(Spoilers to Grave. Quotes from Psyche Transcripts, Chani (on B C & S) and Encarta Encyclopedia. Thanks to Exegy, redcat, Rufus, and Chani for all their input.)
"These are the things we want. Simple things. Comfort, sex, shelter, food. We always want them and we want them all the time. The id doesn't learn it doesn't grow up. It has the ego telling it what it can't have and it has the superego telling it what it should want. But the id works solely out of the pleasure principle. It wants. Whatever social skills you've learned, however much we've evolved, the pleasure principal is at work in all of us. So, how does this conflict with the ego manifest itself in the psyche? What do we do when we can't have what we want?" (Professor Walsh, Beer Bad, Season 4, Btvs.)
Definitions taken from Encarta Encyclopedia (http://encarta.msn.com) - this is how I'm interpreting the terms as discussed in the above quote:
1. The "id": sexual and aggressive tendencies that arise from the body, as distinguished from the mind. These inherent drives claim immediate satisfaction, which is experienced as pleasurable.
2. The "ego": domain of such functions as perception, thinking, motor control that can accurately assess environmental conditions. The ego must be capable of enforcing the postponement of satisfaction of the instinctual impulses originating in the id. To defend itself against unacceptable impulses, the ego develops specific psychic defense mechanisms = repression, the exclusion of impulses from conscious awareness; projection, the process of ascribing to others one's own unacknowledged desires; and reaction formation, the establishment of a pattern of behavior directly opposed to a strong unconscious need.
3. The "super-ego": controls the ego and the id in accordance with the internalized standards of parental figures and by extension society. If the demands are not fulfilled, we may feel guilt or shame. Morals and values are often formed in the super-ego. (for more information - check out Encarta encyclopedia.)
The Beast or the primal impulse. The Want, Take, Have, forget the consequences aspect of our psyche. The dark id. It has many names. Some equate it with the animal, the reptile that we all evolved from. Others equate it with the subconscious, that murky part of the human soul, which we are afraid to look at too closely except of course when we dream or create.
The idea of the id as a beast residing just beneath the surface of our psyche has been explored by numerous novelists, comic books, movies, and artists. In the comic book Spiderman - the villain the Green Goblin is the epitome of a man losing control over his beast. Industrial scientist Norman Osborn, who is on the verge of losing an important government contract, drinks a dangerous potion that unleashes all his angry primal impulses turning him into a homicidal maniac, the beast. In the movie version - we see Norman battling The Goblin persona in the mirror. Back and forth he switches from kind, frightened, and desperate Norman to wicked, ambitious, cruel Goblin. One is the nerdy scientist that identifies with nerdy Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) and the other is the wicked villain who tries to destroy Spiderman's life. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a similar story over a century ago in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - versions of which have appeared on Broadway, the Bugs Bunny Show, and in several movies, the best, a 1930s classic, starring Spencer Tracy. So the idea is not a new one, actually it is very old and very much part of our collective psyche. The stories that get retold tend to be the ones that we can't figure out or resolve. They obsess us, live inside us, take on a life of their own and through us live inside the consciousness of our society and our art. Remember one of the greatest heroes of Greek myths - Hercules, went insane and killed his family. Often the hero finds himself flipping to the dark side, struggling to reconcile himself with the beast that resides within him. The current hit at the box office - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones deals with this very theme: a hero who is slowly becoming one of the greatest movie villains of all time, Darth Vader. As Joseph Campbell indicates in his series Masks of the Gods - we create myths, building new ones on the foundation of the old, and set our beliefs, our behaviors and our rules by them.
BTvs similarly explores the struggle between humans and their internal beasts with a mix of mythos, metaphor and real world allegory. Here they use age-old fairy tale images - the werewolf, the vampire, the mystically endowed slayer, and the witch.
I. OZ and Spike: the werewolf and the vampire
Werewolves and vampires have been around in oral legends, myths, and folktales for centuries. The Werewolf legend has been around since the Middle Ages. "Middle Age scholarly people talk about an illness called "Lycanthropy". This disease was connected with sexuality, it was a kind of love disease...People madly in love came out into the night, became like animals and screamed like wolves. It was a way to prevent people from having sex. Wolf was already connected with sex and Evil. In Latin,wolf is "lupus" and this word gave "lupa" in Italian (a slut, a woman who's looking for the "lupus"!) or "lupanar" in French (a sex house)!" (Chani, the B C &S board, a French Middle Ages Historian.) Chani goes on to mention the fairy tale "Le petit chaperon rouge", which in the US is know as Little Red Riding Hood - the costume that Buffy wears into the haunted frat house in Fear Itself. The story was first recorded by the Brother's Grimm in Germany. The fairy tale is about how "young girls should avoid meeting Bad wolf (=man with sex intentions)into the dark woods!" Later, in Germany around 1591, the werewolf legend was used to explain the horrible atrocities of a man named Peter Stubbe. His atrocities were beyond human experience (think Hannibal Lector mixed with Charles Manson). So as his story spread throughout Germany , people linked the atrocities with the behavior of a wolf. Believing it was the beast within the man who did this - the shadow of the wolf. (taken from http://members.tripod.com). The vampire first emerged from the Jewish legend of Lilith and Cain. According to this ancient pre-AD legend - Cain, first born of Adam and Eve, found Lilith who showed him the power of blood and turned Cain into the first vampire. Cain is referenced as the creator of monsters or first wicked man in Beowulf. (taken from www.angelfire.com/tn/vampires/step3.html ) Both, at least in the Buffyverse share this particular trait: No conscience, predatory and aggressive.
