The Self is the intermediate instance between the Id and the Superself and it forms and relates directly to reality seeking to postpone immediate satisfaction. It is our mental structure that examines and gives its opinion on the present reality, fulfilling a mediating function between the other two.
Anna Freud argued that the Self operates with a delicate balance between the Id, the psychic area of the pleasure impulses, and the Superself, the censor area that inhibits desires and seeks our ideal of behavior. She goes on to say that, when a threat appears, our Self becomes agitated and intervenes by activating some of the defense mechanisms found in the unconscious sphere.
For the beginner, skiing may pose a threat not only to his physical but also to his psychological integrity by experiencing anxiety, distress, or diminished self-esteem. Our skier Self is gradually built from this stage through the development of a mechanism that marks the way we interpret the experiences with the skiing activity, with the environment, and in the interaction with others. We encode this information around an organizing axis that is linked to our Self and acts as a referential framework for memory and action.
The taste for skiing may depend on the relationship to the satisfaction that our skier Self derives from a success. Both in the recreational skier and in the athlete, the drive of the Self to the success of a descent or of a certain performance may generate a tension that overshadows the valuation of the pleasurable kinesthetic sensations provided by skiing. So much so that, for some, a miscalculation in a turn or a slalom gate can ruin an entire day of skiing or training.
These negative self-schemas are compounded by pessimistic thoughts. If we feel discouraged, we may experience these types of thoughts, but we should retain some objectivity of the situation. If the discouragement deepens, our thoughts will tend to reinforce the negative tendencies about our skier Self. In acute demoralization, the Self-schema leads to a distorted self-perception of every skiing experience, interpreting them as irreversible failures, seeing ourselves as irreparably failed and forced to abandon the activity. The ski instructor and the ski coach sometimes fulfill the function of an ‘auxiliary Self‘ in that, in certain situations, they help us to organize our defenses to avoid the collapse of our skier’s or athlete’s Self.
The Self is often confused with the Ego. Here are some differences between the two:
- Our Self is connected to a higher being while our Ego is that sense of self-importance we may have when comparing with others.
- Our Self is something typically associated with positive emotions while our Ego is generally attributed to negative ones.
- Our Self is assured while our Ego is insecure.
- Our Self is considered as our uniqueness or individuality while our Ego is just human nature.
- Our Self is what we ‘are’, i.e., our essence whereas the Ego is something every skier ‘has’ and it can have positive or negative elements.
Among the functions of the Self we can determine the followings:
- Self-preservation.
- Awareness of external stimuli.
- The control of voluntary movement.
- The control of the pulsional demands.
- The integration of instinctual demands and those of the external world.
- Mediation between the Id, the Superself and reality.
- The activation of defensive mechanisms.
Thus, the Self, which acts on the basis of pragmatism, survival, and adaptation to the environment, is under the influence of three dimensions:
- The dimension of the Id with its tendencies of constant search for pleasure.
- The dimension of the Superself in terms of following the ideal behavior and normative demands.
- The external world insofar as it establishes a harmonization of the stimuli coming from there.
