Does Alcohol Bring out the Real You?

There is a common belief that alcohol brings out the real nature of individuals. Alcohol disinhibits the part of your brain that is thinking about tomorrow and allows one to focus more in the moment. Because of this, the drunk person is also not nearly as worried about tomorrow’s consequences. Thus, their behavior may include things he or she was too afraid to do or say in fear of future consequences. That problem you may have with your spouse and are too afraid to admit because you want to avoid a fight is more likely to come out of your mouth when you are drunk. That is why many refer to alcohol as a truth serum. But speaking your constrained truth while you are drunk does not necessarily mean that it is bringing out the “real you.”

That scenario with the spouses doesn’t apply to someone who is normally confrontational in a sober state. The confrontational person is going to call out unacceptable behavior regardless of whether he or she is drunk. Does alcohol bring out the real him or her? Or does it not apply because he or she is already being real when sober? The key here is that there needs to be an inner conflict of identity that the alcohol can affect.

Personality and identity are terribly complicated things, but I find that Freud’s theory of personality works well for the alcohol identity problem. Freud argued that the human psyche was split into three parts: the id, ego, and superego. The id encompasses all of a person’s subconscious urges that primarily focuses on getting what it wants immediately. Essentially, it lives in the present. The superego is the moral authority that is pushing you to be your ideal version of you and makes you feel guilty when you do not meet their high standards. The superego, then, lives in the future. Lastly, the ego is the decision maker who decides on what he or she will do based upon what the id and superego are saying. Inner conflict arises when the id and superego are at odds, which happens often.

What alcohol essentially does is weaken the superego, as the superego is more concerned with the future. Without the superego to keep the id in check, the ego pretty much rolls with the id. This. of course depends on how much you have had to drink. The more alcohol, the more non-existent the superego. With this in mind, I would argue that alcohol does not bring out the real you. If anything, it cuts off part of the real you. Malcolm Gladwell elaborates on this issue in his latest book Talking to Strangers and takes a similar stance. He argues that “when you are drunk, your understanding of your true self changes.” This ties in well with our Freudian perspective as without the superego, the ego only hears the id’s voice and thus is at less inner conflict.