Giles: Y-you see, uh, the-the werewolf, uh, is such a, a potent e-e-extreme representation of our inborn animalistic traits that it e-emerges for three full consecutive nights: the full moon and, uh, the two nights surrounding it. And it, uh, acts on-on pure instinct. No conscience, uh, uh, predatory and, and aggressive. (Phases, Season 2)
Angel: When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn't get your soul. That's gone! No conscience, no remorse... It's an easy way to live. (Angel, Season 1)
In both myths the person usually becomes a werewolf or a vampire via an infection - such as a bite. In Buffyverse - the infection or bite does not appear to be by choice. Oz gets infected by his cousin and doesn't know he's a werewolf until odd things start happening. (Phases, Season 2, Btvs). Spike is bitten and sucks the blood of Drusilla - becoming a vampire. Giles describes this as the spreading of an infection in Harvest (Season 1, Btvs): "The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul." The human, William is not considered responsible for the monster he becomes any more than OZ appears to be culpable for what he does while a werewolf. As Giles states in Phases: "No matter who this werewolf is, i-it's still a human being, who may be completely unaware of his or her condition." Or at least at first this appears to be the case. Later in Season 4, OZ actually begins to take responsibility for what he does as a werewolf. And the acts he commits while a werewolf in Season 4 Btvs are remarkably similar to Spike's acts at the end of Season 6.
In Wild at Heart, Season 4 Btvs, OZ meets a woman who relishes the monster inside her. Veruca. Veruca is a little like Willow in Season 6. She loves the power or the primal energy that the wolf gives her. "The animal. And it's powerful... Inside me all the time. Soon you'll feel sorry for other people. They only wish they could be as alive as we are. As free-" (Veruca, Wild at Heart) She remembers what happens and lets the wolf out. She encourages OZ to do the same. She encourages him to accept the beast inside him, to drink in its power, to reconcile himself with it. Instead of being so focused in controlling it. (Reminds me a little of Spike in Season 6 with Buffy - encouraging her to retreat into the dark with him. To enjoy being the animal. "I've never been with such a bloody animal." Or "you belong in the dark, with me." Dead Things.) Worried about Veruca's safety and the safety of others, OZ convinces her to spend the night with him in his cage. She scolds OZ for letting himself be domesticated. Just as they are turning they fall into each other's arms and make wild passionate animal love. The next morning - Willow discovers their naked bodies entwined in OZ's cage and freaks.
Very similar to Anya and Spike's coupling in Entropy (Season 6). Except Anya and Spike are seeking comfort and the sex is really passionless. What is similar - is once again we have two people with beasts inside them, unleashing those primal tendencies for a moment of comfort and solace. Spike comes to the magic box to numb his pain. He is, to his credit, struggling to control the negative impulses raging inside him. Just as Oz is to his credit struggling to control the beast inside himself. Except Spike is the beast all the time, it's the man who's been let of the cage by the chip. OZ is the man most of the time, it's the beast that that the moon and his anger lets out of the cage. Both have a human visage, both see themselves as men, but are they, really? Spike begins to think of himself as more of a man than a monster at the end of Season 5 and most of Season 6, it's really not until his attack on Buffy - that he realizes he's really just a caged monster not a man. OZ is the same way - he sees himself as the regular guy and only a wolf when the moon comes out, it's not until he kills Veruca and almost kills Willow, that he realizes the wolf is in him all the time, slowly taking control.
Until very recently, Spike like Veruca, didn't mind the beast and didn't see a need to control it. Now, in Entropy and Seeing Red, he's in pain and the beast is screaming for comfort. As Professor Walsh states in the beginning of Beer Bad: "The id doesn't learn it doesn't grow up. It has the ego telling it what it can't have and it has the superego telling it what it should want. But the id works solely out of the pleasure principle. It wants…" A soulless vampire in Btvs appears to be the id without negative restraints. Just as a werewolf in its wolf form is the id predominant. If we define the soul as the ego and super-ego converged - the part of us that tells us what we can't have or shouldn't have and what we "should", not necessarily "want" to, strive for, what happens when the ego and/or super-ego are removed or submerged beneath the id? If submerged, we have the wild werewolf or beer bad cave Buffy. If removed? We have Spike sans chip. The chip provides an additional pseudo-ego or leash for the id. He always had an ego, it just was wired differently than ours - for Spike, what we would consider negative impulses are positive - ie. Biting and drinking blood. The chip described by the late Professor Walsh as a behavior modification device, rewires the demon's ego to look at these impulses the way humans would not demons. So the ego is preventing Spike from biting/hurting people and suggesting he kill demons instead. The id can't learn, but the ego can - it has to in order to protect and support the id. What the ego can't provide is the morality or "should strive for" motivational structure of the super-ego, for that you must have a soul. Once all three are present, you can choose to obey the super-ego, the id, or the ego. The choices we make, Professor Walsh states have a lot to do with the social manners that we are taught - the nurture over nature view, but without the super-ego or ego, the id is in control, alone it cannot interpret or incorporate these societal values. The id, Professor Walsh states, can't learn or grow up like a vampire - arrested in adolescence. Only the super-ego and ego can do that. The id in its purest form is the take, want, have reflex that we see in animals, the id plus the ego is the vampire or Spike - who up until now is the id leashed by the ego struggling to get what it wants made real. OZ's struggle is the id struggling for dominance over the superego/ego and every twenty-eight days it succeeds.
