The influences of the external world make the Self tend to regulate the desires of the Id by applying rationality to achieve pleasure, but as the Self is not enough, then the Superself intervenes. This instance, which develops over time, would be a kind of repressive unconscious that marks the ideal of what the Self should tend to be and thus contain the impulses of the Id.
The Superself refers to a moral and judgmental psychic dimension of the Self in terms of normative following, prohibitions, and ought to be. It acts as the sense of right and wrong based, according to Freud, our parents and society. From the Superself, as a punishing and vigilant instance of behavior, it can be observed the guilt and the self-demanding complexes.
Psychotherapist Ana Castro comments that the Superself is composed of the ideal Self system, which expresses the set of ideal values; and by the moral conscience, which tends to repress morally reprehensible behaviors such as, for example, not respecting the Rules of Conduct when moving around the mountain. This psychologist goes on to say that the Superself is highly moral, restrictive, and prohibitive, tending to repress impulses that destabilize the social-ethical order.
This instance is a consequence of socialization and the internalization of social and moral norms. It tends to make our personality move towards the good, towards the ideal and what it should be. For Freud, society would require us to respect the implicit norms, forcing ourselves to self-observe and comply by assuming socially appropriate behavior. If the Superself imposes itself, it can produce conflicts by repressing thoughts and emotions in individuals excessively bound to rigid and restrictive moral norms.
A simple example of these three psychic instances could be represented in the desire to acquire a ski jacket for our own satisfaction or to attract the attention of others (Id). Since our money for that spending is not enough, we should not buy it (Superself). Whereas, in order to please our brain reward system, the mediation could be that, if we have insufficient money, then we should buy a model that is not too expensive (Self).
Our brain reward system is intended to stimulate pleasure-seeking behavior. When triggered by dopamine, we experience the temptation to obtain that which we perceive as happiness but which, in reality, is a promise of reward that triggers a certain action. It is the tendency toward immediate gratification without concern for future effects.
Dopamine affects discernment by generating a feeling of disappointment for compulsive behavior (for example, buying something we do not need). The secretion of this neurotransmitter induces us to pay attention less to the familiar and more to the new and varied (a novel slope, a new jump). In doing so, it also produces stress through the anxiety experienced in reaching the desired. In other words, when the reward system is activated, our brain interprets this as an ‘emergency’ that must be attended to. The problem with the functioning of this system is that there are possibilities of false promises of happiness, i.e., it provokes bad habits, but the motivation to do something depends on the promise, which is why it is considered a conflicting mechanism.
