Freedom Versus Determinism Freud Versus Sartre Essay

Out of the id, ego and superego of Freud’s theory of personality, the superego is the one that mostly controls Brian. Brian’s superego internalizes society’s “norms, etiquette, rules, and customs” much like his ego, but his ego doesn’t overpower since he’s not trying to mediate his id which craves for irrational, impulsive, primitive and childish desires (Weiten, 480). Instead, his

The unconscious mind houses the preconscious, a small section that houses material that is non-threatening, and easily brought to mind. But deeper in the unconscious mind are the instinctual drives, the wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are kept hidden from out conscious selves because of the conflicts and pain they would cause if they were brought to bear every day. Psychoanalytic personality theory tells us that the personality consists of three separate, but forever intermingling elements, id, ego, and superego. The id section of a personality is by far the largest, the only section that we are born with, and the section that contains the unconscious thoughts, it is raw, unorganized, and from the time of birth it tries to reduce tension caused by our primary drives. The ego, a section that develops soon after birth, balances the instinctual desires of the id and the realities of the outside world. Last of course is the superego, the final personality structure that is developed in childhood, and represent the rights and wrongs of society, contained within the superego is the conscience, the part of us that prevents us from behaving in a morally deplorable way and is responsible for guilt. Psychoanalytic personality theory is not without its virtues; Freud’s proposed five psychosexual stages – oral, anal, phallic-oedipal, latency and genital – are all supported in life.

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

Freud’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.

Freud primarily subscribed to the idea that there are two energies that drive human behavior. These two energies are sex – the pleasure principle and aggression. The human mind is comprised of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Within the realms of the mind, the human personality is controlled by the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is driven by the pleasure principle. The superego is the instinctual moral good, which aims to please the ego ideal, or the magnified moral values. The ego interacts with both the id and the superego and aims to please both components (Connors).

Freud is the psychologist who is credited with the development of psychodynamic perspective. He thought your personality came from id, ego, and superego. Your id is your unconscious drives and where a person’s sexual energy comes from. Your ego is what deals with demands of reality, it tries still bring you pleasure, but under the norms of reality. Your super ego is the harsh internal judge of your behavior. Freud also believed in defense mechanisms, strategies for dealing with anxiety. Defense mechanisms distort reality and protect you from a stressful situation. Denial is a defense mechanism in which the ego refuses to acknowledge a situation. Displacement is directing unacceptable impulses at a less frightening target. Projection is the defense mechanism in which we see in others those impulses that we most fear about ourselves. Freud thought every behavior stemmed from your sexual drive. When you 're a baby it is your oral stage, the pleasure center is the mouth. When you are a toddler it is your anal stage. Children learn they control when they can go to the bathroom. When you are 3-6 it 's your phallic stage.

Jean Paul Sartre's Existential philosophy posits that is in man, and in man alone, that existence precedes essence. Simply put, Sartre means that man is first, and only subsequently to his “isness” does he become this or that. The implication in Sartre's philosophy is that man must create his own essence: it is in being thrown into the world through consciounsess intent, loving, struggling, experiencing and being in the world that man is alllowed to define itself. Yet, the definition always remains open ended: we cannot say that a human is definitively this or that before its death and indeed, it is the ultimate nothingness of death that being is defined. The concepts that Sartre examines in Being and Nothingness

This essay is to describe Sigmund Freud’s and Carl Rogers’ differing concepts of human psychology concerning determinism. Freud is known to be a determinist. This means that he believes that humans don’t have free will, that there are forces beyond the individuals control which control their actions and underlying reasons behind behaviours. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/). Rogers is known as a non-determinist. This is the belief that humans have free will, that they control their own behaviours, desires and are not bound by laws (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/free-will?q=free+will). However a new idea which mostly stems from the cognitive approach has been created called “Soft – Determinism.” This is the idea that people have a degree of free will. That our behaviours and desires are mostly determined however we can choose specific ways to act in particular situations.

Sartre proposes an interesting view on free will when he says, "either man is wholly determined or else man is wholly free." This quote shows us that Sartre believes that man is free to do what he wants. For Sartre, freedom is the most basic value, which renders possible all other values the way our fundamental plan precedes and grounds our small choices. In that sense freedom is the source of all values. It is not logically possible to make sense of human responsibility and notions of justice without a conception of free will. This is because it is free will that allows us as humans to choose and make the right decisions in life.

Yesterday, I enrolled for class. Now this decision was definite as I couldn’t go back and not enrol. However, the actual action of me actually attending was completely my choice; a conscious decision. Although it was compulsory to attend, nothing given could determine the outcome. John Paul Sartre an eminent existentialist, would argue that just because I made a commitment didn't necessarily mean I needed to follow through with it. Enrolling was part of the facticity of the in-itself. I had only made the decision, I had to follow through with an action. Sartre would contend that by forcing myself to attend if I didn’t want to would be trying to escape from my freedom. Sartre, stated that the basic principle of existentialism was existence precedes essence for human beings. In his essay, Existentialism is Humanism, Sartre attempts to answer the accusations. Essentially, he rejects the notion of any innate human nature; implying that because our essence comes to be after our existence, we are free to choose and live our lives accordingly. This essay will discuss Sartre’s explanation of the expression and the related implications.

Freud attempted to explain how the unconscious functions by dividing it into three structures, the id, ego, and superego. The id holds our primitive instincts that demand immediate gratification, because it operates on the pleasure principle (McLeod, 2010). Similarly, the ego also seeks pleasure. However, instead of seeking immediate gratification, the ego acts realistically in order to avoid potentially negative consequences that may arise. On the other hand, our superego represents our conscious. It encompasses the morals and values we learn by society and our parents as we go through the stages of

The super-ego functions as a self-regulating tool for the ego, “exercis[ing] the same severe aggression that the latter would have liked to direct toward other individuals.” Unlike the id or the ego, the super-ego is a result of society’s ideals and is what causes us to feel guilt, it is “an internal authority.” Society dictates what one should or should not feel guilty about, it is a learned, not innate aspect of human consciousness. This again similar to Nietzsche’s discussion on guilt, that guilt developed out of society and his ideas of conscience and morality to be a social construct. Although, Nietzsche explicitly puts the blame on the priests and religion, Freud seems to think it a naturally occurring aspect of

The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate an understanding of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development and how this theory may help us to explain and identify adult neurotic behaviour. I shall be evaluating the pros and cons of psychosexual theory and the extent to which it helps us to understand a client’s presenting issue. I shall also define and consider the relationship between the Id, Ego and Superego and the way in which these constructs of our psyche are in many ways representative of earlier experiences and of those early

but his theories on dreams seemed to be the most popular, even to this day.Freud thinks that the agent that

Part of Freud’s theory was that the Id, Ego and Super Ego were in constant conflict with each other. It involves the Id wanting immediate satisfaction and the super ego who wants the id/person to behave leaving the ego constantly trying to resolve the issue.