(Lost? Here's a clearer description: Only id: animals are nothing but id. Pure desire with no breaks. Think snake. Ego - the Buffybot, no desires, just a mechanized robot
Superego plus ego - Mr. Spock on Star Trek or vulcans or Lt. Data on Star Trek.
Ego plus id - vampires on Btvs and most demons.)
Spike's little indiscretion in Entropy causes pain just as OZ's. Spike's id is hunting comfort and being a demon without a soul, his id is more or less in control so he has no choice but to gratify it. Of course his comfort is short lived and does not really give him what he wants. All it does is intensify his pain. The same problem occurs for OZ when he rewards the id by sleeping with Veruca. His motives are less opportunistic than Spike's - since he wants to keep Veruca from hurting anyone - by getting her to share his cage for the night. Of course OZ has the ego and super-ego giving him instructions. So from OZ's point of view - the id, ego, and super-ego what they want when he sleeps with Veruca - the id gets wild passionate unbridled sex, the ego gets to keep the id in a cage, the super-ego gets to save lives. Unfortunately Willow finds them and everyone gets hurt. The difference is OZ has a soul - the embodiment of the ego and superego. The other difference is Willow can and does love OZ, partly because he does have a soul. Buffy has broken up with and made clear to Spike that she cannot love him, because Spike does not have a soul. As id braced with an ego chip to control violent impulses - Spike can be a lot of fun to be with, she can let her own "id" take over, but he is not good for her super-ego, and Buffy needs someone with the whole package. It's the difference between being with someone who comforts and turns you on physically and someone who is good to you and enriches you emotionally and mentally as you enrich them.
It's hard to feel too sympathetic towards Buffy in Entropy. She did after all advise Spike to move on. Willow - your heart breaks for, because OZ's indiscretion came completely from left field. The difference between Willow and Buffy - is Willow relishes the primal, the id. Buffy is afraid of it - considering what she went through with Angel/Angelus almost killing all her friends - this makes sense. Willow doesn't really see the need to control her own - although she does help to control OZ's. She believes they can control it, together. That it only requires a cage, like the one she puts ratted Amy in. She does not really see the danger. Buffy, however, does. Buffy knows she can't trust Spike as long as his beast can break free at any time. She knows he's a time bomb. And what's more she knows that the chip is the only thing holding him back. Not her. Willow ignores this with OZ until he literally thrusts it in her face.
Both men end up attacking the women they love. And they both do it soon after their indiscretion. OZ in Wild at Heart, goes to save Willow from Veruca, in wolf form kills Veruca and almost attacks and kills Willow. In Oz's case the super-ego and ego gave into the id to protect Willow from Veruca - but once in pure "id" form - he lost control. Just as Dr. Jekyll loses control when he turns into Mr. Hyde or Norman Osborn loses control when he gives into the Green Goblin. Buffy pulls OZ away from Willow in the nick of time. Spike intends to just apologize to Buffy but the demonic id breaks free of the ego's restraints and things go horribly awry. He attacks her, almost raping her. And unlike Willow in Wild at Heart - Buffy is in a weakened state, vulnerable. So when Spike's demon "id" breaks loose, the results are ugly. Up until recently the chip leashed the negative impulses of the id. But now Spike can hurt Buffy. His negative impulses are no longer leashed when it comes to her. Something they both forgot. For the first time in two years - Spike loses control. The id rears its ugly head - making Buffy's fears a reality. Fears that were earlier put into words by Xander - "But I never forgot what he really is…. He doesn't have a soul, Buffy. Just a leash they jammed in his head. You think he'd still be all snuggles if that chip ever stopped working?" (Seeing Red) It's been so long since Spike was actually able to hurt Buffy that they both forgot he could now that the chip no longer operates when it comes to her. Ironic, since of all the characters - Buffy is the one Spike really doesn't want to hurt. Last summer, after she died, for 147 days, he thought of ways to save her. Spike believed he'd always keep his promise to her. That he could control the beast. That "he" would never hurt her. Turns out he was wrong. The demonic id will always take what it wants regardless of the consequences. The ego rewired by the chip just held it back - it didn't tame it. OZ believed the same thing, except OZ always knew that he could hurt Willow, he knew the possibility always existed.
OZ and Buffy are far more rational than Willow and Spike. They acknowledge the beast's power and it scares them. It should terrify Willow and Spike but until the end of Season 6 and possibly during Smashed, I don't believe it ever did, they both believed they had it under control. In Smashed - Spike believes the chip has been deactivated and immediately goes out to bite someone. The id is gleefully rubbing its hands - ah the chip is no longer keeping me back, I can do what I want. Except two years with the chip has left an imprint, Spike has to talk himself into the attempt. Note he still attempts it. If it weren't for the chip - the girl would have been dead. But his hesitation shows remarkable progress. It proves that while the id can't learn, the ego can learn what to do to please it. Willow in contrast, blatantly ignores the ego and super-ego and lets the id reign free in Smashed and Wrecked, recklessly endangering lives at the Bronze.
Both OZ and Spike react to their attacks on their lovers in the same way. OZ freaks, packs up his things and leaves Sunnydale. He does say goodbye to Willow first - but then he didn't actually hurt Willow. Buffy caught him before he was able to get near her. Also OZ and Willow have been in a loving relationship for over two years. This isn't the case with Spike and Buffy. As Spike tells Clem in Seeing Red: "We were never really together. She wouldn't lower herself that far." Spike and Buffy's relationship was never loving. When it wasn't a battle of wits, it was grudging respect, unbridled passion, companionship, and to some extent adoration from afar. It was in short far darker and complex than any relationship Willow has had.
