psychology

The second is moral anxiety. This is what we feel when the threat comes not from the outer, physical world, but from the internalized social world of the superego. It is, in fact, just another word for feelings like shame and guilt and the fear of punishment.

Insight is being aware of the source of the emotion, of the original traumatic event. The major portion of the therapy is completed when catharsis and insight are experienced. What should have happened many years ago — because you were too little to deal with it, or under too many conflicting pressures — has now happened, and you are on your way to becoming a happier person.

Definitions of individual psyche structures

Freud proposed three structures of the psyche or personality:

• Id: a selfish, primitive, childish, pleasure-oriented part of the personality with no ability to delay gratification.
• Superego: internalized societal and parental standards of “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong” behaviour.
• Ego: the moderator between the id and superego which seeks compromises to pacify both. It can be viewed as our “sense of time and place”,