Student 7

May. 1, 2000

There are many different views of the self. These various notions of the self come from Freud, Jung, Rilke, Hinduism and the Romantics. Although these views are different in style and thought, they are also similar in some ways. Romantics showed their views of the self through art and music, while Asians showed their views through religion. Of the different notions, I believe that Freud and Jung had the most impact on my own personal view of the self. Freud believes that there are three basic components of the mind: id, ego, and the superego. The id controls all of the natural, animalistic instincts and the superego controls a human’s morals, values and conscience. The ego is in the middle of the devil id and the angel superego. It balances between the two and always takes charge. Freud also believes that the mind has a defense mechanism. It uses rationality, regression, repression, suppression, and sublimation to deal with certain tasks and problems that may occur. Repression is the act of holding problems inside until they build up. I have realized through my journey of self-discovery that I tend to do this myself.

Jung’s thoughts of the mind are quite different than Freud’s. He believes that we are introverts or extroverts. An introvert may not always share what they think and can sometimes be shy. On the other hand, an extrovert tends to think out loud and share everything. From learning about these two ideas of the self, I believe that I am an extrovert, but I feel that occasionally I can be introverted.

Jung also believes in The Shadow. The Shadow is all of the ideas and thoughts that are awful and evil. We do not want to think about these so we put them behind us. Besides this idea, Jung believed in the intuitive idea. This is the gut instinct or feeling that we sometimes feel. This idea does not go by rationality. Jung’s last thought is that we are constantly at war with ourselves because of the three basics from Freud: id, ego, and the superego. Even though Freud and Jung are not alike, their ideas tie in with each other at some time, making them similar.

The Romantics express their views of the self not through thought like Freud and Jung, but through art and music. Capturing the emotional atmosphere is a great idea of the Romantics. You can look at a painting and decide if a Romantic put it together by looking at the strokes of the brush. The work of art will have painterly brushstrokes and there is also a strong light and shade contrast. The use of color was also important during the Romantic period. The colors were always very deep and rich. The popular use of the diagonal line, which shows motion and emotion, was also a key characteristic of the art. In class, we studied many paintings from this era in time. I noticed the large painting strokes of J.M.W. Turner and the “sublime” awe and wonder of Casper David Friedrich’s painting. The love of nature was also reflected in the works of the Romantics. They believed the painting of a landscape was best because it was the face of God. This view is quite different from the rest. We also listened to different pieces from the era. Brahms was a favorite amongst the crowd not only for his looks, but also because of his individualism. His music was very distinctable in its own way. The music was not only thick in texture, but also very contrasting in tone.

The ideas of Rilke reflect upon the thoughts of Jung, in my opinion. Rilke seems like an introvert, trying to become an extrovert, along with the older woman in the journal, “Faces.” She pulls away from her face showing her true identity. In doing this, Rilke looks away because he does not want to see her for who she really is. This shows that Rilke believes that we all wear different faces for different occasions. He also says that if we wear one face for too long, we will cause holes to form in it and our true face will shine through. The Asian’s view of the self is shown through religion, unlike the Romantics.

Hinduism is quite different from other religions, yet similar too. Hindu people believe that there is no founder and that everyone is Hindu like them. Hindu’s are very intuitive, like the ideas of Jung. Along with being Hindu, they also believe that everyone is Brahman and the savior. They do believe in reincarnation so you must complete a life perfectly to go on to the next level. Once you understand yourself, the cosmos, and the Brahmans, you may achieve Godhead by having no karma. On the other hand, Christians believe that when we die, we are still a person other than God. One last thought of the Hindu’s that is different than the Christian’s on the view of the self is our existence. In the Hinduism tradition, you have always been around and will always exist. We believe that we have not always been around but our soul will always remain.

I used these ideas along with color, line, shape and texture to portray my idea of my inner self. First, my entire project is in the shape of a box. The square shows my stability and independence. I like the feeling of independence and taking care of myself, even though I still receive money amongst other things from my parents. The outside of the box is covered with a green fabric. The fuzzy fabric shows the soft side of my personality. I feel that I am very easy to get along with and I am always nice. On the back of the box is a small Styrofoam semi-circle. This has a rough texture showing my bad side to my personality. Yet, this semi-circle also shows the feeling of wholeness and unity within me. On the sides of the box are diagonal, curvy lines. The diagonals show emotion and maybe even the extrovert in me.

The diagonals are curvy showing that I am nice and go with the flow. I picture them as waves in the ocean, taking whatever comes along. The colors that I used throughout my project are light and cheery. I used many colors showing that there are many parts to my personality that I have not even discovered. The entire model of my inner self is 3-D, showing my complex personality. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of parts to my personality that I do not even understand, but I am still on that journey of self-discovery. I feel that my college experience will help me to find myself.