In the last scene of Wild at Heart - OZ informs Willow that he has to find a way of controlling these urges. "The wolf is inside me all the time. And I don't know where the line is anymore - between me and it. Until I figure out what that means, I shouldn't be around you - or anybody." Each day that passes he senses the wolf more and more inside him. Not just when the moon is full. It terrifies him. This fear of losing control has been building within him - in Fear Itself, he cautions Willow regarding the use of her magic - stating: "I know what it's like to have power you can't control. I mean, every time I start to wolf out, I touch something -deep - dark. It's not fun." Willow does not heed his advice, losing control herself in the episode, her magic attacking her in the form of green fireflies. Buffy is more like OZ in this respect. She knows what it's like to have a power that could hurt someone if she lost control. In Normal Again she does - almost killing her friends. And as she states in Villains - "being the slayer, does not give me a license to kill." So, Buffy becomes the epitome of control. Monosyllabic OZ who barely expresses his emotions and appears to be calmly stoic and Buffy who similarly holds herself back after her mother dies and she's burdened with more responsibility than she can handle. Both are very contained, careful of the id, minding the ego and super-ego, while Spike and Willow are all over the place emotionally, obeying the dictates of the id.
While similar in theory, Spike's departure at the end of Season 6, is somewhat different than OZ's in Season 4. Oz left to reconcile the conflict between his id, ego and super-ego, bringing himself back into balance. He went to a Warlock to accomplish this and did not return to Willow until he learned to control his inner wolf. As OZ tells Willow in New Moon Rising, "This warlock in Romania sent me to the monks there to learn some meditation techniques. Very intense. All about keeping your inner cool…." (New Moon Rising. Season 4, Btvs) After his attack on Buffy - Spike also takes off. But he goes to Africa to seek out a demon lurking in a cave. Spike undergoes several rigorous trials, which result in the restoration of his soul or super-ego that he wants to control the monster id. OZ who already has a soul, undergoes several mediations to keep his monster id submerged. Spike does not attempt to say goodbye to Buffy - probably because he can't imagine her wanting to see him after what he did. And he's still a chipped monster. "The chip won't let me be a monster and I can't be a man", he tells Clem. But both women are surprised to find the men gone. In Something Blue, Willow goes to OZ's dorm room and is devastated to find it completely empty. In Villains, Buffy goes to Spike's crypt and is upset to find him gone as well. Both ask when they are coming back and neither gets a clear answer. So clearly Buffy did care about Spike leaving, just as Willow cared about OZ. The difference? Buffy could never trust Spike enough to love him like Willow trusted OZ.
So will Spike return as OZ did, one with himself? The id finally under the control of the ego and super-ego. Will he lose control of it if Buffy moves on without him? Or will Spike return conflicted like Angel, no longer comfortable with the monster inside, struggling to keep it hidden, controlled at all costs? Will the addition of a super-ego and ego in the form of a soul and a chip, change him, make him the man he once was, burying the id beneath the social manners and values he held as a man? Who will have control over Spike, the demonic id or the super-ego of the soul? OZ came back - but the moment he didn't get what he wanted - the id overpowered him and took control forcing him to leave. Will this hold true for Spike?
Spike is in a different position than OZ. Although both were captured by the Initiative, OZ was freed before they implanted a neural inhibitor inside his head. Spike wasn't so lucky. Spike already has something controlling the monster. A chip that through time and conditioning rewired his ego to hold it back. And Spike didn't choose it. Until now he hasn't wanted to control the monster. The demon ego was wired to unleash what we would consider the id's negative impulses and hold back what we would consider more positive impulses. The chip, slowly over time, rewired the ego to do the opposite or if you prefer to do what the human ego currently does. It took time of course. In Season 4 and part of Season 5, prior to his revelation about Buffy, all Spike wanted was to remove the chip. Now he doesn't care about the chip's existence as much as he cares about a soul. Overtime his ego, rewired by the chip, learned new ways to please and protect the id. As a result of the rewiring and his love for Buffy, Spike wants to be the man he once was not the caged monster he currently is. Now that he's discovered the chip isn't enough to ensure he doesn't hurt Buffy, he wants something else, something greater to cage his beast. Unlike OZ, Spike was reconciled with his monster -it's not until now that he wants no part of it. OZ had limited control and needed greater control and to do that had to reconcile with it on some level. When OZ returns - he seems more comfortable with himself and his fate. When he left he was conflicted, out of control. Will the same thing happen for Spike? Up until Season 4 Spike seemed comfortable with himself and his fate. Then he got chipped and fell for Buffy - now he hates himself and requires change. Will the soul help? OR will it make him more like OZ, fearful of the monster within? What does it take to reconcile with the id? To tame it? To not let it control us? To not let the id tell us who we are? What does it take to resolve the super-ego's conflict with the id in the super-ego's favor?
II. Willow and Buffy: the witch and the vampire slayer
Willow and Buffy, the witch and the slayer - both have struggled with the id. Buffy currently reflects the dominance of the super-ego while Willow represents the dominance of the id. Willow is now in a similar place to OZ and Spike, she wants it - she takes it. Buffy is getting overwhelmed by the conflict going on between the ego and the super-ego. She is striving to be all things to all people, but unable to handle the emotional and psychological overload. As a result we have her projecting her desires and anguish onto others. She projects her self-hatred onto Spike in Smashed and Dead Things - accusing him of being an evil soulless thing and almost beating him to a pulp. In Wrecked she projects her own shame onto Willow, comparing her relationship with Spike with Willow's use of magic. "You should give it up…no matter how good it feels," she says at the end of Wrecked.
