PSYC 3140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 67: Reality Principle, Cathexis
9 May 2018
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PSYC 3140
Lecture 67
i. The Ego - the component of the personality that is responsible for
locating events in the environment that will satisfy the needs of the
id without violating the values of the superego.
2. The job of the Ego is to match the wishes of the id with their
counterparts in the physical environment.
3. The ego is governed by the reality principle, because the objects it
provides must result in real rather than imaginary satisfaction of a need.
4. (in the service of the id). The ego’s job is to find ways of effectively
satisfying needs without violating the values of the superego.
5. When such a way is found, the ego invests energy in it, a process
called cathexis.
a. Cathexis is an investment of psychic energy in thoughts of objects
or processes that will satisfy a need.
b. If an available way to satisfy a need violates a person’s values,
energy is expended to inhibit its utilization, in which case an
anticathexis occurs.
c. When an Anticathexis occurs, the person displaces the anxiety
provoking object or event to one that does not cause anxiety.
1. The realistic activities of the ego are called secondary
processes, and they contrast with the unrealistic
primary processes of the id.
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