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1/ We are the "authors" of all our thoughts and actions. We claim ownership of some of our thoughts and actions and disclaim ownership of others. When we claim ownership, we tend to use the word I. I did that. I said that. When we disclaim ownership, we tend to use the word It. https://twitter.com/tylerblack32/status/1296270978788364289
2/ I didn't mean it. The devil made me do it. That wasn't me, it was the the alcohol. It wasn't me, that's not who I am. It just happened. Freud observed this and used exactly these word, I and It, to describe thoughts and actions that we claim & disclaim, respectively.
3/ "Das Is und Das Es," I and It. The words were unfortunately mistranslated as Ego and Id, by a translator who thought he needed to make it sound more scince-y. Unfortunate, because the original words were experience-near & intuitive to anyone. The simple starting observation of
4/ psychoanalysis was that one part of the personality renounces another part. It's analogous to autoimmune illness.
The person doing the renouncing may say, "it wasn't me." But the person doing the renouncing and the person being renounced are the same person.
The person doing the renouncing may say, "it wasn't me." But the person doing the renouncing and the person being renounced are the same person.
5/ One goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to know and recognize as our own those parts of our experience that we previously did not recognize ("Where it was, I shall become"). And so become masters of our own house.
