"So Edible"

Last semester in my Literary Criticism class, we studied Psychoanalytic Criticism, and it gave me this idea, what if I applied it to the characters on Community? So here is a breakdown of who I see as the Id, Ego, and Superego of Greendale Community College. I preface this by saying that I realize these characters don't exclusively belong to one category, but I'm putting them in the category I think best represents them.

Id: Based around the "pleasure principle" the Id represents those base animal instincts that a person has unrefined by the Ego or the Superego.  The Id is irrational and instinctual.

Troy: Troy has a childlike innocence. At times it makes him endearing, but it also makes him one of the less rational members of the group. I mean this is the guy who swallowed a Troll statuette in the timeline episode because he thought it was the only way to defeat it. Troy's great, but not always the most rational.

Pierce: Pierce kind of just does whatever he wants without consideration of others. Look how quickly he became a villain in season 2. His frequently racist and insensitive comments show his lack of regard for social expectation. Also, he's right along there with Troy when it comes to not being able to grasp reality.

 
Dean Pelton: Animal urges? Yeah Dean Pelton's got that one covered. There isn't a character on Community with more fetishes and weird costumes than the dean.

Chang: He is the craziest, least rational, character on the show by far. If there were a living embodiment of the Id, it would easily be Chang.

Superego: The superego is based around the "morality principle." It uses social standards and guilt to keep the Id in check.

Shirley: Shirley is a master at using the guilt trip. Yes she can be sweet and nice, but she is also the person who kicked Jeff out of her Christmas party for breaking social expectation. Not to mention, the episode where she guilts Jeff into dealing with Chang by saying, "I know you're not going to make a pregnant woman..."

Jeff: Speaking of Superego, Jeff falls right into this category. He spends just about every episode manipulating social standards to get people to fall in line with his plans. Not only that, but his total facade is built around meeting social expectations. In the season 2 valentines day episode he mentions how he "got into soccer" just because it made him sound cool.  Jeff's MO is being "cool" and using his skills as a former lawyer to convince everyone to do what he wants. 

Annie: If there were a royal position given to the biggest Superego on campus, she would be known as "Queen Annie of the Superegos." Seriously, there isn't a bigger superego on campus. She takes the superego qualities of Jeff and Shirley and puts them together. She's defined by her need to fit society's standard of success, she uses her moral standards to make the study group fall in line with what she thinks they should be doing, and she has got the guilt trip down pat. Hence the Disney face.

Ego: The Ego is driven by the "reality principle." It is the rational part of the psyche that counters the Id's lack of rationality. It also can be a sort of mediator between the desires of the Id and the guilt induction of the Superego.

Abed: I mean come on, he's the obvious Ego of the group. He doesn't understand emotion, so he is forced to be a completely rational thinker. Yes, he does verge into the childish with the dreamatorium, but even that has a rational order to it. Abed is the only character that can make a decision completely based on rational thought as opposed to emotion or guilt.

Britta: This one might surprise people, but I definitely see her as an Ego. Yes, Britta screws everything up, but think about it, whenever she "britta's" something, it normally results in a member or the entire group coming to a realization. In the celebrity impersonation episode, she is the only one that recognized that Jeff's ego was growing out of control. Had it not been for Britta's test in the season 3 Halloween episode, the group never would have realized that they are all  pretty much a little insane. She may not know the difference between "edible" and "oedipal" but she did accurately identify Jeff and Pierce's father issues. The biggest proof that Britta is an Ego, is her relationship with Abed (her fellow Ego). At the beginning of season 3 she may have broken Abed with Cougarton Abbey, but she also fixed him with Inspector Spacetime. Furthermore Abed himself says in the season 3 finale that Britta is the only person he could ever trust as his therapist because she has as little control over his brain as he does.