Psychoanalytic Psychology and Personality-Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic Psychology and
Personality
Sigmund Freud
Type of psychology: Personality
Fields of study: Classic analytic themes and issues; personality theory;
psychodynamic and neoanalytic models
Freud’s theory of personality, emphasizing unconscious motivation, sexual instincts,
and psychological conflict, is one of the most profound and unique contributions in
psychology. Freud described both the normal and abnormal personality, and he proposed
a therapy for the treatment of mental problems.

Key concepts
• anal stage
• ego
• genital stage
• id
• instincts
• latency
• Oedipal conflict
• oral stage
• phallic stage
• superego

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) saw people as engaged in a personal struggle
between their instinctual urges and the requirements of society. According
to Freud, this conflict often takes place outside one’s awareness, in the unconscious,
and affects all aspects of people’s lives. The instinctual energy
which fuels the mind has its source in the unconscious. It is highly mobile
and once engaged must achieve expression, however disguised the expression
might be.

Freud said that most of the mind is below the level of awareness—in the
unconscious—just as most of the mass of an iceberg is below the surface of
the water. The id, the most primitive structure in the mind, is in the unconscious.
The id is composed of the instincts (psychological representations of
biological needs and the source of all psychological energy), including the
sexual and other life instincts and the aggressive and other death instincts.
For Freud, the sexual instincts were particularly important. They take a long
time to develop, and society has a large investment in their regulation.
The instincts press for gratification, but the id itself cannot satisfy them,
because it has no contact with reality. Therefore, the ego, which contacts the
id in the unconscious but also is partly conscious, develops. The ego can perceive
reality and direct behavior to satisfy the id’s urges. To the extent that the ego can satisfy the id’s instincts, it gains strength, which it can then use to
energize its own processes, perceiving and thinking. It is important that the
ego can also use its energy to restrict or delay the expression of the id. The
ego uses psychological defense mechanisms to protect the individual from
awareness of threatening events and to regulate the expression of the instincts.
For example, a strong ego can use the defense mechanism of sublimation
to direct some sexual energy into productive work rather than sexual
activity itself.

In the course of a child’s development, the superego develops from the
ego. The ego attaches energy to the significant people in the child’s world—
the caregivers—and their values are then adopted as the child’s own ideal
and conscience. This process becomes particularly significant during the
phallic stage, between the ages of four and six. At that time, the child becomes
sexually attracted to the opposite-sex parent. In giving up that passion,
the child adopts the characteristics of the same-sex parent; this process
shapes the child’s superego. The superego is mostly unconscious, and it
strives for perfection. Throughout life, the id will strive for instinctual gratification,
and the superego will strive for perfection. It is the task of the ego
to mediate between the two, when necessary, and to chart a realistic life
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