{"id":625,"date":"2025-03-08T09:53:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T14:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=625"},"modified":"2025-03-08T09:53:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T14:53:30","slug":"the-wizard-of-id","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=625","title":{"rendered":"The Wizard of Id"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Wizard of Id<\/p>\n<p>Close your eyes and come with me on a little dream journey. Imagine, if you will, that you\u2019re not in Kansas anymore. Courtesy of your <i>gold<\/i> card (a bargain at a mere 5 million), you\u2019ve arrived in the wonderful world of Ov. You\u2019re surrounded by a troop of flying monkeys, ready to carry out the bidding of a narcissistic wizard. (Spoiler alert \u2014 he\u2019ll be unmasked in the end as a common con man, motivated by power and greed, and an unquenchable thirst for loyalty). You\u2019re a bit disoriented \u2014 a fly-in from your tornado-ravaged home land will do that! You\u2019ve been welcomed by some apparent friends \u2014 one with no brain, one with no heart, one with no courage \u2014 but they too will reveal themselves soon enough. You\u2019re sitting in a room that\u2019s not quite round \u2014 more kind of egg-shaped. You might almost say . . . oval. You\u2019ve come seeking the support of the Wizard of Id.<\/p>\n<p>And so the surreal cl___er f__k unfolds. Depending on one\u2019s orientation, \u2018great television\u2019 or the most shameful, political mugging in multiple decades. Replete with lots of material for analysis \u2014 psychological analysis. So. . . where to start.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps with the wizard himself. What makes a carnival grifter into a self-appointed monarch? What are the essential elements, values and traits that define such an individual:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>demanding, selfish behaviour<\/li>\n<li>unethical, even criminal acts<\/li>\n<li>inconsiderate conduct or speech<\/li>\n<li>unreasonable nature<\/li>\n<li>uncooperative with others<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No surprise that these sterling characteristics are the self same descriptors as the Freudian Id, \u2018the primitive, instinctual aspect of the psyche, devoid of organization, logic, or reason, harbouring conflicting, contradictory impulses, operating solely on immediate gratification\u2019. Sadly, without the constraints of conscience or the guardrails of rational thought, the Id is a child, fumbling his way through life, without a plan, pin balling between hollow pyrrhic victories and tantrums, empty pleasure and pain. Bring me the broom of the wicked witch (or maybe just some rare earth minerals) and I\u2019ll tell you how to get home. The Wizard\u2019s <i>quid pro quo.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>And what\u2019s a charlatan wizard without his winkies \u2014 the cast of \u2018green guards\u2019, enslaved lackeys so riddled with cognitive dissonance that indeed the sky is green and the grass is blue; holding two absolutely contradictory thoughts in mind, then checking with the Wiz to see what\u2019s \u2018true\u2019 (today). What must it be like to celebrate this visitor to Ov one moment as \u2018the best kind of ally I could possibly wish for\u2019 then laud the Wiz for trashing this stranger in this very (very) strange land, the next. How soul splittingly sycophantic to hold this stranger\u2019s hand in warm welcome, then delete any evidence of same the next \u2014 wave that misanthropic wand, my Wiz.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We can only hope that, at some point, the curtain will fall away, the props will fail, a quick click of the heels and poof, it will be 2028!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Wizard of Id Close your eyes and come with me on a little dream journey. Imagine, if you will, that you\u2019re not in Kansas anymore. Courtesy of your gold card (a bargain at a mere 5 million), you\u2019ve arrived in the wonderful world of Ov. You\u2019re surrounded by a troop of flying monkeys, ready [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}