The final assignment for Understanding Media Studies was to create an Academic Plan of study for our time in the program. Below is my plan, although if I learned anything from my undergraduate study at the University of Delaware, its that you can't plan everything in your studies.
My Academic Plan
Career at The New School
I came to The New School in the fall of 2007 to work in the Office of Student Development and Activities (OSDA), managing the day-to-day operations of the office. As a result of the time that I spend at the office, I will be completing the Media Studies program at a slower than average pace, taking six credits per semester and expecting to complete the program in four years. The delay is worth it. Working at OSDA exposes me to great people in The New School community who do great things. The students and staff associated with OSDA epitomize the ideals presented in The New School’s mission statement.1 They provide inspiration that will be essential for me in my time in the Media Studies Program. For this time, I have a tentative four-year plan outlined below. Pending course availability, I may have to compromise the order in which I take some courses, but the bolded yearly goals are pretty well set in stone.
Year 1: Complete Required Courses
The MA program requires me to take three courses during my first year, and I am only able to take four classes per year. As a result I don’t have many choices to make in terms of which classes to take my first year. With that said, there are many decisions I can make in terms of how to best use those classes to help me in my future in the program.
Fall 2008
Understanding Media Studies (3 credits)
The program’s introductory course allowed me to materialize my plans for the program that are outlined in this Academic Plan, in addition to allowing me to produce a blog for me to post my progress in the program. See GeorgeDanielSaad.blogspot.com
Media Studies: Ideas (3 credits)
My final project for this required course includes an essay and presentation on “thinking and the media.” What does it mean to think? Does the media encourage or discourage thought? If so, is this a good thing? These are the questions raised in my project, which is currently in progress and will be posted to the blog listed above next week.
Spring 2009
Media Practices: Concepts (3 credits)
I am very excited to be registered for this course with Virgil Wong next semester (not quite as excited about the class meeting on Saturday mornings). I’ve heard great things about Virgil from several students and teachers, and it will be good to have such a good teacher for my first production course at The New School.
WNSR Radio Lab (3 credits)
At my job at OSDA, I prepare a weekly newsletter to be emailed on Fridays called “Stu Dev” that lists Development events going on the following week. Here is the paragraph that I typically use at the top of the newsletter.
To The New School Community,
Welcome to Stu Dev, OSDA's electronic newsletter and information resource for the exciting activities, events, and programs that The New School provides or encourages its students to attend. These events may include free admission to shows, discounted tickets to sporting events, volunteer opportunities around the City, or many other exciting events.
- The Office of Student Development and Activities
I am taking the WNSR Radio Lab course in an effort to deliver the information mentioned in Stu Dev in an audio form. Hopefully this audio program will be more interesting and attractive to the New School’s students. Each episode of the audio Stu Dev will include an interview with a student, teacher, staff member, or artist that is associated with an upcoming event at The New School, like an actor in one of The New School for Drama’s shows or a president of a student organization. Such interviews can provide valuable inside information about events that I could never convey on my own. I am interested in any ideas for StuDev that others at The New School have, and if you want to suggest something, or just register for the list serve, you can email me at studev@newschool.edu (please put “add me” in the subject line if you just want to be added to the list).
Year 2: Film Form
All of my coursework during my second year in the program will be related to the film form concentration within the program (a five course sequence). My research, abstracts, and literature review for the Understanding Media Studies class were related to the hero in mythology and film, and I intend to write a story about a heroic character for the Film Form concentration. I am not sure yet what the story will be about, but I do know that the ideals that the hero fights for will be relevant and significant in the present day. I spent the summer of 2008 watching films on my future viewing list and working as a extra/background actor (represented by Universal Talent Agency: http://www.universaltalentagency.com/). Over the summer of 2009, I intend to continue these efforts in order to gain experience and help me prepare for my second year in the program.2
Fall 2009
Storytelling through Visual Analysis (3 credits)
I want to take this course when Michelle Mattere, who teaches the course, returns from her sabbatical.
