Good Vs. Evil
Good versus evil: the ultimate showdown throughout history is manifested in the mind as the id versus the superego. The problem with that fight is the same issue that occurs in the mind, that evil is only viewed as evil because the side of good says that it is. In the dystopian novels 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the concept of good and evil is explored. The two novels contrast in their views of the best way to rule a society, with the World State in Brave New World aids the id in overcoming the superego, while on the other hand in 1984 society the superego has crushed the id.
Sigmund Freud, a psychologist that lived from 1856 to 1939, developed a tripartite model for the human psyche. A majority of his theories …show more content…
have withstood the test of time and proven useful time and time again in psychology. His tripartite model for the human psyche splits the mind into two subconscious parts and one conscious part. The first unconscious area of the mind is called the id. Stephen Thorton describes the id as “that part of the mind in which are situated the instinctual sexual drives which require satisfaction.” (Thornton) These drives seek gratification at all costs and don’t care for the consequences. The other unconscious part of the mind is the superego. The superego is the opposite of the id. Lapsley and Stey believe “It is an agency that seeks to enforce the striving for perfection, as it holds out to the ego ideal standards and moralistic goals.” (Lapsley and Stey) The superego focuses on society’s standards and strives towards a moral perfection. The conscious part of the mind is called the ego. It is the decision maker and holds the balance between the id and superego. Thorton describes it thusly: “The ego is the conscious self that is created by the dynamic tensions and interactions between the id and the super-ego and has the task of reconciling their conflicting demands with the requirements of external reality.” (Thornton) These three parts of the mind must work in unison for the individual they work in to function at full capacity.
The World Controllers keep control of the World State by aiding the id in overcoming the filter of the superego by changing the societal views the superego uses for filters. They are able to do this by promoting the intake of soma, discouraging lasting relationships, and preaching the need for immediate gratification. The World State’s strategy for controlling its citizens differs from a lot of historical and other fictional methods in that the citizens do not feel as though they are being oppressed. They are told that the only good things in society are the things that make you immediately happy. This harmony between the societal values in the superego and the impulses of the id allow for a complete and utter dominance of society by the Controllers.
The first way that the Controllers keep order in the World State is through the distribution and promotion of soma.
By making it a societal norm to take a drug to be happy, the superego is promoting soma. The effects of soma are the desires of the id. The happy-go-lucky feeling that is produced is one of the primal feelings desired by the id. Another way that the World State controls the population is through the lack of lasting relationships. People are encouraged to move on from partner to partner with their sexual escapades and never forge any personal bonds. This not only prevents people from becoming close enough to conspire against the government, but it also prevents them from feeling strong emotions such as love. The final way that the World Controllers use the id and superego in tandem to oppress the people of the World State is through the idea of immediate gratification. Not only does “everyone belong to everyone else,” (Citation needed) but they also believe that immediate gratification leads to strong emotions that are undesirable. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning told Bernard that: “Alphas are so conditioned that they do not have to be infantile in their emotional behaviour. But that is all the more reason for their making a special effort to conform. It is their duty to be infantile, even against their inclination. (Huxley Page 98)” The infantile behavior that he is talking about is the manifestation of the id. The World Controllers use the superego and the id to control the World State.
The society in 1984 uses a different method of controlling its society. It uses the superego as a weapon to crush the id into submission. It does this through the Anti-Sex league, the fear of Big Brother, and the censure and erasure of political
enemies. The Anti-Sex league is a main way that the society crushes the id. The impulses of the id can lead to sexual actions and situations, which the league advocates against. The Anti-Sex league tells women in the Inner Party and Outer Party that sex is something that should only be done for reproductive reasons. When Winston is ruminating about the women in the society he thinks, “chastity was as deep ingrained in them as Party loyalty. By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them.” (CITE LATER) The figure of Big Brother and the fear it creates is another way that they use the superego for controlling the id. Big Brother’s rules are a prime example of societies rules and how they influence the mind. The final way that they control the id using the superego is the erasure of political enemies. The theory that they are employing is that you can’t have impulses to follow if you don’t know any ways to release them. These are the ways that the 1984 society uses the superego to suppress the id.
Although the societies in both Brave New World and 1984 have their own ways of controlling the population with psychological methods, there are still exceptions to their own psychological trends. There are actions or thoughts that are acceptable in society that seem to contradict the other rules and traditions. These exceptions include the fear of the islands in Brave New World and the two minute hate and the knowledge of the Brotherhood in 1984. In Brave New World, the only acceptable emotion to feel is happiness. There is only compliance to the impulses, no excessive thoughts or feelings. The islands, and the fear that they create, completely go against the known rules and values of the society. In 1984, on the other hand, the two minute hate is a strange, almost out of place event in society. When Winston is reflecting on the emotions of the two minute hate he remembers, “A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic." (Orwell 16) These feelings are a manifestation of the id, which isn’t seen anywhere else in the acceptable society. This might represent the overall power of the id, that if you try to repress it completely it will backfire, so it needs to be let out in a controlled environment. The other anomaly in 1984 is the Brotherhood. Possibly just a made up concept by the government for trapping rebels, it still goes against the usual rules of that society. The society that completely represses impulses and urges is unlikely to nurture a feeling of rebelliousness and hope in its people. These three concepts are the biggest outliers in the psychoanalytical view of these novels. In conclusion the battle between good and evil, the id and the superego, is not a healthy battle. If the id is the controlling part of the mind such as in Brave New World the people are happy and don’t realize anything. If the superego controls everything like the 1984 society then, there will be a constant struggle for a perfection that can never be reached. Both the society’s leaders chose these methods because they keep the population under their control. For a safe, happy, and healthy environment the id and superego need to work with the ego and live in harmony.
