The Ego and the Id, by Sigmund Freud Discussion
The words "ego" and "id" are Greek, and we have carried them into the English language and then nominalized. By doing this our consciousness solidifies them as things within our brains. The word "ego" means "I" or "self". The word "id" means "non-I" or "non-self", or "it." We dont say "the I" when we refer to ourselves. But so often we say "the ego" as if to refer to a specific part or thing of our minds.
The other confusion that adds to nominalization is then believing the rest of the book is about things in space. Yet, Freud specifically says, "The state of things which we have been describing can be represented diagrammatically, though it must be remarked that the form chosen has no pretensions to any special applicability, but is mere intended to serve for purposes of exposition (p. 18)." What Freud is saying is that in order to communicate clearly what is happening in ones psyche, or mind, there needs to be a working model of the psyche. That is to say, a model meaning a diagram with its parts that do not act as the psyche itself (or of reality), but shows what the psyche consists of. He does this by discerning that which is "descriptive," and that which is "dynamic." The descriptive only describes through language or imaginative use, while dynamic is more at the process that actually occurs.
Now the model Freud eventually used as a diagram is not a very good model. In fact it is a bit unwieldy and clumsy and in the end served little purpose (later in he updated the model in 'New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis', 1933). Because Freud is the first to devise the model, it is primitive and modifications would be neccessary. Actually Freud seemed to have modeled what looks to be an ill-defined organ giving way to the idea that it functions like a heart would. While reading the book, I chose not to use the model he drew, but rather found it useful to create my own based on his descriptions of where things are in relation to each other. This does not mean I believe the model is a literal drawing of my mind or anyone elses, but rather a means in which we understand how one part of the psyche works with another. Similarly is Neil Bohr's model of the atom. He did not...