Aesthetics of Editing
It is a good idea to have editing in mind before finalizing the script, and I think this course will help me do so.
Spring 2010
Projects in Digital Video Editing (3 credits)
In this class, I will apply the theory that I learned in Aesthetics of Editing to put together small projects that I can use for my reel and as experience before I make my short film.
Script Analysis and Audience Response (3 credits)
I’ve discussed research in screenplay writing at great length in my literature review, and I will continue that research in this course.
Year 3: Complete Thesis
As I enter my third year in the program, I will have completed four out of the five courses in the film form concentration. I will spend the summer of 2010 storyboarding my short film, which I will complete when I take Media Practices: Film Form. Ideally, my short film work function as part of my thesis project, which I will begin working on in year 3.
Fall 2010
Media Practices: Film Form (3 credits)
I intend to take this course with Sam Ishii-Gonzales, a challenging professor that I feel can guide me in the task of making a film.
Sampling (1 credit)
Interviewing (1 credit)
Focus Groups (1 credit)
These research methods courses fulfill a requirement for completion of the program.
Spring 2011
Thesis Tutorial (3 credits)
Since I intend to utilize the thesis option offered by the program, the Thesis Tutorial is a useful (and required) class.
Fundamentals in Sociology of Media (3 credits)
Upon completion of the Media Studies program, I intend to continue my education through the New School for Social Research’s Ph. D. in sociology program.3 I have discussed this goal with Paolo Carpignano, and he explained that Fundamentals in Sociology of Media is the first of 3 prerequisites that I will have to take.
Year 4: Prepare for a Ph. D.
Once I have completed my short film, the next goal will be to complete my thesis project, which will help me prepare for my doctoral studies in sociology. I will spend the summer of 2011 outlining, planning, and working on my thesis.
Fall 2011
Foundations of Sociology (NSSR – 3 credits)
Fundamentals in Sociology of ______ Culture (NSSR – 3 credits)
The Media Studies program does allow students to take up to nine credits in programs other than Media Studies. I have chosen these two classes because they, like Fundamentals in Sociology of the Media are prerequisites for the Ph. D. program.
Note: The blank line preceding the word culture shows that NSSR offers different classes in different, specific cultures. The culture that I choose to take the class in will depend on what is offered during the semester that I take the course. If none of the courses offered in the Fall of 2011 are particularly interesting to me, I may wait to take this course until the Spring of 2012.
Spring 2012
Complete Thesis
Prepare for General Sociology Exam
In the spring of 2012 I will finalize my thesis and prepare for the General Sociology Exam (the final requirement for entrance into the Ph. D. program).
Summer 2012 and Beyond
Once I have completed the MA in Media Studies program, completed a short film, created a thesis project, and fulfilled the requirements for admittance in NSSR’s Ph. D. in sociology program, it will be time to take a vacation. I will spend the summer of 2012 traveling before returning in the fall and continuing my education. Learning about Media Studies and its sociological ramifications is a never-ending endeavor, and I look forward to confronting that challenge for the rest of my life.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Literature Review
Most of the comments that my TA, Barbara, sent along with my grade for this literature review were positive. She did criticize me, however, for bring too much of a structuralist in my analysis. This criticism was justified, and despite giving me an A, she suggested that I consider the implementation of post structuralism, deconstruction, the avant-garde, etc. for the future. I will do that, but for now, I'm posting this assignment in its original, structuralist form. Maybe structuralism doesn't have to be the foundation of everyone's study of storytelling (as I seem to suggest), but I do think it is the best possible foundation for my study. Besides, for non-structuralist analysis, I would need to review non-structuralist resources. And as you'll read below, most of the sources that I selected below (exception of Freud) are meant for structuralists. Enjoy!
The Fundamentals of Story
A Literature Review by George Saad
The Necessity of a Two-Fold Analysis
Storytelling is inherently linked to psychological theory. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud had two different but equally significant methods for evaluating unconscious desire, both of which are useful in the analysis of storytelling. Jung’s approach employs archetypes - psychological models for human personality and behavior, and Freud’s approach focuses on wish fulfillment – a concept that links unconscious desires to sexuality.
