What is Truth? Psychology and Dialogue with the Transcendent

Sigmund Freud’s terminology of the id, the ego, and the superego describes various parts of the human mind, each responsible for specific behavior. The Id is the primitive or instinctive component of the personality. It is responsible for any primal want or desire. The id functions without the rational or conscious mind. The ego is a part of the id that mediates the primal desires of the id with the realities of the external world. That is, if there are desires that are outside the realms of reality or societal norms, the go places a sense of control on those desires. The superego is the part of the personality that incorporates the social standards or morals and thereby prevents the id from disassociating the individual from the society within which they live. For Freud, the healthy person balances the id, the ego, and the superego in such a way that the desires of the id are not repressed within the context of the superego’s morals. The relationship between the individual’s id, ego, and superego is what psychoanalysis attempts to view. It is still early when I am teaching this to students, but I often will ask: “How can we interpret id, ego, and superego Sacramentally?” Occasionally I will have a student respond, “According to Freud, human consciousness depends on the relationship between id, ego, and superego. Maybe the fact that mental health relies on this relationship can connect to the ideas that we rely on relationship to be our Authentic Self”. That’s pretty good. I don’t want to go too deep into it yet, but they are on the right track. My students are beginning to develop a sort of Sacramental Vision, viewing material Truths like the id, ego, and superego as potential signs pointing to more objective or transcendent Truths. Maybe even more importantly, they are allowing the material Truths which they can understand to be in dialogue with more transcendent Truths which are beyond human comprehension. Freud offers more regarding the conscious, unconscious, and preconscious mind.

The Grotto at Notre Dame, Indiana. I can only imagine the thousands of people who have brought their problems to the Blessed Virgin here, and not just during exams and football weekends. (photo P. Smith)