Of all the schools of thought which paint the landscape of psychology as a field, few command as much internet attention as personality theory. Whether your unique existential experience happens to be identical to that of a Disney princess, or if it can be summarized by a series of letters flanking a sliding scale, your attitude, preferences, and demeanor shall not escape quantification. One of the most influential theories of the famous Sigmund Freud was the idea that our personality is comprised of three main parts: the ego, id, and superego. These, like much Freudian terminology, have become so familiar that the average person is quite at ease describing the over inflated ‘ego’ of his egotistical boss.
The ego and superego are the two parts of the personality we sense in ourselves, as the id is wholly subconscious. According to Freud, the id is our unconscious urges and desires, while the ego and superego regulate it via rational thought and morality, respectively. All three components are part of an integrated personality, in varying proportions depending on the person. The ego and superego develop during early childhood and are thereby susceptible to outward influence, at least according to Freud. The unique proportions of ego, superego, and id may offer insight into what composes our specific personality, or it may just be one of many complex factors. Removing or suppressing any one of these would result in a completely new ‘person’.
Along these lines, the USS Enterprise gets a completely unfamiliar crew as the ship is infected with a strange virus that causes them to act irrationally and impede their ability to function effectively. It is not a loss of free will or ability as much as it is a total loss of inhibition. In a sense, the crew has lost their superego, and possibly much of their ego, to become predominantly id, and the behaviors they express are either overtly sexual or childlike. In a display that would fill Freud with all the intellectual delight of confirmed theories, the crew members are motivated only by immediate pleasure and sex, despite the danger of a nearby supernova.
Paying homage to the famous Original Series episode “The Naked Time”, the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, wanted to show a more ‘unfiltered’ side of the characters early on in the show. However, since the audience was not given much of a chance to get to know these characters under normal circumstances, the comedy aspect of seeing a familiar and well-loved character act unusually was more of a miss than a hit. One could even argue that since the crew’s ability to reason was suppressed, they were incapable of making informed choices. Also, as a substantial portion of each character’s overall personality was missing, it was impossible to judge the character as being themself. How substantial is inhibition to the overall personality?
According to Freud’s theory, it is integral to the full superego and much of the ego, so it would therefore be most of the conscious personality. Desire is important, as it gives us the drive to want things, but it is a primitive drive. Without rules and direction, we are not able to guide our base impulses toward constructive goals. It is this combination of regulation and impulse that creates a being who can go above and beyond an unthinking animal. Each person’s desire is unique, and their methods for carrying it out even more so. With drive and discipline emerges personality. Gene Roddenberry wanted to show us the unfiltered Enterprise crew, but he really just created a group of animals.
Hopeless Trekkie 