Post Secret

In Freudian terms, Post Secret displays the id, ego, and superego through the process of divulging a secret. The keeper of the initial secret preserves an aspect of him or herself as the superego. The superego prevents the compulsive disclosure of potentially embarrassing information. The ego, in this instance, is the sender of the secret. The decision to put pen to paper actualizes the secret in question. The ego struggles between keeping the secret private and revealing the intimate piece of information. The display of the secret upon the Post Secret site takes on the characteristics of the psychoanalytic id. The secret has been disseminated through the will of the ego, giving the releasing the sender’s information. Having the secret displayed openly to an immense audience is a representation of the id. The sender has succumbed to the id’s inclinations by allowing the secret to take a physical form. The act of viewing these confessions is also an act of indulgence, influenced by the viewer’s id.