: a content can become conscious, just as it can be expelled into unconsciousness.

For a more in-depth explanation of what the Conscious, Pre-conscious and Unconscious are, click here.

We have already published a text dealing with the division of Id, Ego and Superego. To complete the explanation of what would be the Psychic Apparatus for Freud, we will relate these three levels with the conscious, preconscious and unconscious levels.

RETURNING - Id, Ego and Superego

Authors Hall, Lindzey and Campbell, following the Freudian tradition, indicate that personality is made up of these three systems: Id, Ego and Superego. Id, the biological part, would be the original personality system, from which Ego and Superego would have derived.

The Id was even called by Freud "the true psychic reality", because it represents the individual subjective experience, the internal world that does not know the rules and impositions of the objective reality. The Id is governed by the Pleasure Principle. We will have a specific text to deal with this concept soon. For now, it is enough to understand that its objective is always to satisfy thepulsions, relieve tension.

ID

In the Id are recorded not only unconscious representations, but innate, phylogenetically transmitted representations that belong to the human species.

EGO

The Ego, in turn, has the function of fulfilling the desires of the Id. But to satisfy them, it must adapt them to reality, to social rules, and to the demands of the Superego. While the Id is guided by the Pleasure Principle, the Ego follows the Reality Principle (which we will explain shortly).

SUPEREGO

Superego can basically be understood as the branch of morality, guilt and self-censorship.

Going forward, we can say that the "I" (Ego) comes from the Id, but that it emerges from a process of differentiation. An individual is composed, then, of a psychic "it", the Id, which is unknown and unconscious. On this Id and from it, on the surface, the "I" (Ego) is constituted. The "I" (Ego), therefore, comes from the Id but can only be visible because it undergoes the influence of the outside world. InfluenceThis happens through the Pre-conscious and the Unconscious systems.

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The "I" marks a limit between inside and outside, which is identified with the very limits of the physical body. The "I" would be derived from bodily sensations whose main origin is the surface of the body. Therefore, Freud considered it to be the surface of the mental apparatus.

The Superego, finally, is an instance responsible for several functions: self-observation, moral conscience and the support base of ideals. It would be like a deparate part of the Ego, which exercises vigilance over it. This is why its persecutory dimension is so highlighted by Freud.

CONCLUSION

This detailed explanation aims to demonstrate that the concept of Freud's Psychic Apparatus designates the set of all parts of the human mind: Conscious, Unconscious, and Preconscious; Id, Ego, and Superego.

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