Thanatos is the death instinct that prompts such things as aggression, fighting,
violence, murder and masochism.
While these urges are often unconscious they also need to be expressed. Yet
society often disapproves of, or punishes, their expression. Hence a person
has an inner conflict between the need to express these urges and the fear of
social disapproval and punishment if they do express them. Therefore, to
some extent at least, these urges must be restrained or controlled.
The starting point to explain how humans try to control these urges is that each
individual has a fixed amount of psychic energy. This is divided among three
aspects of personality - the id, the ego and the superego. The id is the part that
drives our biological urges. The ego is formed when energy is diverted from
the id to energise cognitive processes such as perception, learning and
reasoning. The ego must on the one hand block the impulses from the id. On
the other it must find outlets for these impulses. Thus it is both servant and
master to the id. The superego develops from the ego. It internalises moral
standards and seeks perfection rather than an outlet for pleasure or aggression.
There is potentially conflict between these three aspects of the personality. The
id communicates basic needs and the ego seeks to restrain the id or to find an
acceptable outlet. The superego judges whether the ego is doing a good job.
An emotionally healthy person can handle the conflict and even feed off it. A
person who is not emotionally healthy cannot do this because their fixed
amount of psychic energy is unequally distributed among the three aspects.
Abraham Maslow
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail.
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Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) argued that humans are "wanting animals" who
usually want to do or achieve something. Once they have satisfied one need
they seek to satisfy another. Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy so that
we have to satisfy the lower need first before moving to the next one. The five
needs in the hierarchy, stated from the bottom up, are as follows. (i)
Physiological needs -
food, drink, sleep, oxygen, shelter and sex. (ii) Safety
needs - the need for a stable world free from violence and other disruption. (iii)
Belonging and loving needs -
the need for love, intimacy and affection. (iv)
Self-esteem needs -
the need for self respect and for respect from others. (v)
Self actualisation. Self actualisation is the deepest need. Broadly stated it is a
desire to fulfil ones highest potential. Since we are all different, the specific
details vary from person to person. In Maslow's own words: "A musician
must make
music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is ultimately to
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Abraham Maslow
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