Sigmund Freud’s Personality Model
 | Freud’s model of personality divides the psyche into three interacting components: the id, ego, and superego. |
The id is the primitive, instinctual part driven by the pleasure principle, the ego is the rational, decision-making part that mediates between the id and reality, and the superego represents internalized morals and ideals. This model is a useful lens for looking at and possibly understanding our current president’s behavior.
The Id operates on the pleasure principle—it seeks immediate satisfaction of desires, power, dominance, and emotional release. It drives Impulse, Desire, Aggression and Gratification.
- Immediate emotional reactions
- Rapid responses on social media (especially during his first presidency)
- Public insults of opponents
- Retaliation against critics
- Aggression & dominance
- “Winning” language
- Mocking rivals
- Asserting superiority
- Craving for admiration
- Obsession with crowd size, ratings, and personal loyalty
- Constant self-praise
Trump’s Id appears highly active and weakly restrained, particularly compared to most traditional political figures who heavily suppress Id impulses.
The Ego: mediates between the Id and real-world consequences.
- Strategic branding
- “Make America Great Again” as a powerful symbolic identity
- Ability to dominate the news cycle
- Transactional thinking
- Viewing politics as negotiation and leverage
- Loyalty exchanged for rewards
- Media manipulation
- Using controversy to control attention
- Turning criticism into visibility
Trump has highly developed business and political survival instincts. His Ego is not passive—it is highly active and serves the Id’s desires for dominance, recognition, and control, rather than restraining those desires according to moral standards. The SuperEgo: represents internalized social norms, guilt, restraint, and ethical limits.
Trump’s public behavior is childish and without restraint:
- No expression of guilt
- Frequent externalization of blame
- Flexible or instrumental view of truth
- Personal loyalty prioritized over institutional norms
Trump’s Superego appears weak compared to the Id-Ego alliance. Moral rules often appear external (legal consequences, courts, voters) rather than internal.
Maybe we have to provide the SuperEgo?