Stories typically follow triadic structure. That is to say, stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Screenwriters generally divide these three phases into three acts, and many of the resources used for this assignment are written specifically to discuss the three-act structure of films. However, it is important to recognize that the logic behind the three-act structure is the same as the logic that explains why all stories have a beginning, middle, and end. This logic involves a necessity for a transformation of consciousness for the hero of the story that is relevant to his/her desires. In this way, the triadic structure of the story is related to the theories of unconscious desire employed by Jung and Freud.
Joseph Campbell’s work of comparative mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which is the most comprehensive and historically significant discussion of patterns in mythology ever written.
Storytelling and the Unconscious
In a wonderful article entitled “The Literary Archetype: Some Reconsiderations,”
Lane’s emphasis on the inconsistent definition of the archetype among thinkers shows that one must be careful not to assume that
A contemporary of Jung was Austrian physician, Sigmund Freud, who evaluated unconscious desires not in terms of archetypes, but rather in relation to wish fulfillment. Freud asserts that the root of conscious desires is repressed sexuality and believes that these desires are established during a person’s childhood and maintained through adolescence and into adulthood. In one example, Freud explains that the male child sexually desires his mother, and has contempt for his father because the father is a dominating force that interferes with the child’s relationship with his mother. Freud named this theory the Oedipus Complex, after the Greek King who killed his father and married his mother. The Oedipus Complex is one case of the manifestation of wish fulfillment for a person (Galdston 322). Of course, most people don’t actually kill their father out of jealousy or marry their mother out of love. However, hatred for people like their father and love for people like their mother may be a result of an Oedipal Complex, a form of unconscious desire. According to Freud, a dominating unconscious desire like the Oedipus Complex shapes the reasons by which a storyteller writes a story, and unconscious desires of the audience affect their reaction to the story.[1]
In “Freud and the Analysis of Poetry,” Kenneth Burke offers a correction to this belief of Freud. Burke states that the poem should be analyzed in terms of multiple unconscious motives, rather than a single dominating one. Burke points out that Freud oversimplifies the motives of storyteller and in doing so misleads prospective storytellers in terms of answering the question of why to tell stories. By illustrating the complexity of the function of storytelling, Burke is successful in correcting Freud’s application of unconscious desires to storytelling, and perhaps more significantly, he provides inspiration for one to be an artist.
Some might connect more with Jung’s approach to unconscious desire, and others might connect more with that of Freud. Either way, Blake Snyder explains that one can evaluate an idea for a potential story and easily determine whether the idea will resonate with the unconscious desires of an audience by asking one simply question. In Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, Blake Snyder implores writers to ask themselves if their story is primal? A primal story, as Snyder explains, translates to humans at their most basic form, as cavemen. That is to say, primal stories reflect the natural impulse of humans. Cavemen understand love, and the desire to protect loved ones. Cavemen understand fear, and the desire to escape pain and suffering. If a story is primal, a caveman will be able to connect with the issues that it presents, and if a caveman can do that, anyone can. Snyder explains that the best stories in the world are always primal because anyone can relate to them.
The Triadic Structure of the Story
The primal question of a story is the conflict, the problem that the story addresses as its central theme. The triadic structure of the story is a reflection of the process of problem solving. First, a problem must be identified. Second, attempts to solve the problem must be carried out. Finally, a resolution to the problem is reached. In this sense a story could be about any sort of problem. However, it is important to note that more interesting stories have complex problems without obvious solutions.
When applying
Of course, the two plot points are not the only significant moments of a film/story. One good source for a checklist to ensure that your story hits all the required story points with sufficient dramatization is Linda Seger’s Making a Good Script Great. Seger points out that the introduction of a problem occurs in a film at an inciting incident, an event that sets the story in motion. After the inciting incident the hero must go through a period of debate, where he decides what to do, and only after the debate does he make the decision of plot point 1 that moves the story into act two.
