Could the duality of God and Satan be a primitive understanding of Superego and Id?

Question

I don't accept Freud without reservations. But do you suppose that, historically, the parts of the human mind called 'Superego' and 'Id' could have been misinterpreted as 'outside agents' trying to convince the individual (the 'Ego') to make certain decisions? Do you suppose that people without an understanding of how the mind works could have merely concluded that those 'voices in their heads' were omniscient beings?

Note that I'm not presuming anything about the _existence_ of God and Satan, merely our _perceptions_ thereof.

Belindita, it's a question about our perceptions of the human mind and our perceptions of the divine. Freud proposed that the mind has component parts called 'superego' and 'id'. My question is whether before Freud elucidated the concepts, if humans attributed these thought processes to God and Satan?

In other words, when a person hundreds of years ago felt the influence of his 'id', do you think he attributed those thoughts to Satan? Could it explain some, if not all, of the millions of people who claim that God and/or Satan has spoken to them?

It's not exactly a question that denies the existence of God and Satan. It's more about how we percieve, or think we percieve, them.

Answer 1

Thanks for the clarification.
First of all, I believe that id and superego and God and Satan (good and evil) have always coexisted.
I am sure that most people attributed these voices to God or to Satan. Before Freud, people were "closer" to God, so maybe that's why they were more "aware" of the sources of these "inner voices".
But it's not surprising. The person/ego has always been torn between good and evil, and the Bible has some quotes on this. For example, Jesus said to his disciples: "Watch and pray, that you don't enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Which brings us to the subject of temptation, which would be the struggle of the person/ego between good and evil (same as between superego and id). It is always our freedom at play, making decisions, decisions...
Of course we are not talking here about some mental problems where people claim to hear voices. We're talking about regular people.
All of us have a little inner voice that tells us what to do and what not to do. Call it moral conscience, guardian angel, God, but it seems that still today, people hear these voices, and they may very well be the same ones you refer to in your question.
I had never thought about the parallelism between Freud's terms and evil/good, and I find it very interesting. Just remember that the superego is formed by our parent's rules, but then again, God is our father.
Interesting! Either people already knew this, or you, edsawyer, have made a discovery!

Answer 2

I have had thoughts along these lines many times. And it makes sense to me. You only seem to forget that this is Yahoo!Answers, don't expect too many intelligent answers.

Funny to see how bible-thumpers talk almost about nothing else than homosexuality, adultery, masturbation and pornography, yet call Freud too pervertic.

But yeps, it would make sense if the bible was written by people who had practically no knowledge of what was really going on.

Note that the Bible never talks about reasons for any behaviour. It only relates to humans who live within 'normal' boundries. 'Thou shallt not kill' from 3000 years ago, has in this modern world changed into psycho-analyses, psychology and psychiatry to try and understand why a killer kills.

To paraphrase an answer you gave me once: We humans evolved much faster than God did. It's difficult to argue with a God who is less developed than us humans are.

Answer 3

Personally I don't believe that God and Satan are the Superego and the Id because I think Freud was a pervert. He had so many sexual hangups that he thought everything was a sexual matter. I much prefer Jung.

Answer 4

No Guy. Afraid not. There is to many atheist that will not fall back on their Id. No misinterpretation. The human mind is it's on entity, so to speak. And God and Satan are separate individual persons that existed long before man came on the scene.

Answer 5

The superego is still part of the self - the thing that's an individual consciousness. Those who have an enlightenment experience, experience reality as non-dual (no separateness, no such thing as 'self as opposed to other things'), with the underlying foundation as a viable, rich Void ("God") that IS us/everything and that shows us the illusory nature of this thing we call the 'self'. The usual concepts of god are pretty much projections of our self - all aspects of it (the id, ego, superego) with the positive (reward, love, joy) and the negative (punishment, hell, sin, guilt).

That said, many of the concepts of heaven, hell, satan, god (again the CONCEPTS of god) are typically metaphors for states of mind of our ego self, with satan representing the negative aspects.

Answer 6

No. God is infinately more powerfull than Satan. He created Satan. The arc-angel Michael defeated Satan without God's help. Therefore, it is not a duality.

Answer 7

Why not? Some people believe in the duality of God/Jesus based on a book. Why not a duality of God/Satan based on psychology? They are both belief systems, they both attempt to explain "why", and they both have their supporters and detractors.

Answer 8

NO. Satin and God are real and they are not an understanding of another 2 people. they are seperate. completely different you could not understand the that satin has unless you see it. and you could never concieve the love jesus has for you unles you accept it.

Answer 9

Yeah or the dualism of Man Woman.

Answer 10

id say im going to incorporate that thought in my future writings for an explanation