freud example, mugen train

Freud's theory can be seen in hundreds of films and storys as a whole but for todays example i'll be looking at the 2020 film kimetsu no yaiba: mugen train based on the popular book series, this entry in the series features a great example of the id the ego and the super ego and despite the film being part of a larger series the characters i will be looking at are all indtroduced in this entry so the fil itselfs provides all the nessecary information for my analysis the film focuses on a group of demon slayers who have borded the tictular train in order to investigate the reported sightings of demon, at the begining of the film the main characters from previous entries alomgside the audience are introduced to a senior member of the demon slayers named kyojuro Rengoku who will be commanding the current mission, as the film progresses we learn more about kyojuro as a person and learn that when he was young his now deceased mother instilled him with various life values including the philosiphy that the strong must nurture and protect the weak. kyojuro here is the ego whilst his mother is the super ego, she is the voice in his head who thoughtout his life reminds him of whats right. at the films climax the mugen train is derailed by a powerful force which is revealed to be the upper rank 3 demon named Akaza who will be the id here, demons in this series are humans who have gave up thier humanity in exchange for power and near imortality and thus have no morals, freely killing and indulging in anything they find pleasure in and akaza embodies this mentallity. this brings us to the scene in question, at the latter end of the film Kyojuro and Akaza engage in a battle of both words and weapons, whilst they physically clash their idiologies also clash as Akaza attempts to convince kyojuro to join him as a demon

from akaza's entry he is shrouded in shadow and it is made clear the differences between his and kyojuro's ideoldgies, these two characters are clearly contrasting with akaza embodying the idea of the id, this is clear visually as akaza uses mute colors compared to kyojuro's more vibrant colours, also the way they are both dressed with kyojuro fully dressed in a respctable manner whilst akaza is barefooted and barechested. akaza is in direct contrast to kyojuro's mother, as their values are different but both of them are trying to instill their values on kyojuro himself giving a literal representation of the id (Akaza) the ego (kyojuro) and the super ego (kyojuro's mother)

kyojuro's mothers entance features vibrant colours and high key lighing symbolising how she's the light that guides her son

akaza's entance features low key light, he is a demon emerging from the darkness ment to represent the id which emerges from the subconsciessness and influences them comparing both the id and super ego's entrance into this sequence makes things more clear, when kyojuro sees akaza he is shrouded in shadow, emerging from the darkness he was lurking in like how the id lurks in the back of ones mind, compared to when he first sees the image of his mother she is much more visable and closer to kyojuro himself, she is not shrouded at all and is lit in the sunlight with vibrant colours. during this sequence akaza is constantly badgering at kyojuro for him to become a demon, since demons represent repressed desires and self endulgence this is esseintially akaza acting as kyojuro's id and trying to persude him to indulge himself in all the pleasure of becoming a demon, multiple times akaza tempts ktojuro by constntly reminding him of the things hed have to gain as a demon but kyojuro refuses as it all goes against the ideology his mother gave him.

kyojuro sticks with his mothers ideology dispite akaza constanly trying to temp him which leads to the final moments of thier fight, Akaza belives the weak are worthless and belives as a demon he can kill and murder anyone weaker than him, he tells kyojuro that since he is also strong he can become a demon to and follow the same lifestyle

however just as the super ego would remind the ego not to give into the ids urges kyojuro sees memories of his mother who like akaza did tells kyojuro he is strong but unlike the former she tells him that it means he should set the example

kyojuro dies by standing by his own conviction passed to him by his mother but after his death his comrades remark how he was the true victor as he stood strong whilst akaza ran from the sun, this last sequence is symbolic as akaza the id lurks in darkness and as the sun rises he retreats, when the sun rises kyojuro sees an image of his mother, the sun rising to draw away the id and the arrival of the super ego here represents the urges of the id praying on the ego only for the super ego to shew the id away by forcing it back to where it came

Freud theory of the self

sigmund freud's theory of the pyche, known commonly as theory of the self revolves around the idea of the id, the ego and the superego which are freuds interpretations of what makes up the subconciesness, freud belived that the human psyche had three destinct parts, the ego first of all was the main part of the three, essiently your ego is you it's the part in the middle thats being pulled by the subsecrent two parts. the super ego is the voice of reason, its the voice in your head that reminds you whats right and keeps you from doing regretable things, the super ego is like the instructions of what you should do and tends to influence you to conform to the ideas of society, usally the super ego is influenced by things such as your parents or other parts of your upbringing. the id on the other hand is the opposite of the super ego, its the desires of a person, the impulse to do what you want when you want, to put it simply if someone where to push in front of you in a que then the id would be the little voice in the back of your head telling you to knock them round the mouth and take your place back whereas the super ego would be your sense of reason telling you why that would obviously be a bad idea and how violence should not be resorted to, the ego is you caught in the middle of these voices.

A simple way to explain it would be the tradional angel and devil on your shoulders that is seen in many forms of film and media, this is a physical embodiement of freuds theory with the devil being the id, the angel being the super ego and the person in the middle being the ego. Both the id and the super ego try to convince the ego to act the why they want, the values of the super ego are constructed based on society, it tells us whats right and wrong based on the rules and ideologies imprinted on people by thier upbringing, on its own the super ego is a biproduct of social constructs, for example violence is frowned upon in society and is rarely considered an acceptable option but that is not because violence is not suitable for situations, in some cases violence can solve problems much more efficently than alternatives, the real reaseon the super ego forbids us from violence is because society has deemed violence unacceptable, the same could be said for other things such as drugs, sex thievery etc, the super ego forms to values and concepts no matter the pracatcallity or logistics of a situation. The id however is very primal, it has no consideration for societel constructs and its decisons are very basic and animalistic,"you want somthing? take it. it's not yours? whats that matter? theres nothing physcally stopping you so just take it". the id does not see rules and only follows it's own desires, if every human were to just have an id and lacked the other two then the world would have no structure, no society and woukd be an instict driven anarchy.

Now what stops the id or even the super ego from having complete control is their postion in the conciousness, the ego is the pilot and is in the front, the other two are very much back seat drivers though the super ego is more forward than the id as it serves as a guidence to the ego, this makes sense as the super ego is creted from ideals which normally come from parents or other parental figures so the super ego acting like a parent to the ego is very fitting and could be described as a small piece of your parents inbewed in your mind. the id resides further in the subconcious most feeding desires through thoughts though its possitive in the conciousness causes it to have less influence than the super ego on the ego, this is why people call the id "the little voice at the back of your head" as the ids thoughts are coming from deep within the subconsious or the back of your head. The ego being the mediator between the two stays at the front, it keeps balnce between the two parts as nither the id nore super ego are strictly correct, a balance between them must be formed as if either has more power it can cause issues within a person.

shifting focus