Act two of the story involves facing obstacle after obstacle, but at Seger points out, these obstacles should not be confronted in a random order. Act two of the story is about character growth for the hero. As a result, the obstacles should get progressively more difficult as the second act continues. Eventually, the obstacles become so overwhelming that the hero loses all hope. The lessons that he has learned on his journey, however, will allow him to regain hope, and in doing so he is prepared to make the decision of plot point two that moves the story into act three.
It is important not to confuse plot point two of a story with the climax of that story. Plot point two occurs when the hero has made the decision to face the ultimate challenge, the climax of the story occurs when the hero actually faces that challenge. In his second book, Save the Cat Goes to the Movies, Blake Snyder breaks down several notable films by their three act structure. One film that Snyder is discusses was my favorite film growing up, Disney’s The Lion King. Snyder correctly points out that the second plot point of The Lion King occurs when Simba tells Nala, Timon, and Pumba that it is time for him to return to Pride Rock and become King. The climax, however, is when Simba actually fights and defeats Scar, and in doing so becomes King.
The method that Snyder employs of looking at notable films and identifying the critical scenes of each is an extremely useful exercise. After all, it is this same basic method that allowed Joseph Campbell to identify the similar elements of all stories and establish the monomyth in the first place. Snyder mentions in his writing that he has studied
Another useful source for employing this methodology is Thomas Pope’s Good Scripts Bad Scripts: Learning the Craft of Screenwriting Through 25 of the Best and Worst Films in History. It may be fairly obvious that studying the best scripts/stories in history can help a screenwriter learn the structure of stories and thus be able to create their own story that is good. What is not as obvious, however, is that looking at historically bad scripts can be just as useful to screenwriters because it shows what not to do, what doesn’t work, and why it doesn’t work. The answer to what works and doesn’t work, of course, involves the question of primality/primalcy/primalness (none of which are real words) that Snyder raises. Pope’s examples are, like Snyder’s, useful exercises for a person that wants to get a firm grasp on the art of storytelling.
One final resource related to the structure of the story is Robert McKee’s creatively named book: Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. McKee is a former Fulbright scholar who has worked as a screenwriter for several television shows and feature films in addition to working as a consultant for film production companies. I have yet to read a screenwriting book that does not mention or credit McKee in some way, and I believe that in many ways McKee does for screenwriting with Story what Joseph Campbell did for storytelling as a whole with The Hero with a Thousand Faces. That is to say, McKee outlines the path of the journey for the film hero in a way that can be useful and understandable for anyone that cares to watch the film.
Relevance to Future Work
I have argued in this review that there is nothing new for academics to learn in terms of the utility of storytelling and the structure of the story. The work of Jung, Freud, Campbell, McKee, Field, and many others has already established everything we will ever need to know about storytelling. I have also argued that the very practice of reviewing the work of the thinkers previously mentioned and thinking about the logic behind the theories they present is invaluable experience for a storyteller. If what Jung says about archetypes is true, it must be possible for a person to understand the structure of the story without such research because the archetypes by their nature resonate with the mind naturally at an unconscious level. That said, this research is a useful exercise because to a degree, it brings the archetypes to a conscious level.
In a future project within this program, I want to create an original story about a hero that follows the monomyth. I want this hero to be universally relatable, and I want his journey to be a reflection of the struggles and dilemmas that people are forced to deal with in the present day. In a time of war and economic recession, I’m sure that deciding on a primal problem, a dramatic need for my hero that is relatable, is an accomplishable task. However, I never would have properly identified this task as that which is at hand for me in my studies without a review of the literatures cited in this article. I still don’t know what the hero of my story will look like, what he will believe in, or even if he will be a he, but I understand that the possibilities are limitless and the way to approach this issue involves the advice that Joseph Campbell discusses in his conversation with Bill Moyers called The Power of Myth.
