Psychoanalysis

Another ­theories during the modernism-postmodernism are the theories of id, ego, and superego from Freud and the theory of real, imaginary, and symbolic from Jaques Lacan.

Sigmund Freud’s Pshychoanalysis

Id

• identirely unconscious
• driven by pleasure principle (desire)
• demand satisfaction
• if we ruled by the pleasure principle, our behavior would be disruptive and socially unacceptable 

Ego

• function in both conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind
• develops from the Id, responsible for dealing with reality
• to mediate between the id’s demands and the external world around us – the reality
• negotiate with the id, pleasure the superego

Superego

• present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious
• develops due to the moral and ethical restrains placed on us by our caregivers
• act to civilize our behavior
• playing referee between the Id and Ego
• the moral part of us

So in movies, usually Id is the bad guy, Ego is the superhero character, and Superego is the mentor of our superego character, for example like in Man of Steel (2013),  where General Zod as the Id, tries to conquer the Earth, then Kal El a.k.a Superman as the Ego fight to save the Earth by the help of Jor El as the guide, the mentor, the Superego which help Superman find out who he truly is.

Some other example of id, ego, superego in other superheroes movie

Movie title	Id	Ego	Superego
Amazing Spiderman (2012)	Lizardman	Dr. Cornor	Spiderman
The Avengers (2012)	Loki	Avengers	Nick Fury

Some examples on how the idea of id, ego, and superego applied in superheroes movies with different way, where the Id and Ego is in one character and the superhero character:

Spiderman 2 (2004)

Id	Ego	Superego
Dr. Octopus	Dr. Octavius	Spiderman

During this movie at the beginning you can see how the character of Dr. Octavius change as he tries to fulfill his dream by creating the unlimited power source using his intelligence and by the help of his mechanical tentacles connected to his brain. 

During the process, a chaos happened and censor that connect his brain with his tentacles broken and his mechanical tentacles encourage him to do bad things to get money, became Dr. Octopus (the Id) to recreate the power source again.

This is the point where he became Dr. Octopus, the Id. Our friendly neighborhood Spiderman (superego) tries to stop him and remind him that this accident can be done again.

At the end, when the ego, the real Dr. Octavious (ego) realize what he have done, he sacrifice himself to drown the power source into the river.

Jaques Lacan’s Psychoanalysis

Lacan rejected attempts to link psychoanalysis with social theory, saying 'the unconscious is the discourse of the Other' -- that human passion is structured by the desire of others and that we express deep feelings through the 'relay' of others. He thus saw desire as a social phenomenon and psychoanalysis as a theory of how the human subject is created through social interaction. Desire appears through a combination of language, culture and the spaces between people. Lacanian psychoanalysis is rather ruthless in its aggressive challenging that seeks to dismantle the imaginary sense of completeness (as in the Mirror phase) and to remove illusions of self-mastery through a mirror image. A strong ego is seen as defensive deceit and expressing it during analysis is seen as resistance to change. Fear of disintegration and lack drives the person to realize themselves in another imaginary individual.

In Lacan’s psychoanalysis, my understanding between real and imaginary order is that the real is what you are right now, and the imaginary order is what you want to be. The real need something and the imaginary order demand something. Needs can be fulfilled whereas demands are unsatisfiable. when you desire to be somebody, you need to do something. You become jealous to that person, and your Id personality comes out to fulfill that desire.

In Iron Man (2008) when Tony Stark decided to stop producing and selling weapon and became Iron Man, his partner, Obadiah Stane was angry and disappointed. 

He was jealous as well because he is always comes the second as Tony Stark partner and jealous with his fame and the Iron Man as well.

Then at last he made Iron Monger for himself to compete against Iron Man. So the Real is Obadiah Stane and his Imaginary Order is Tony Stark. 

In other example, Thor (2011), Thor is the first candidate to replaced his father as the King. Loki as his younger brother (adopted actually) became jealous with him. In this case Loki is the Real and Thor is the Imaginary order.

Reference:

Cash, Adam. Modun.d. Understanding the Id, Ego, and Superego in Psychology. [online] Available at: <http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-the-id-ego-and-superego-in-psycholog.html> [Accessed at 17 July, 2013]

Changing Minds. n.d. Lacanian Psychoanalysis. [online] Available at :<http://www.changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/articles/lacanian_psychoanalysis.html> [Accessed at 17 July, 2013] 

Cherry, Kendra. n.d.a. Defense Mechanisms. [online] Available at: <http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech.htm> [Accessed at 17 July, 2013]
Cherry, Kendra. n.d.b. The Id, Ego and Superego: The Structural Model of Personality. [online] Available at: <http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/personalityelem.htm> [Accessed at 17 July, 2013]

Dr. Heffner, Christopher L. 2001. Freud's Structural and Topographical Models of Personality. [online] Available at: <http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html> [Accessed at 17 July, 2013]
Felluga, D. n.d. Modules on Lacan: On the Structure of Psyce. [online] Available at: <http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/lacanstructure.html> [Accessed at 17 July, 2013] 
Ironman. 2008. film. Directed by Jon Favreau. USA: Paramount Pictures.

Spiderman 2. 2004. film. Directed by Sam Raimi. USA: Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Thor. 2011. film. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. USA: Paramount Pictures.