Portrait of Id, Ego, and Superego on ‘Dear no One’ by Tori Kelly: The Understanding for Stress Management

Abstract

This study aims to examine id, ego and superego reflected in lyrics of a song by American singer Tori Kelly entitled ‘Dear No One,’ using Sigmund Freud's psychological theory of literature. The song lyrics are defined as poetry that is sung. In addition to functioning as entertainment, song lyrics are created as a form of expression of the feelings of the author's soul. Interpreting each lyric is one way of imbuing emotions in a song. The method used was descriptive qualitative with content analysis techniques and data recording techniques. Adopting psychoanalysis perspectives, the psychological structure in terms of song lyrics in the form of id, ego and superego is described. The data source was the lyrics of a song entitled ‘Dear No One’ by Tori Kelly itself. The result show that there is a psychological structure in the form of id, ego and superego in Tori Kelly's song lyrics. Ego occupies the highest result in the analysis that consciously raises emotions when listening to the song. Meanwhile, the Ego results dominate because many of the meanings of the lyrics return to reality in accordance to Ego principles based on Sigmund Freud's theory. Since music is a common stress-managing strategy among young people, the findings benefit them to deal with stress resulting in Covid-19 pandemic.