Works Cited
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton University Press, 1949).
and Art Criticism, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Dec., 1954), pp. 226-232. Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/425915
Kenneth Burke, “Freud-And the Analysis of Poetry,” The American Journal of Sociology,
Vol. 45, No. 3 (Nov., 1939), pp. 391-417. Published by: The
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2769854
Harry Goldgar, “Review: Jung and the Freudians,” The Hudson Review, Vol. 41, No. 3
(Autumn, 1988), pp. 575-580. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3851502
Iago Galdston, “Sigmund Freud: A Critical Summary and Review,” Isis, Vol. 40, No. 4
(Nov., 1949), pp. 316-327. Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf
of The History of Science. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226366.
Blake Snyder, Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need (Michael
Wiese Productions, 2005).
Blake Snyder, Save the Cat Goes to the Movies (Michael Wiese Productions, 2007).
Christropher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, Third Edition
(Michael Wiese Productions, 2007).
Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (Delta Publishers, 2005).
Robert McKee, Story: Substance Structure, Style, and Principles of Screenwriting (Harper
Entertainment, 1997).
Linda Seger, Making a Good Script Great, Second Edition (Samuel French Trade, 1994).
Thomas Pope, Good Scripts Bad Scripts: Learning the Craft of Screenwriting Through 25 of
the Best and Worst Films in History (Three Rivers Press, 1998).
Carol S. Pearson, The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By (Harper One Publishing,
1998).
Syd Field’s Screenwriting Workshop DVD Learning Series (Harley’s House Productions,
1999).
Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth: A Conversation with Bill Moyers (Apostrophe S.
Productions, 1988).
[1] Freud is actually referring specifically to poetry in his discussion, but the ideas he presents are generalized sufficiently to be applicable to other forms of storytelling.
Abstracts
The next assignment was to choose three scholarly sources to be used later in a literature review and write abstracts of them. Not much introduction is needed here, so without further ado, this is what I came up with...
Abstracts
Abstracts
Joseph Campbell defines mythology as the stories and legends told by human beings through the ages to explain the Universe and their place in it (page 4). According to
Before the hero embarks on his journey, he is introduced in a mundane, ordinary world and presented with a problem. The hero recognizes this problem as one that affects not just him, but humanity as a whole. In some cases, the hero initially refuses his call to solve this problem before a mentor convinces him to do so. The hero then crosses his first threshold and enters a new world. In this new world, he faces many obstacles. The hero will struggle with these challenges and hit rock bottom, doubting both himself and the ideals in which he is fighting for, before seizing the courage to overcome his ultimate challenge. After doing so, he will return to his home world, bringing an elixir with him. This elixir can be a physical item representing the lessons he has learned, or it can simply be the knowledge he has gained that allowed him to have a positive influence on both worlds.
But many storytellers don’t. Rather, they decide which story they want to tell based on a funny idea for a situation, an elaborate vision for a fight scene, or another revelation that has nothing to do with character growth (major studios are especially guilty of this crime). In such cases, the storyteller is attempting to build a house without a foundation. Since
Stories that should be told, however, are easier to complete and make psychologically compelling with the aid of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In perhaps the most famous of examples, George Lucas wrote Star Wars with
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The function of
Lane’s strategy for tackling this problem involves giving a history of the usage of the term, considering if there is such thing as an “archetypal author,” and listing five points of emphasis related to her own definition of the term. She appeals to psychologist Carl Jung to state the formal psychological position of the archetype, and she explains that the literary archetype is similar to the psychological archetype in that it affects the reader on a subconscious level. Jung recognized a distinction between introversive writers (who remain aware that their writing serves the purpose of the author) and extravertive writers (who allow their work of writing to take a mind of its own). According to Lane, this distinction is central to the problem of defining the archetype because of the unconscious origination of the story in extravertive writing.
Lane’s work is somewhat limited in its application of the archetype to introvertive writers. She suggests that in order to properly utilize the literary archetype, the writer must let the story write itself rather than shaping a story to fit the author’s purpose (as extraverts do). However, a study of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth allows for both types of writers to shape a compelling story. Of course, his work was a much more ambitious piece of writing. Lane’s contribution to the field did involve a deep understanding of the necessity for literary critics to come to an agreement on how to define the archetype and the means by which to reach that agreement. Her failure came in having too strict qualifications for the literary critic that needs to be involved in that agreement.
