Buddha and the Freudians
While the later Freudians complain that Freud did not emphasize the idea of “self” enough, or that Freud depersonalized the personality, Buddhist thinking seems to do the opposite, in complaining that Freud did not depersonalize the personality enough. Modern psychologists who have become interested in Buddhism and Buddhist meditation find this to be problematic. Some try to bring about a compromise by saying that one has to build the self before it can be removed. Let us examine this problem to see if we can find a better solution.
The problem, according to Freud, is that the three parts of the personality are in conflict, because these three parts seek three different goals as follows:
id – seeks pleasure
ego – seeks to be realistic
superego – seeks to be moral or good
Freud sought a middle path to solve the problem. It was not the expression of the urge, to seek pleasure, as the id wanted, nor was it repression, or suppression as the superego wanted. Freud’s middle path was sublimation. By the term sublimation Freud meant channelling the energy of the id along a socially acceptable path. If one is interested in sexual relations, instead indulging in rape or adultery, one can get married, or channel the energy through social or religious service. This solution seems to be very Buddhistic, in that it represents “good conduct” (sila), according to the five precepts, which is the common practice of the good Buddhist householder (gihi) or laymen. From the Freudian perspective, it is sublimation or the practice of the normal healthy personality. From the general, common perspective, it is the civilized way of living.
Freud, however, pointed out that the civilized way of living is living with discontent, (Civilization And Its Discontent, Sigmund Freud) because the satisfaction is limited by confining oneself to the socially acceptable way of living. The id is not fully satisfied. A man may not be interested in one wife, or woman may not be interested in one husband. This means discontentment. Therefore, the aim of psychoanalysis was only to change abnormal suffering into normal unhappiness.