How many voices do you have in your head? It depends on the individual, but one thing is certain, there are a number of voices competing for speaking time and control of you at any given point.
Each of us probably has the following:
1. EGO
2. Conscience
3. Rational Logical
4. Observer
5. Unconscious Inspiration
6. Spiritual
The first voice that drives everyone is ego.
As defined from the Psychoanalysis perspective - the part of the psychic apparatus that experiences and reacts to the outside world and thus mediates between the primitive drives of the id and the demands of the social and physical environment.
(Source:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ego)
Freud described the ego with 3 parts: id, ego and super-ego.
The id comprises the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains the basic drives. The id acts according to the "pleasure principle", seeking to avoid pain or unpleasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension. The id is unconscious by definition: 'It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality.
The Ego comprises that organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious.. Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality-testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us.
The Super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. 'The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.
(source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego,_and_super-ego)
From our perspective we are going to break down Freud's 3 part structural model into 4 separate voices.
1. The Ego or self voice reacts purely from the perspective of self. An individual may think a lot of themselves - it can range from High Self Esteem (in the extreme of Narcissism) to Low Self Esteem (or in the extreme Self hatred.) High Self Esteem always takes care of oneself and low self esteem rarely takes care of oneself. For example, an individual that needs money may think of their self interest and falsely report extra hours on their time card.
2. The Conscience voice sits in judgment on the acts of the ego. This does not mean good judgment, it simply means that this voice condemns, condones or is silent to the acts of the ego. Continuing the previous example, the conscience knows that it is wrong to report false hours on the time card.
3. The Rational voice speaks to justifying the acts of the self. This voice can also rationalize away self acts that the conscience has condemned with specific justifications. Continuing the previous example, the rational voice balanced that the company had implemented a wage cut for the "Great Recession" and the person was only getting back what they were rightfully owed.
4. The observer voice is when a person detaches from the outcome of the instance and simply observes. The voice will be able to state "what is" without being attached to the outcome.
The observer recognizes that the individual cheated on the time card. This voice may not seem significant but it is one of the best to learn how to use on a regular basis. This voice presents the best objective position.
The last two voices are:
5. The unconscious inspiration is the voice that pops into your head with creative thoughts. You don't know where it comes from but it is suddenly there with a new idea or thought.
6. The spiritual voice also comes out of nowhere. This voice can be associated with a person's own spiritual beliefs and can come from nowhere or it may be invited through acts of worship, prayer or meditation.
The art for each of us is understanding which voice is chattering in our head and what is the consequence if we listen to the voice.
Copyright 2011 - Jim Lindell - Thorsten Consulting Group, Inc.