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Kenneth Burke’s Freud – And the Analysis of Poetry examines the relationship between the poet and the neurotic as symbolics. Burke offers a two-fold correction to Freud’s analysis. First, Burke states that the poem should be discussed as a synthesis of multiple motives rather than as a result of one main motive. Second, he suggests that Freud fails to recognize the matriarchal factors involved in a literary work that are related to a change in identity for either the characters in the poem, the reader of the poetry, the poet himself, or all of the above. Burke’s thesis is that the recognition of these two points allows for a better understanding of the function of poetry.
Burke, like Freud, assumes a correlation between the unconscious desires of the poet and the reasons by which he is writing the poem. Two of the key terms related to this relationship are communication and wish fulfillment. Wish fulfillment is a Freudian term referencing unconscious desires (that are generally linked in some way to sexuality). Burke denounces wish fulfillment in favor of communication, which he says is a less misleading word for analyzing poetry since poems are usually written with the intent to be read by others.
Burke’s strategy for supporting his thesis is to analyze Freud’s poetic analysis in terms of other poets and thinkers, including Coleridge, Henry James, and Von Hartmann. Von Hartmann’s idea that art is the externalizing of a unique character’s special inwardness is particularly crucial to Burke’s adjustments to a Freudian analysis of poetry (page 408).
One weakness of Burke’s work is that by putting focus on the matriarchal factors involved with the literary work, he undermines the patriarchal element that Freud is so careful to point out. Burke would have you believe that the Oedipus complex stems from the relationship of child and mother, but Freud’s bigger point is that the mother serves as a token of the rivalry between the father and son (a rivalry with which the father dominates, and continues to dominate until the son has his own son). However, Burke’s other point of thesis, that the poem should be analyzed in terms of multiple motives, has proven to be a significant idea for understanding the complex nature of poetry and the mind of the poet. Burke points out that Freud oversimplifies the motives of the poet and in doing so is misleading for prospective poets in answering the question of why to create poetry. In this way, showing the complexity of the function of art and therefore inspiring reasons for one to be an artist is Burke’s main contribution to the field.
Works Cited
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (
Art Criticism, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Dec., 1954), pp. 226-232. Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/425915
Kenneth Burke, “Freud-And the Analysis of Poetry,” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol.
45, No. 3 (Nov., 1939), pp. 391-417. Published by: The
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2769854
Intellectual Autobiography
The first assignment for my Understanding Media Studies class was to construct an "Intellectual Autobiography." I feel like I could have rambled on for twenty more pages than I did and still not said everything I wanted to say, but it was a nice way to start not only the class, but the program as a whole.
An Autobiography of my Intellectual History
By: George Saad
My education background is in psychology, English, and philosophy, with the latter being my minor and the former two being my majors. What brought me to the Media Studies program at The New School is a profound love for storytelling as a means to illustrate the complexities of the difference between right and wrong. In my studies, I have found that it is difficult -- probably impossible to find a distinct criterion with which to determine whether an action is right or wrong. I have found it much easier, however, to identify the fundamental difference between good and evil. Good people are aware of the needs of others and take interest in others doing well. Evil people are either unaware others or worse, they harbor ill will towards them. To create an account of my intellectual history is to see why my studies led me to this definition of good and evil. As such, it is necessary to begin with a discussion of Freud’s structural model of the human psyche.
In this model, the id, ego, and superego represent three streams of thought in the human mind. The instinctual needs of a person are demanded by the id. The id tells a person he[1] should eat when he is hungry and that he should sleep when he is tired. On a more complex level, the id tells him to take revenge on a person when he is angry and that he should kiss someone when he is in love. The id represents a person’s unfiltered, impulsive reactions to a situation. In order to prevent a world of chaos and violence, the id of the individual must be held in check.