In Season 6, both Willow and Buffy are struggling. As Tillow, Rahael, and Ixchel stated in the excellent depression threads - both women have been struggling with elements of depression this season. What happens to the ego when it is undergoing severe bouts of depression or anxiety? What defense mechanisms are used? Does the id start to reassert itself - taking pleasure where it can?
In Season 4, Btvs, Willow deals with OZ's departure by first getting drunk - a similar response to Buffy's handling of the Parker situation in Beer Bad. Except Buffy didn't love Parker. Parker was Buffy's way of getting past Angel. When alcohol doesn't work, Willow goes back to her tried and true staple of magic. Since Season 3, Willow has used magic to fix things to her liking, whether it be saving the universe (Angel's cure in Becoming), giving her friend a birthday gift (Gingerbread and the protection spell), or defending herself against unbidden sexual desires (Lover's Walk and the delusting spell). In Dopplegangerland (Season 3) - we get to see Willow sans superego. VampWillow's all id and ego. The morality is gone which makes the ego somewhat twisted, like Spike sans chip. Without the super-ego, the ego has no reason to hold back the negative impulses of the id. So it's interesting in Season 6, when we begin to see Willow fall into the same behavior and speech patterns as VampWillow in Dopplegangerland. Willow at the end of Dopplegangerland, feels the same sense of shame Xander feels at the end of the Pack (Season 1) - the super-ego overwhelms her. She tells Buffy she'll stay a virgin forever, never venture out, stay pure. Then Percy, the bane of her existence arrives and instead of baiting her or forcing her to do his homework, turns in two completed papers and gives her an apple. VampWillow's treatment of Percy apparently worked. And the end result satisfied the ego, super-ego and id - hence no conflict. Willow asks Buffy what time she'd like to meet at the Bronze. Apparently the resolution is to reconcile all three. Instead of placing the evil id in chains, the ego creates defenses against the id's negative/destructive impulses while the superego guides it in the right direction. The id = drive, the ego = control and the superego = the moral goal.
Buffy as the slayer = listens to all three. In Beer Bad - even though she desperately wants to kill Parker, the boy who rudely dumped her, and it's arguable that cave Buffy is id personified - when push comes to shove - she saves his life. Even if it means hitting him over the head to do it, which appeases the id who desires vengeance. Buffy is far from perfect, but considering she has the power to pummel a normal human to death, she shows great restraint. The reasons can be ascribed partly to Giles and Joyce - her parental morality structure. As Giles states in Tabula Rasa - he provided her with the moral structure to be a slayer and her mother provided her with the moral framework to be a good person. In Villains, when she explains to Xander and Dawn why it is wrong to exact vengeance on Warren or any human no matter what their crimes - we see a combination of Joyce and Giles' teachings. These teachings also appear to extend to demons - Giles has taught her that it is wrong to use and abuse Spike, rendered harmless with the chip. In Something Blue he tells both Spike, currently chained in Giles' bathtub, and Buffy that they won't hurt a harmless creature. Once they determine he is harmless they will let him go. Giles also takes measures to help Spike when he shows up with a tracking device implanted in him. Giles behavior towards Spike serves as an example to the SG as well as to Spike. We learn societal and moral behavior patterns through our role models - in Btvs this would be Giles - the parent figure. Of the Scoobs - Giles spends the most time teaching Buffy. Buffy has the added advantage of Joyce. We don't know much about Willow's parents except that they appear to be relatively uninvolved in her life and when they are they attribute her behavior to psychological processes.
We have even less information regarding Spike and OZ's backgrounds. OZ appears to be fairly well adjusted. Spike - well his parental role models as a vampire were Dru, Angelus, and Darla. But Spike really doesn't have a super-ego or much of an ego for that matter. The superego houses the psyche's moral framework, which it obtains from parental and societal role models. The demon soul appears to be mostly id with just enough ego to ensure evil results. And the id doesn't learn. The chip may have added a little more ego to the mix, controlling the more violent impulses of Spike's demon psyche. But it's hardly a super-ego - the chip doesn't provide him with goals or reasons outside of the ones important to the id. He has no desire or knowledge of bigger goals. He protects Buffy and her extended family because that provides him with comfort, sex, food and shelter from Buffy and her extended family. Their loss - removes those items. The chip keeps him from hurting them or anyone else directly. It does not prevent him from doing so indirectly in order to please himself. (Examples: the demon eggs, kitty poker, seeking asylum from the loan-shark…)
What about William? Well - from Fool for Love - we know that William had a hatred of violence and seemed to prefer creating objects of beauty. These are the goals of the super-ego or in Jossverse the soul. Creating something to make others feel good. We also know that he had a close relationship with his mother who was possibly controlling. The Victorian period is known historically to be pretty strict when it came to societal morals. You did not curse or show affection in public. That risqué Bronze scene between Buffy and Spike in Dead Things - would have been a strict no-no in Victorian Society. Pre-martial sex and violence were frowned upon. William as he is described in Fool For Love appears to be the epitome of the proper, self-styled, scholarly Victorian gentlemen. "I prefer not to think of such things," he haughtily tells the aristocrats who ask his opinion on a recent spat of murders, "that's what the police are for. I prefer to concentrate on creating things of beauty." This leads me to believe in the establishment of a strict moral code in William, far stricter than Liam's or Darla's who did not have close relationships with their parents and led fairly violent lives prior to their vamping. So - if Spike regains William's soul - would his super-ego's moral structure be the extreme opposite of the demon's?? William seems to be all super-ego, his ego repressing the id in order to maintain the high moral standards expected in his social sphere -as is demonstrated in his appearance, mannerisms, and costume: the suite, the cravat, the glasses, and the scholarly demeanor. He looks exactly like Giles, who represents Buffy's moral guide. When William becomes Spike, his super-ego is torn away and his id is unleashed - hence the black leather jacket, blatant sexuality, violent demeanor, cigarettes, alcohol, and platinum blond hair. What happens when the extremes meet? The loosely seductive bad-boy vamp meets the morally uptight poet? For OZ to control the id or inner beast - he went and found new methods for the ego to keep the impulses under control and resolve the conflict. OZ's moral structure was intact, so he had the internal desire to control the id. The conflict was actually more with his ego, who was struggling to do its job. Spike's chip keeps most of his violent impulses under control, but without a soul, he doesn't have the overlapping moral structure to want to do so. Nor does he have the desire to help others outside of those who can please his id. So when the chip deactivates, the demon's ego only works to promote the impulses of the beast, whether those be negative or positive in nature.
