May Monster Madness #2: Monsters From the Id

May Monster Madness is hosted by Annie Walls, Little Gothic Horrors, and Something WicKED This Way Comes.

On this second day of monster mayhem, I'd like to take a quick look at a monster that is disturbing because it springs from our own minds.

Monsters From the Id

The Id was named by Sigmund Freud, and describes the part of the mind composed of our primitive basic instincts.  These instincts include the need to procreate and to protect ourselves through aggression.  As human beings, we have to ability to control our impulses, even though those impulses are still there whether we're willing to acknowledge them or not.

In the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, and expedition is sent to a distant planet to discover what happened to a human settlement.  They learn that an ancient race once lived there, and this race had invented and built a machine that could produce anything from the thoughts of the people who lived there.  These intelligent aliens were exterminated practically overnight.

The cause of death: the monsters from the Id. Even the most advanced beings still possess the Id, the unconscious place that lies beneath reason and restraint.  The machine, which was supposed to make life better, inadvertently unleashed the beast within that was regulated by conscious thought.  Let loose upon the world, extinction came quickly.

This film came at a time when we were well aware of our own ability to cause extinction.  Films about giant insects brought about by nuclear radiation were popular at the time.  We knew all too well that the monster resided within ourselves.

The monsters from the Id are frightening because they are part of us.  They can take any form, and their wrath can be nothing short of devastating.

Links!

http://www.monstersfromtheid.net/trailer.html

http://psychology.about.com/od/iindex/g/def_id.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet