You Just Don’t Understand

12 Pages 2926 Words

rejected or downplayed the instinctive nature of aggression, explaining it instead in terms of deficient ego function. The tension that hides behind aggression is the tension between the Id and the Ego. In childhood the id-- the primitive, gratification-seeking part of our psyche--dominates: We want it all our own way and we want it now. As we mature the ego becomes stronger and mediates between the blind internal id and the forces of reality in the world beyond. The ego is the repository of all those qualities that separate us from animals: the ability to defer immediate gratification for the long-term good, to plan for the future, to see the world through someone else’s eyes-and so to control our anger.” Sociological arguments present more or less the same viewpoint in simpler terms. Theorists of social control say that, because of the self-evident attractions of doing wrong, we all naturally tend toward selfishness and consequently aggression. But society requires that each of us give up a little of our selfish freedom in return for saf...