e disregard of the superior strength of outside forces, could not otherwise escape annihilation” (Freud, 1998: 3). The super-ego rests at the other end of the pendulum swing. In the center is situated the ego. Surrounding all three of these mental dimensions arranged on a pendulum continuum is another dimension to which the id’s monitoring powers are subjected-the external environment (i.e. reality). This environment completely surrounds and affects all three dimensions, but it is the ego’s function to shift the id and the super-ego to middle-ground, a position that allows individual behavior to have greater potential for security and success. For the ego must “dethrone the pleasure-principle, which exerts undisputed sway over the processes of the id, and substitutes for it the reality-principle, which promises greater security and greater success” (Freud, 1998: 3).
The ego is in effect the only conscious aspect of the mind. It is constantly in a push-pull dilemma not only because of
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