The ego represents the realistic expectations of an individual. When a hungry person waits to eat until their food until it is cooked, it is because their ego made him aware that cooked food is healthier. When an angry person refrains from killing because of the consequences of that action, it is because of the involvement of the ego. When a person decides not to force himself upon someone he desires because the other person does not reciprocate his feelings, it is the ego that stops him. The ego, like the id, is necessary to the survival of the individual in a world where he must exist with others, but like the id, the ego is capable of destroying the individual if it is allowed to reign free.
In order to prevent this from happening, the superego mediates between the id and the ego. When a tired person is driving, it is the superego that determines that the ego’s argument for staying awake (that falling asleep at the wheel is dangerous) is better than the id’s argument for going to sleep (that he is tired). The id, ego, and superego were significant in not only my psychology classes, but they were also a component of my studies in English and philosophy. Freud’s model of the unconscious can be used to analyze actions of characters in literature and to diagnose those with mental dysfunction, but I am especially fascinated with identifying the genetic and environmental factors that shape the decisions made by the superego in the mediating process.
For this purpose, it is useful to take notice of the narcissist, who is characterized by self-love and is by definition only interested in and aware of his own needs and desires. In one of my past research projects, I studied the correlation between narcissism and sexual aggression. I had hypothesized that the narcissist’s superego is dominated by his id, causing the realistic understanding of his ego that sex must be consensual to be ignored. The result of the study, however, showed that the narcissist’s ego is lacking in the realistic understanding that sex may not be consensual. In this sense, the narcissist is failed by the ego, not the superego.[2] The sexual aggression of the narcissist is a result of his warped sense of reality. He is not evil by the standards of evil in our reality because he does not exist outside the fantasy world of his mind – a world where only he has needs and desires.
The example of the narcissist shows that true evil, in the most realistic terms, exists when a person knows that he is interfering with the happiness of others, or when he is actively trying to prevent their happiness. Sexual aggression by the narcissist is bad, but sexual aggression by someone who actually knows that the other person does not desire him is worse. If the ego provides misinformed details about reality to the superego, then the superego can be seduced by the id.
No work of art better illustrates this principle better than my favorite piece of literature, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which was written roughly two hundred years before Freud created his model for the human psyche. Throughout his journey, Gulliver meets both logical, reasonable creatures that represent the ego (like the Liliputians) and impulsive animal-like creatures that represent the id (the yahoos). It is Gulliver’s task in his travels to evaluate both types of creatures and mediate between their existences. Gulliver is the superego. When Gulliver begins to see all humans as yahoos, he starts to doubt the ability of mankind to do anything beyond fulfill their own instinctual desires. That is to say, Gulliver believes that all men are id-dominated.[3] In making this judgment, Gulliver suggests that all men are corrupt. In this way, Gulliver’s Travels raises the question: are men inherently corrupt or do they acquire their corruption over time?
This question is significant to a discussion of the id, ego, and superego because men are born with the id while the ego and superego are developed over time. If the corruption of men is found in the ego and the superego, the corruption must not have existed at birth. However, if the corruption occurs in the id, then the corruption of the person existed at birth. The assumption is that all men have the capability of being villains. Some men are born villains, while others become villains over time. For Swift, this assumption was obvious because of the state of the European government in the eighteenth century. For Freud, this assumption was obvious because of the relatively consistent results he was getting from psychoanalyzing various subjects. The degrees of corruption that Freud found varied, but the presence of corruption, at least at the unconscious level, was reliable.
When studying this phenomenon, I find it helpful to look at an entity that may appear, at first glance, to disprove the assumption that all humans are corrupt. That entity is the hero. The brilliant Joseph Campbell discusses the journey of the hero in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
It is the goal of my research to integrate Freud’s model of the id, ego, and superego with
[1] In this paper I will use male pronouns, but it should be noted that the ideas being discussed apply equally to both men and women.
[2] The id can never fail a person because there is no conscious element to the id as there is with the ego and superego.
[3] It is important to recognize that there may be differences to what Gulliver feels and what Swift himself believes.
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