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.

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.

/6 ::new:: I'm extending this thread because ppl asked for more. I described how we claim some of our own thoughts, feelings, & doings when we say "I." And how we disclaim others when we "it" (as in, "It wasn't me, that's not who I am"—a favored locution of politician/celebrities

7/ after blurting out something reprehensible). In German, "I" is Das Ich or The I, later mistranslated in English as the ego. But the self we refer to when we say "I" is also not unitary. There's a part of "I" that stands apart from the rest of "I," observing & judging, praising

8/ or finding fault. It's the part of "I" that feels proud or feels disappointed in ourselves. It's the part that says, you rocked it! Or says, you didn't measure up, you failed. The person judging and the person being judged are the same person—they're both "I."
Freud observed

9/ this too—that a part of "I" seems to stand apart from and above the rest of "I" and used exactly that therm, "above-I," to describe it. Which was unfortunately mistranslated as Superego, by the same translator trying to make it sound more science-y. Recognizing these 3 facets

10/ of self and mental life gave rise to what's called the "tripartite model" or "structural model" of id, ego, and superego. This is the clear, experience-near origin. Things get more complex when we start to recognize that each these facets of self can operate at different

11/ levels of awareness of consciousness. But the origin of the concepts could not have been simpler or more experience-near.
Also important: No one in the psychoanalytic world discusses this model of mind anymore, other than in historical contexts.

12/ Contemporary psychoanalysis is not based on this model or this language. It has long since been superseded by other models & approaches. I've described some of the beginnings of psychoanalytic thinking, back in the horse & and buggy era. But history is sometimes enlightening.

9/ Freud observed that