Sigmund Freud, a psychologist that lived from 1856 to 1939, developed a tripartite model for the human psyche. A majority of his theories …show more content…
have withstood the test of time and proven useful time and time again in psychology. His tripartite model for the human psyche splits the mind into two subconscious parts and one conscious part. The first unconscious area of the mind is called the id. Stephen Thorton describes the id as “that part of the mind in which are situated the instinctual sexual drives which require satisfaction.” (Thornton) These drives seek gratification at all costs and don’t care for the consequences. The other unconscious part of the mind is the superego. The superego is the opposite of the id. Lapsley and Stey believe “It is an agency that seeks to enforce the striving for perfection, as it holds out to the ego ideal standards and moralistic goals.” (Lapsley and Stey) The superego focuses on society’s standards and strives towards a moral perfection. The conscious part of the mind is called the ego. It is the decision maker and holds the balance between the id and superego. Thorton describes it thusly: “The ego is the conscious self that is created by the dynamic tensions and interactions between the id and the super-ego and has the task of reconciling their conflicting demands with the requirements of external reality.” (Thornton) These three parts of the mind must work in unison for the individual they work in to function at full capacity.
The World Controllers keep control of the World State by aiding the id in overcoming the filter of the superego by changing the societal views the superego uses for filters. They are able to do this by promoting the intake of soma, discouraging lasting relationships, and preaching the need for immediate gratification. The World State’s strategy for controlling its citizens differs from a lot of historical and other fictional methods in that the citizens do not feel as though they are being oppressed. They are told that the only good things in society are the things that make you immediately happy. This harmony between the societal values in the superego and the impulses of the id allow for a complete and utter dominance of society by the Controllers.
The first way that the Controllers keep order in the World State is through the distribution and promotion of soma.
By making it a societal norm to take a drug to be happy, the superego is promoting soma. The effects of soma are the desires of the id. The happy-go-lucky feeling that is produced is one of the primal feelings desired by the id. Another way that the World State controls the population is through the lack of lasting relationships. People are encouraged to move on from partner to partner with their sexual escapades and never forge any personal bonds. This not only prevents people from becoming close enough to conspire against the government, but it also prevents them from feeling strong emotions such as love. The final way that the World Controllers use the id and superego in tandem to oppress the people of the World State is through the idea of immediate gratification. Not only does “everyone belong to everyone else,” (Citation needed) but they also believe that immediate gratification leads to strong emotions that are undesirable. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning told Bernard that: “Alphas are so conditioned that they do not have to be infantile in their emotional behaviour. But that is all the more reason for their making a special effort to conform. It is their duty to be infantile, even against their inclination. (Huxley Page 98)” The infantile behavior that he is talking about is the manifestation of the id. The World Controllers use the superego and the id to control the World State.
The society in 1984 uses a different method of controlling its society. It uses the superego as a weapon to crush the id into submission. It does this through the Anti-Sex league, the fear of Big Brother, and the censure and erasure of political
enemies. The Anti-Sex league is a main way that the society crushes the id. The impulses of the id can lead to sexual actions and situations, which the league advocates against. The Anti-Sex league tells women in the Inner Party and Outer Party that sex is something that should only be done for reproductive reasons. When Winston is ruminating about the women in the society he thinks, “chastity was as deep ingrained in them as Party loyalty. By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them.” (CITE LATER) The figure of Big Brother and the fear it creates is another way that they use the superego for controlling the id. Big Brother’s rules are a prime example of societies rules and how they influence the mind. The final way that they control the id using the superego is the erasure of political enemies. The theory that they are employing is that you can’t have impulses to follow if you don’t know any ways to release them. These are the ways that the 1984 society uses the superego to suppress the id.
Although the societies in both Brave New World and 1984 have their own ways of controlling the population with psychological methods, there are still exceptions to their own psychological trends. There are actions or thoughts that are acceptable in society that seem to contradict the other rules and traditions. These exceptions include the fear of the islands in Brave New World and the two minute hate and the knowledge of the Brotherhood in 1984. In Brave New World, the only acceptable emotion to feel is happiness. There is only compliance to the impulses, no excessive thoughts or feelings. The islands, and the fear that they create, completely go against the known rules and values of the society. In 1984, on the other hand, the two minute hate is a strange, almost out of place event in society. When Winston is reflecting on the emotions of the two minute hate he remembers, “A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic." (Orwell 16) These feelings are a manifestation of the id, which isn’t seen anywhere else in the acceptable society. This might represent the overall power of the id, that if you try to repress it completely it will backfire, so it needs to be let out in a controlled environment. The other anomaly in 1984 is the Brotherhood. Possibly just a made up concept by the government for trapping rebels, it still goes against the usual rules of that society. The society that completely represses impulses and urges is unlikely to nurture a feeling of rebelliousness and hope in its people. These three concepts are the biggest outliers in the psychoanalytical view of these novels. In conclusion the battle between good and evil, the id and the superego, is not a healthy battle. If the id is the controlling part of the mind such as in Brave New World the people are happy and don’t realize anything. If the superego controls everything like the 1984 society then, there will be a constant struggle for a perfection that can never be reached. Both the society’s leaders chose these methods because they keep the population under their control. For a safe, happy, and healthy environment the id and superego need to work with the ego and live in harmony.