E.S. Raye

Before I get into the meat of this topic, I have some exciting news to share!

Both RARE: A Dark Anthology of Unusual Secrets (featuring my sci-fi/noir short story “The Stuff Legends are Made Of”) and Gas Giant Gambit were submitted to the American Writing Awards by Alex Parker Publishing; the former in the anthology category and the latter in science fiction.

RARE won its category, claiming the award for best anthology, and Gas Giant Gambit was a finalist in its own!

A big thank you to Alex Parker Publishing for taking a chance on me with both of these stories, and congratulations to my fellow RARE contributors!

Now, on with the Freudian Trio!

Freud’s Trio

I can’t speak for all writers, but one of my biggest worries when starting out, and continuing to this day, is that my characters all sound the same. There’s plenty of advice out there on how to make sure that doesn’t happen, but I want to talk about my favourite one: the trope known as the Freudian Trio.

As a student of psychology, this one jumped right out at me and continues to resonate. But where to begin? I think the most logical first step would be to explain Freud’s definition of the human psyche, and, as he saw it, the three aspects that make it up.

Id

Freud saw the id as the part of the unconscious mind that made up of instincts and impulses. He explained this as the source of bodily wants and needs, like hunger, as well as emotional impulses, especially aggression and sex drive. Freud’s id acts on the “pleasure principle,” or the drive of emotion, instant gratifications of impulses and desires.

He went on to describe the id as “the dark, inaccessible part of personality,” although that aspect of his theory doesn’t really play much of a role in this trope (but it could!).

Perhaps the most famous example of this part of the Freudian Trio in popular culture is Dr. Lenard McCoy of Star Trek. “Bones,” though not a sex-driven, impulsive maniac, is the emotional voice in James T. Kirk’s ear.

Super-Ego

The super-ego, on the other hand, represents cultural and societal rules that need to be followed. These rules may be instilled by parents or other authority figures, but tend to always be based on one’s society.

Additionally, according to Freud, the super-ego strives for perfection. It criticizes and reels in the impulses and drives of the id, and tries to force them into conforming to the rules of socially acceptable behaviour.

If Dr. McCoy is pop culture’s most famous example of the id, Mr. Spock is easily the most famous example of the super-ego. Cold and logical, Spock is constantly reminding Kirk of Starfleet protocols and the importance of acting in a logical and controlled manner.

Ego

Finally, we come to the ego, perhaps the most misunderstood of Freud’s trio in modern pop culture. Today, when we say someone has a “big ego,” what we really mean is that they are ruled by their id. In fact, Freud’s ego is the balance between id and super-ego, constantly trying to satisfy one while staying within the rules of the culture it lives in.

The ego represents a sense of judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory. As Wikipedia puts it, “The ego is the organising principle upon which thoughts and interpretations of the world are based.”

As you might have guessed, pop culture’s favourite ego is none other than Captain James Kirk. Not only does Kirk embody each of the things Freud attributes to the ego (perhaps most notably judgment and tolerance), he expertly balances the voices of his closest friends and allies, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock.

Why the Trope Works

Some have criticized Kirk, Spock, and Bones as not being fully-fledged characters on their own, and in fact, only make up a single character when all together. But I don’t think this is fair. As I said before, Bones is not a sex-crazed, impulsive idiot, neither is Spock an unfeeling automaton.

Sure, they tend to lean in one direction more than the other, but most people do. Consider those around you. How many impulsive people do you know? How many are so bound by the rules that acting against them is neigh impossible for them?

After studying this trope, I started to see it everywhere, in both my everyday life and in the media I consumed. Sure, most aren’t as rigid as Gene Roddenberry’s trio, but they are everywhere. Some of the great reasons to use this trope are you don’t really need internal monologues to show what the characters are thinking, and the group of coming together to a consensus and act in the best interest of the whole is intuitive. Each gets to speak their part, and the character that represents the ego must take in all the information, process it, and decide the best course forward.

Gas Giant Gambit

I like to use the Freudian Trio in my own writing as a starting point for characters. In my debut novel Gas Giant Gambit: A Tale From Beyond the Cygnus Rift, I have three primary characters: Gus, Moe, and Ray.

Gus is Gas Giant Gambit‘s ego. She’s a hard-nosed, no-nonsense bounty hunter on the run from the law. She has her own problems with impulse control, but she plays by the rules – even if they are her own.

Moe is a robot farmhand and, against type, is my story’s id. He’s emotional, quick to act, and doesn’t much care for rules.

And finally, there’s Ray, a marshal and old man, who just wants to follow the rules and go along to get along. Making waves isn’t really his forte, but when Gus breezes into town, he learns the rules he’s been following – and worse, upholding – are dangerous for everyone.

Throughout the story, Gus has to balance these two’s different points of view, and her own prejudices, to help those that need it, even at the cost of her own, more selfish (or id-like) goals.

Freudian Trios

So, there you have it, my favourite trope and favourite advice for writing distinct characters all wrapped up into one. If this is something you also struggle with for fear, I hope this helps.

What Freudian Trios have you spotted out there in the wild?