Structural Model of the Mind
Besides topographical model, Freud used another way to analyze human’s psychological problem.
In Structural Model of the Mind, Freud divided psychology into three parts: -----Id, Ego and Superego. SUPEREGO is the norms given by the society (ethics, religious norms, legal norms, family norms, cultural norms, etc), EGO is ourselves, and ID is our subconscious including desire, appetite, libido, memory, etc. These three parts together are called PSYCHIC APPARATUS (Integral parts of human’s mental).
Except the pressure stated in the topographical model of mind, another cause of mental illness is the unbalance between Id, Ego and Superego. Freud explained that every PSYCHIC CONFLICT will induce the unbalance energy in these three parts. For instance, if a man’s desire (ID) wishes to rob for his enjoyment on money, ethical and legal norms (SUPEREGO) tell him that it is a wrong action which would bring him to the punishment. Because SUPEREGO and ID never reach the balance of energy, so EGO (ourselves) will sustain pressure. This pressure will then warn us about the existence of pressure, this warning is SIGNAL ANXIETY.
At this time, the pressure sustained by Ego could help to reduce mental illnesses, such as through religion, or philosophy tells us that money is not everything, we do not persistent on the material. Basically a lot of psychological motivation books, religion, philosophy, morality is to reduce Ego’s pressure to achieve the therapeutic effect.