The Greek word for “soul” is “psyche” (ψυχή). Soul is who we really are; the part that’s eternal, yet ephemeral and intangible. But in modern Western culture, we associate who we are with the material and corporeal, and the English word “psyche” refers to the mind. Freud described the psyche as containing the ego, superego, and id: the trappings of consciousness that tell us we’re separate from other living things, and that we have a finite end, upon which we endlessly ruminate. These parts of us can become monstrous, keeping us stuck in our own small worlds and fixated upon consensus conceptions of time, matter, and reality.
ψυχή / psyche / soul
ψυχή / psyche / soul
ψυχή / psyche / soul
The Greek word for “soul” is “psyche” (ψυχή). Soul is who we really are; the part that’s eternal, yet ephemeral and intangible. But in modern Western culture, we associate who we are with the material and corporeal, and the English word “psyche” refers to the mind. Freud described the psyche as containing the ego, superego, and id: the trappings of consciousness that tell us we’re separate from other living things, and that we have a finite end, upon which we endlessly ruminate. These parts of us can become monstrous, keeping us stuck in our own small worlds and fixated upon consensus conceptions of time, matter, and reality.