Back to Willow and Buffy. Willow and Buffy obviously have the moral structure. And up until Season 4, Willow appeared to be the most morally upstanding of the SG. She wouldn't even leave school grounds for lunch. And debates eating a banana prior to lunch as a rebellion. (Doppelgangerland). But as Anya says in that over-quoted line from Smashed, when responsible people get a taste of being bad - it's seductive and they want more until they go all kablooey. Willow's id has been straining at the bit for sometime. She's been so repressed emotionally - that it's no wonder she explodes or goes kablooey. What causes it is the denial of those things she craves: comfort and sex. Without comfort and sex - the other two, food and shelter seem meaningless. The first time she goes kablooey is in Something Blue - when she attempts to fix her problem with magic. Buffy, the super-ego, tells Willow, the id, that she needs to work through the pain - that she can't just make it go poof. Wishing to make the pain go away, Willow casts a spell in which she hopes she can "will" her pain away. Instead she "wills" chaos on all her friends. Not unlike the chaos Buffy almost causes in Beer Bad as cave Buffy. And like Buffy, Willow does reverse the spell in the nick of time. Chaos isn't exactly bad in either instance - since it pushes Buffy past her pain in Beer Bad and gives her a sense of closure and provides Willow with a similar sense of closure in Something Blue - where she appears to learn that magic doesn't solve problems it just makes them worse. The second time, Willow uses magic to fix things is in Tough Love - where once again comfort and sex are removed. Buffy once again reins her in, saving her from Glory the unfettered id.
The third time - Willow uses her magic to bring Buffy back to life. In this case, Willow's id, super-ego and ego are all in agreement - she must bring Buffy back before the world of Sunnydale crumbles into hell. She also honestly believes Buffy is in hell. The fourth time is the charm - Tara is shot and killed and Willow goes kablooey. She briefly went kablooey before when Tara left her and she injured Dawn, but nowhere near what she does when she literally and figuratively loses her lover and all the pleasure her lover represents. In torment - Willow's id breaks past all her ego's defenses and overtakes her super-ego. It is in control. As Willow states in Grave - "Willow (the super-ego) doesn't live here anymore."
Buffy is the reverse. When she comes back from the grave she is struggling for a sense of balance. At first she wanders about in a haze just going through the motions. As time passes the moral structure that has always guided her begins to crack. She craves comfort and passion. Sex provides both. Sex without strings that is. But her moral structure, the part of her that strives to be something more, the slayer - the super-hero, can't handle the id's desires. The two become conflicted and the ego struggles to deal with it. Professor Walsh's old question arises: So, how does this conflict with the ego manifest itself in the psyche? What do we do when we can't have what we want? Buffy wants to go back to Heaven where she was warm, comforted, provided for and loved. Done. She tries numerous ways of either replicating the experience or getting there. The first is suicide with the singing demon in OMWF, the second is sex with Spike in Smashed through As You Were, the third is the asylum world - which she can only retreat to if she kills her friends and family in the basement of her mind. But the super-ego can't stomach any of these choices. It is at war with the ego to stop them. Buffy's suicide is stopped by Spike. The super-ego's inability to handle the shameful sex with Spike causes the ego to project the super-ego's misery onto Spike. The other way the ego handles this conflict is by denying the relationship. Neither works for the super-ego. And Buffy feels intense shame and guilt as a result. Finally, the super-ego wins and Buffy ends the relationship and retreats to the third and final choice - the asylum world. She has repressed her rage at being brought back to life until it explodes onto her friends and Dawn, whom she attempts to destroy. But her super-ego, the moral structure her parents imbued in her, cannot stand idly by while the monster attempts to destroy them. So Buffy saves the day, again. And they eventually forgive her. Buffy has finally pushed through to the other side. So that by Seeing Red and Villians, Buffy is once again acting as the voice of reason and morality. She tells Spike she can't be with him, because she can't love him. Her super-ego has learned that love can't last without trust. A concept the id can't understand. And she tells Xander and Dawn that you can't play with the natural order of things. Vengeance solves nothing. Another concept the id does not understand. Unfortunately in Seeing Red - Buffy as the super-ego barely manages to kick the bestial id (Spike) off of her and in Villains - she is unable to save Warren from the id as represented by Willow.
