Ego, Superego And Id In Dr. Jekyll And Mr.

Ego, Superego, and Id in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Micah Sanders
Rockwall-Heath High School
As the novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” begins the character representing the Id is introduced. This part of the unconscious mind is shown through the character of Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde acts on his impulses completely disregarding any morality. ”The man trampled calmly over the, child’s body and left her screaming on the ground”,as Mr. Infield describes the incident with the child it becomes clear that Mr. Hyde does not care about the consequences of his actions, purely acting on whim (Stevenson). The character is contrasted by Dr. Jekyll, the ego. Jekyll tries to balance out the evil Hyde unleashed upon the world, by indulging in charity and other good

Freud when analyzing this case would look into Jekyll’s past and try to figure out what exactly happened in Jekyll’s childhood to cause him to want to split himself into two different entities. Freud’s “Id” theory is mostly focused on newborns, who have yet to learn right and wrong, this would suggest that Jekyll may have suffered a trauma in his childhood that caused a part of him to remain mentally in that stage of development. “The roots of Arrested Psychological Development are from past traumas or disturbances in childhood, adolescent or teen’s family of origin—specifically, to problems in the parent-child relationship in each childhood developmental stage” research has shown that being stuck in a stage of development “Arrested Psychological Development” is possible and it would would provide an explanation for Hyde’s lack of self control (Emotional). “ I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” Jekyll’s superego, the influence of the society around him, only guided a part of him,