NARRATIVE - ID, EGO AND SUPER-EGO
This session looked at the idea of how we view ourselves, and what makes up our ego and mindscape.
We started out by talking about cancel culture. Cancel culture has been particularly prevalent in society with the dawn of widespread social media, where one slip-up can lead to you being shunned in public, or cancelled.
I've personally witnessed the effects of it. I didn't say anything racist or sexist or anything that actually warrants "cancellation"; I said I disagreed with a film director's direction with a character. That led to my Twitter replies being flooded with hundreds of DC Comics fans cancelling me.
But that was a small example of cancel culture. Much higher profile personalities who do much MUCH worse than state their opinion on the newest Batman film get cancelled every day. An infamous example is James Gunn in 2018. Tweets came out where he made jokes involving sexual exploitation of children 10 years ago. When they resurfaced, he was cancelled, and had many business ties cut.
Using examples from the book, we can tie Mr Hyde to the Id, acting on raw primal instincts, and Dr Jekyll as Ego, the grounded, realistic character.
These things can also be affected by hypnosis. It's been found that people under the influence of hypnosis can develop a second personality, more in touch with their Id. It ties in to Free Association; totally free, uncensored expression of thoughts and ideas.
We also looked at Sublimation. Sublimation is the act of diverting base sexual or biological urges into something more socially acceptable. According to famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, artists and writers are "experts at sublimation", due to their ability to channel their urges into their craft.
We finished up talking about dreams, and how Freud viewed them. He theorised that dreams were made up of two parts:
It's been suggested to keep a dream diary over the holiday, seeing what we can remember and what we cannot. I'll see to putting anything I can remember on the blog.
We started out by talking about cancel culture. Cancel culture has been particularly prevalent in society with the dawn of widespread social media, where one slip-up can lead to you being shunned in public, or cancelled.
I've personally witnessed the effects of it. I didn't say anything racist or sexist or anything that actually warrants "cancellation"; I said I disagreed with a film director's direction with a character. That led to my Twitter replies being flooded with hundreds of DC Comics fans cancelling me.
But that was a small example of cancel culture. Much higher profile personalities who do much MUCH worse than state their opinion on the newest Batman film get cancelled every day. An infamous example is James Gunn in 2018. Tweets came out where he made jokes involving sexual exploitation of children 10 years ago. When they resurfaced, he was cancelled, and had many business ties cut.
(Jon Ronson's TED Talk on how a tweet managed to destroy someone's career and reputation - credit: TED)
We then moved on to the idea of three different parts of your psyche making your mindscape:- ID - Your core instincts (aka Devil on your Shoulder)
- EGO - Reality
- SUPEREGO - Your ideals (aka Angel on your Shoulder)
Using examples from the book, we can tie Mr Hyde to the Id, acting on raw primal instincts, and Dr Jekyll as Ego, the grounded, realistic character.
These things can also be affected by hypnosis. It's been found that people under the influence of hypnosis can develop a second personality, more in touch with their Id. It ties in to Free Association; totally free, uncensored expression of thoughts and ideas.
We also looked at Sublimation. Sublimation is the act of diverting base sexual or biological urges into something more socially acceptable. According to famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, artists and writers are "experts at sublimation", due to their ability to channel their urges into their craft.
We finished up talking about dreams, and how Freud viewed them. He theorised that dreams were made up of two parts:
- MANIFEST CONTENT - The parts we remember. The events, what is said, who is there
- LATENT CONTENT - The actual meaning. For example, a dream of someone drowning in front of you could represent fear of losing that person.
It's been suggested to keep a dream diary over the holiday, seeing what we can remember and what we cannot. I'll see to putting anything I can remember on the blog.
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