You can't have an id and super-ego without the ego. Something needs to guide those impulses, needs to focus them and needs to defend you from them. Buffy symbolizes the super-ego in Btvs. The moral structure. Willow seems to symbolize the id unleashed in all it's fury. So who symbolizes the ego? Xander and to some extent Giles - who states that his magic will act as a sort of control - force Willow to feel her humanity or soul = superego.
So back to our question: What does it take to resolve the ego's conflict with the id and super-ego as represented in Spike and Willow? How do we deal with the id?
In Btvs - the following occurs: Willow is stopped by Xander who stands in front of a steeple with a chained demonic goddess. The Goddess represents the id and all its negative desires, the steeple the super-ego rising into the heavens, and the chains - the ego. Willow is attempting to free the chained goddess from her chains so she can free the earth from its' pain - Willow desires comfort, an end to pain. Xander gets in the way - calm, rational, Xander. He is not the super-ego, that's Buffy, the slayer. Nor is he the id, that's Spike and Willow. He is the ego - struggling to control the ids impulses, standing between it and the steeple or its desires. And he gives the id what it desires - love and comfort. "I love you, Willow," he repeats, until she falls sobbing into his arms where he comforts her.
What about Spike? Spike is stopped by Buffy who violently kicks him off her and tells him he can never have her as long as he is what he is - the bestial id without constraint. Spike gets the message. Not through Buffy - but through the realization that he hurt the very thing he desired. By hurting it - he loses all chance to obtain it. As previously stated, Spike's ego has been bolstered by a chip, which rewired it to help the slayer and not hurt living things. The id still wants to hurt living things - but the re-wired ego has, up until the attempted rape scene, been keeping it back. The ego is also the source of the demon's intelligence. The attempted rape scene threw Spike's ego and id into conflict. To ultimately win this conflict - his ego has to get some help. A super-ego? But the id is resisting - it wants to win, it wants the chip removed. So the ego coaxes it. Ascribes blame to other parties. (It's the chip's fault not mine.) Does what egos do best, protect the id. (Hence all the bravado in the cave scenes. That's the ego lying to the id.) So we have the trials, which exhaust the id allowing the ego to finally get what it wants.
So balance appears to be the answer. If we can balance the battling forces within our psyche, we can handle the world around us. The id gives us drive, the super-ego the moral goal and the ego the ability to get there. By reconciling the monstrous id with the ego and super-ego, we control it. Repressing it as OZ and Willow attempted only causes it to gain in power. Unleashing it as Willow and Spike attempt only destroys what it wants. Using the ego and super-ego to accept the id yet keep it in check as Buffy eventually does - makes it possible for us to step out of the grave and into the sunshine.
Shadowkat 6/17/02
*Addendum: This is the result of a discussion between me and redcat which further explains my thesis, some of it has been inserted in the above essay, hopefully it will help anyone who got lost in the above Freudian reasoning.
Before writing this - I read a paper by Dr. Charles Brenner called "Beyond the Id and the Ego" and in that article Brenner mentioned how these definitions often overlap and aren't always accurate in psychoanalytic theory, I tend to agree - ran into the same conflicts in my essay. Frustrated - I discussed this with a friend who has a psychology background and we determined the following.
1. Pure id without ego = the animal or reptile, no thought, nothing but pure unbridled instinct. OZ in his werewolf form or what Xander and the students in the Pack would have become if the hyenas remained inside them. The primal.
2. Pure Ego would probably be the buffybot
3. Super-ego and ego would be Lt. Data on the Starship Enterprise or Mr. Spock. Actually Vulcans are an excellent example of the id being entirely suppressed.
So I queried what is ego plus id? Well that would probably be the vampire. Because the ego protects the id from hurting itself and directs it towards it's goal.
So what would a pure super-ego be? Well according to Freud it's the moral compass, the moral framework created by our parents and society. Freud was a bit obsessed with parential influences - believing these could lead to negative impulses housed in the id and regulated by the ego. Freud as someone else pointed out on the B C & S board was heavily influenced by Victorian morality, which considered sex a dark impulse. Wishing to avoid these traps, I thought okay...what is ME working towards here. Because I really hate the whole Oedipal thing and sex as a dark impulse.
Well Joss Whedon defines a soul differently than we do. We define it as the essence of our personality, our self. Whedon defines it almost in the same terms as Freud defines the super-ego, which leads me to believe Joss took Psychology in college or someone on his staff did (maybe Marti??) and had the evil Prof Walsh as a teacher. Examples: In the Pack, which I just rewatched on FX - Giles explains that the primals worshipped the hyena or animal shadow energy as something better than a soul. They considered the soul unholy. They preferred the primal. Actually - this is true in some primitive tribal cultures, who prefer our animal nature to the more evolved one or super-ego. (They see animals as being a purer form of being). Giles goes on to define this energy as primal or animalistic, seeking only it's own pleasure - reminds me of the Freudian definition of the "id". Then in Angel - he defines the vampire as a vicious animal similar to the demonic possession of the hyenas. Later in Season 4 when Buffy begins to lose her soul to her roommate, her negative impulses get unleashed, she wants what is hers, doesn't want to share.
So if this is what ME means by id and soul. And how they are separate. What about ego? According to Freud the ego is the motor function, the way we deal with the negative impulses of the id, how we protect ourselves from them. I'd say intelligence is probably the ego. Or logic.
How does this answer your questions regarding Spike?
