What if Humans Did Not Have Superego's?

In class, we talked a lot about Freud’s description of the three parts of the human psyche, which are the id, ego, and superego. This discussion soon lead to the topic of how animals relate to these principles. I found it interesting that most animals have an id, ego, but not a superego. This means that many animals will understand how their actions relate to the environment, but they will not have a greater vision of what is going on in their world. It seems like the superego is a purely human characteristic, and even if animals will have enough intelligence to understand their world in a human-like fashion, they will never have a superego; these animals will never be truly human.

I feel that these ideas bring up an interesting point when you look at some of the main characteristics that humans have different from animals. The main characteristic that comes to mind is the human ability to have strong emotions about any type of situation. For example, I do not think a monkey would ever be sad about the way they look, or because they did not have enough money. I understand that monkeys do not handle money, but the point I am trying to make is that human’s develop strong emotions over learned wants, and desires. Animals can be happy when their simplest needs are covered, while humans have trouble staying happy even when all their simple needs are covered. Animals tend to be always in the present moment, focusing on what task is in front of them, while humans tend to be stuck always thinking about the past or future.

The fact that animals are generally easier to keep happy is very interesting to me. I have read books on human spirituality and happiness, and many times, one of the main subjects in the books is the present moment. If humans can stay in the present moment, all of their stress and worries will disappear; once you fully immerse yourself in the present moment, it is extremely difficult not to be happy. Ancient spiritual practices like meditation and prayer all have something in common: they cause the person performing the actions to be in the present moment. Since being in the present moment seems so important, I find it interesting that animals are good at doing this because animals also do not have a superego. All of this has lead me to wonder if humans would benefit from not having a superego.

I understand that there are many advantages to having a superego, but if every type of being in existence did not have a superego, it seems like our world would function better. I do not think humans would want to take advantage of other beings as much as we do now if we did not have a superego. I also think that the environment would be in a much better situation then it is now. Most importantly, if we did not have superegos, I believe we would be a generally, much happier.

What do you think would happen if humans did not have superegos?