WHAT IS SIGMUND FREUD'S PSYCHIC APPARATUS? - ARTE - 2025

The psychic apparatus refers to the human mind from the psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud. The famous psychologist uses this term to refer to a psychic structure capable of transmitting, transforming and containing psychic energy.

According to the first Freudian theory (1900), the psychic apparatus is divided into three levels, the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious. This structure is composed of three instances that coexist and interrelate with each other, integrating themselves at different levels.

These instances are the id, the ego and the superego, which are described from the second topic or theory proposed by Freud in 1923 to understand the functioning of the psyche.

In this way, the psychic apparatus is made up of systems that have their own characteristics and different functions. Interacting with each other and generating the different psychic elaborations.

The main function of the psychic apparatus is to keep internal energy in constant balance, the principle of homeostasis being the rule under which it works.

Its objective is to keep the levels of arousal as low as possible, that is, the increase in psychic energy that can be produced by both internal and external factors.

For Freud, the psychic apparatus is the result of the elaboration of the Oedipus complex by means of which the identifications with the parents are produced in the child.

Concepts inherent to the operation of the psychic apparatus

Sigmund Freud, a neurologist considered the father of psychoanalysis, was interested in understanding the dilemma of symptoms that did not have a scientific explanation to explain them. As a result of his research, he came across a psychic functioning hidden behind the physical symptoms.

He conceived in each individual the existence of a psychic apparatus whose base is an unconscious full of desires and needs that make up the internal world of each subject.

Outside this unconscious is an external world, full of stimuli, with which the individual constantly interacts.

Pleasure and displeasure

Freud reduced all emotions and feelings into two main affects: pleasure and displeasure. Pleasure is produced by the satisfaction of one's own need and desire, while displeasure is produced by the frustration produced by the non-fulfillment of said desire. Other affects will be derived from those two main affects.

It is through the pleasure principle that the psychic apparatus will govern its operation. Its function is to moderate the excessive variations of psychic energy to prevent its disorganization and preserve its structure.

In this way, the psychic apparatus will try to keep the energy level in balance, which tends to become unbalanced by means of stimuli from both inside and outside.

This is a law of the psychic apparatus, called the principle of homeostasis. It is through it that the psychic apparatus tries to level the amount of pleasure and displeasure, keeping these amounts in balance.

In this way, from the psychoanalytic perspective proposed by Freud, psychoanalysis tries to explain the functioning of the psyche, highlighting the importance and existence of an unconscious that is at the base, or supports this structure.

At the same time it underlines the importance of the role of impulses (understood in terms of sexual energy).

He elaborates a theory of the psyche from a dynamic point of view, as the component instances of the psychic apparatus interrelate with each other, generate and resolve conflicts of different kinds.

From an economic point of view, the functioning of the psychic apparatus is considered in relation to the amount of energy present in it.

This energy can accumulate and generate a psychic tension which the psyche will have to resolve, always trying to maintain its balance to avoid its overflows, and meanwhile, the symptoms in the subject.

The component elements of the psychic apparatus in the first Freudian topic

In his first topic (1900), Freud divided the psychic apparatus into three levels, which are at the same time three constitutive elements of it.

• Aware
• Preconscious
• Unconscious

The conscious system is related to perception and memory. Not because it is capable of memorizing (this corresponds to the preconscious system), but because one of its functions is to remember.

From the outside in, it can be located as the first system, between the outside world and the preconscious.

The function of this system is to record information from both worlds, the internal and the external. Being his main responsibility to perceive the stimuli coming from both.

The functions inherent in this system are those related to reasoning, thinking and recall or recall. It is the conscious that has dominion and control over them.

Consciousness

It is associated with consciousness, understood as the psychic act by means of which the individual perceives himself as someone differentiated from the world that surrounds him. This system directly relates the subject to the outside world through perception.

Consciousness is located in the present, so the subject is aware in the act of all the experiences that he is living through the perception of reality. This system is governed by pleasure, which you will try to achieve by all means.

The conscious has a moral character, and it is between the three levels, the one that will demand order from the other two systems with which it relates.

Preconscious

The preconscious system could be located between the other two systems. In it are the thoughts or experiences that were no longer conscious but that can be conscious again through the effort of the latter to recall them.

It is in this system where the thoughts that are not in consciousness but also in the unconscious system are found, since they have not been subjected to any censorship.

That is, the thoughts housed in this system have been stripped of consciousness because it is constantly perceiving.

It is in this way that the information that arrives through the perceptions will cease to be in the conscious system to pass to the preconscious system, being able to pass from one system to another without major inconveniences.

This system therefore contains elements that come from the external world and consciousness. Also those that advance from the unconscious towards consciousness, acting as a filter to prevent the passage of those who may cause them some damage.

Unconscious

The unconscious system is one that contains all the thoughts and perceptions that have been rejected by the conscience and in which a censorship has operated.

These contents are mostly the representatives of those elements repressed in childhood. They refer to everything that has been denied by repression, as they generate displeasure to consciousness. It is in this way that the unconscious system is governed by the pleasure principle.

These elements try to access consciousness by generating a force or kind of psychic tension which is limited or stopped by means of censorship.

This system is described as the space where repressed impulses, feelings, desires and memories lie as they conflict with the morality of consciousness. Therefore, these elements are inaccessible to it.

The unconscious is characterized by being timeless. It has no notion of past or future, but rather it is always present. Everything that happens in it is current in nature.

The structure of the psychic apparatus in the second Freudian topic

As Freud progressed in his research, in 1923 he made a reformulation of the theory of the psychic apparatus presented so far.

This new theory or second topic complements the one previously proposed. Freud then presents the psychic apparatus divided into three instances:

• The It
• The I
• The super me

The It

The Id is the place where the psychic energies of an erotic or libidinal nature are found, the psychic energies of aggressive or destructive origin and those of a sexual nature.

This instance is constituted by impulses of instinctual origin, governed by the pleasure principle (search for immediate satisfaction of the impulse). That is, it represents instinct.

The It is all unconscious, but only a portion of it is possessed of repressed elements, because in the rest, it is where the elements of hereditary and innate character are found.

The I

The I is the one who comes to represent the conscience or the conscious of the previous topic. It is in a dependent relationship with respect to the Id and the Super-ego.

It is the psychic instance in charge of defending the subject against the perception of something unpleasant, starting the process of repression.

The Ego acts as a mediator between the subject and the reality coming from the external world and between the Id and the Super-ego.

By being in contact with reality, the I is presented as adaptive. Being responsible for keeping the body in balance.

The superego

The superego is the third component instance of the psychic apparatus, resulting from a separation from the ego. He appears as a critic and judge censuring him. It is the unconscious part of the personality that controls conscious activities.

The superego represents the ideas of self-preservation, moral conscience, self-criticism, guilt and self-punishment, among others. Its mission is to go against the gratification of impulses that break with the ethics and morals of the subject.

It is the support of all prohibitions and of all social and cultural obligations. It is an instance formed from the Oedipus complex, where the child manages to identify with the parents, with their demands and prohibitions.

This instance is then representative of the ideals to which the I aspires to be.

At the end of his theory, Freud makes a synthesis where the elements and psychic instances are integrated.

These are some Freudian conceptualizations corresponding to the elaboration of the constitutive theory of the psychic apparatus and its functioning.

References

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