Well I made the mistake of mentioning a demon soul because I'm not really sure they are meant to have one and if they do - my guess is it's just a combo of ego and id. But all demons are not created equal. Some may have all three, perhaps in the manner you suggest. The demon super-ego cares about the continuation of chaos or evil - examples would be Anyanka, D'Hoffryn, Glory - although I still think Glory is a metaphor for an unfettered id with Ben as her ego caging her - what does she say to Ben? When you become immortal, guilt, shame, all those negative feelings melt away like ice cream. You can do whatever you want and not care. Now this sounds like the id talking to the ego. But I could be misreading the metaphor. Adam seemed to be super-ego and ego with no id. He understood primal desires but seemed to be above them, more interested in tthe big picture. While Spike just cared about a)getting the chip out or b) surviving - id/ego responses to the situation. So Adam would be an example of a bad super-ego. Vampires appear to be more primal in nature, just a step above werewolves - going for their pleasures over the big picture in most cases. (Again Spike in Becoming, Lover's Walk, School Hard, Primeval) In fact very few of them seem to get the big picture. (Rise out of the grave, go get something to eat.) There are a few that do - which makes me wonder if they could develop a super-ego over time? An evil super-ego like the Master and Angelus seemed to?? (Remember - Spike is only 128 years old. Angelus was at least 243 and The Master approximately 800. And the Buffyverse mythos suggests that the older vamps lose their human visages…change as time goes on?) So my guess, originally they possess neither a demon soul nor a human one. That said - what would motivate a demon to seek any soul? Why bother? All it would do is place greater pressure on the id?
Well - there is the argument that Spike didn't really go after a soul and the lurker demon tricked him, but I think JE's interview pretty much nixed that argument, even though under the Freudian super-ego, ego, id theory that "argument" appears to make the most logical sense. So how do we reconcile it?
I can think of two theories.
1. That there's a little super-ego left inside Spike after all, just a tiny amount, way deep inside in those old memory banks, retained after the vamping and if it weren't for the chip suppressing some of his id's negative impulses - it would probably never see the light of day. There may be a little inside all vamps - remember they are human's infected. So it would make sense that a sliver of that old soul got left behind. We only have Angel's word that the entire soul is gone. Maybe - they are like the werewolves in that their super-ego, that tiny bit that is still left over was submerged. It's not enough to do anything of course...but it might be enough to push him to go after rest - if his id and ego are convinced it's the only way they can get what they want. Remember Spike asks Clem, why do I feel this way? What has she done to me? It's all jimny cricket. He's feeling guilt and shame. Emotions that vampires can't feel. Without a soul or super-ego - They don't have the capacity for these emotions. They don't know what guilt is, they have no knowledge of it. So how is he feeling it? Has the chip become something more than just an ego for Spike? The writing is contradictory on this one. But so is Freud. Which leads me to theory number 2.
2. The super-ego and ego overlap a bit. The ego has elements of the super-ego in its basic structure - to hold back and protect the id. The problem with the id - is we tend to separate it from the other two, we tend to separate it from ourselves - as if it's not part of us, when it actually is very vital to our make up. We call it evil - the beast. But the id is our drive, our desires, what makes us get up in the morning & enjoy life. Go eat breakfast. Wander through the garden. Or write essays to get cool feedback. I think ME has dealt with these concepts in an interesting manner - I think they've separated the id and overlapped the ego and super-ego, so that while separate concepts, they contain elements of each other, hence Professor Walsh's question about how the id and ego are in conflict. Beings who have souls - have super-ego/ego and id. The super-ego in the souled being usually is dominant. It aids the ego in restraining negative impulses in the id and rewarding positive ones. Not always but in most cases. Beings without a soul only have id and ego or sometimes just id - the mindless animal - Farayle demon? The id is dominant in these creatures, with the ego giving basic verbal and motor functions. Since super-ego and ego overlap, a pre-dominant ego would change a demon from a being that just goes after what it desires to actually trying for something greater, something beyond just the pleasure principal. In most demons - a predominant ego causes them to go after greater evil. Remember the ego can hold back negative impulses - negative impulses in a demon may be different than a human, they may be considered positive impulses from the demonic id's pov. (ie. The demon ego holds back what humans would consider positive impulses while rewarding negative ones.) So what happens if a neural behavior modifier is implanted in a demon, altering the demon's interpretation of the id's impulses to fit the human's interpretation from positive to negative? Ie. If I bite people - I will experience intense pain when before I experienced intense pleasure. (What would you do if something you used to enjoy made you violently ill?) And what if this newly formed ego begins to gain power over the demon's id, begins to be the filter the id sees through to reach its desires? The ego can apparently influence what the id wants. It has to, to protect itself from pain. To survive. So what happens if the ego has been altered by science to seek positive/good outcomes? Instead of wanting to kill the slayer the ego now wants to love her, to protect her? And what happens if the id breaks free of the ego's influence, albeit briefly, causing intense conflict? (The id wants to possess the slayer - the ego wants to protect her from harm, to see her happy.) Who'd win? The ego has been bolstered by a chip, which rewired it to help the slayer and not hurt living things. The id still wants to hurt living things - but the re-wired ego has, up until the attempted rape scene, been keeping it back. The ego is also the source of the demon's intelligence. The attempted rape scene threw the ego and id into conflict. To ultimately win this conflict - the ego has to get some help. A super-ego? But the id is resisting - it wants to win, it wants the chip removed. So the ego coaxes it. Ascribes blame to other parties. (It's the chip's fault not mine.) Does what egos do best, protect the id. (Hence all the bravado in the cave scenes. That's the ego lying to the id.) So we have the trials, which exhaust the id allowing the ego to finally get what it wants.
