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Id and superego according to Freud and individual and civilization
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Id and superego according to Freud and individual and civilization
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A Freudian Perspective of Marlow in Heart of Darkness
On the surface, Heart of Darkness is the exploration of the African Congo where the explorers are trying to conquer the natives and make a profit in the ivory business. However, there is much more to the short novel written by Joseph Conrad than just the surface. It is also the exploration of the unconscious where the goal is to conquer the unknown. At the same time when Heart of Darkness was surfacing in the 20th century society, a psychologist named Sigmund Freud was publishing his research findings. Freud’s research of the unconscious and Conrad’s journey into darkness is remarkably similar. John Tessitore, a modern critic, says of the similarity, "...it is enough simply to observe that two great minds found themselves arriving at identical conclusions and expressed those conclusions through the modes of their individual disciplines" (Tessitore 93). Specifically comparable are Conrad’s exploration of the mind and Freud’s exploration of the id, superego, and ego.
In Freud’s research on the mind he found three functional areas--the id, the superego, and the ego. These interrelated parts permit the self to function in society. The id is the innermost component of the three. It is the extreme unconscious. This is where the child-like unsocialized drives and instinctual impulses arise. The id knows no rules and does not abide to any external logical laws. It is only ruled by the desire for pleasure. When the id sees something it wants, all it says is, "I want that, I want that, I want that," like a young child in a toy store. The id is selfish; it represents self-centeredness in its purest form.
According to Freud, the superego is the middle functional part ...
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...een, Marlon Brando, and Robert Duvall. Paramount, 1979.
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Guerard, Albert J. Conrad the Novelist. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard U. Press, 1958.
Hayes, Dorsha. “Heart of Darkness: An Aspect of the Shadow,” Spring (1956): 43-47
Ryf, Robert. "Joseph Conrad." Columbia Essays on Modern Writers. New York: Columbia UP, 1970. 17-21.
McLynn, Frank. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carol & Gey, 1992.
Tessitore, John. "Freud, Conrad, and Heart of Darkness." Modern Critical Interpretations." Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 91-103.
Spivack, Charlotte. "The Journey to Hell: Satan, The Shadow, and the Self." Centennial Review 9:4 (1965): 420 - 437.