It has become common knowledge since Freud’s works that the human psyche is comprised of a conscious part and an unconscious part. While, by definition, the unconscious may not be directly investigated, the conscious part of the psyche can be explored and “worked on”. Bahram Elahi suggests that such “work” basically turns on the division that exists between the “surface conscious self” on the one hand, and the “deep conscious self” on the other.

The id or the terrestrial soul is the part of us that constitutes the source of our material instincts. When these instincts lead us to harm other people or the celestial part of our selves, the id takes on the face of the imperious self, an unethical and anti-divine instinct-driven faculty that stands in opposition to our perfection.

In Freud’s structural model, the id is the name given to the instinctual entity from which all of our instincts spring, alongside the super-ego—the seat of morality—and the ego—the centre of willpower and conscious reasoning.

What is it in me that says “I”? What is the nature of that consciousness of my self? What is my spirit made of? How am I psychologically constructed? We can ask this question in so many different ways, replace one term by another, we will always return to the same enigma: what is it in me that produces the feeling of existing, but also rules my behaviour, my thoughts and my emotions? What is this thing, which we could call the self, that enables me to think, to decide, to feel; that keeps all my experiences and gives me the innermost feeling of being myself, of having my own identity?

This lecture explores The model of the self according to Bahram Elahi as compared to the models put forward by neurosciences or Freud’s psychoanalytic model.