Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Personality Analysis

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 strategized that the personality was composed of three elements; the id, ego, and superego. The id is the component of personality that is present from birth, and is exclusively unconscious. “According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality” (Cherry,1). On the other hand, the ego is the element of the personality that is responsible with reality. “According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world” (Cherry, 1). It

Freud did not design the suggestion of the conscious versus the unconscious mind; however he was responsible for making it well-liked. The conscious mind within what you are conscious of at any particular moment, your show perceptions, memories, ideas, fantasies and feelings. The biggest portion, however, being the un-conscious. The unconscious incorporates things that are not easily available towards perception, incorporating out motors or instincts and things that we cannot carry towards glance at, such as memories and feelings associated with trauma. According towards Freud’s theories, the unconscious is the cause of our motivations. (Stafford-Clark, 1997)

One major portion of Sigmund Freud’s perspective on psychology involves the personality structure of the id, ego, and

Id – We are born with this. It seeks instant gratification for drives, such as sex and aggression. When a need is realised, the id wants satisfaction immediately.

Freud’s structural and topographical model of personality, revolves around the id, ego and superego (McLeod, 2008). As a newborn, I was born with my id which allowed me to get my basic needs met. As an infant, I would cry if I was hungry or tired or just wanted to be held, I did not think of anyone else. The second part of my personality started around when I was three years old, and according to Freud this is when I began to develop my ego. An example of this would be if I was hungry I would want to satisfy my id, but at the

Freud’s structural model illustrates that within every individual there is tripartite structure consisting of the Id, Ego and Super Ego.

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

In the novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde shows the importance of having an equal balance between the id, superego, and ego, which each character within the novel portrays. When one triumphs the other it may be detrimental to oneself, as well to society as a whole. Sigmund Freud developed psychodynamic theories of personality that “view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind” (Myers 514). He focuses on the importance of the equal balance to avoid internal conflict, as well as harm to others around a character.

One advantage of Freud’s concept of the ego, id and superego in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour is that it gives a good overall description of development of the human psyche. It recognises the

Personality is the enduring and unique cluster of characteristics that may change in response to different situations. It can be asses via different approaches such as Self-report or objective inventories, projective techniques, clinical interviews, behavioural assessment procedures and thought and experience-sampling procedures. In the study of personality ideographic research and nomothetic research are used and the major methods that the clinical method, the experimental method and the correlational method.

I have heard of Sigmund Freud and his theories about the unconscious and behavior. It was one of the main focuses of my high school psychology class. However, I had never heard of his theories about personality before, and it was really interesting to learn about. He thought that the human psyche was structured into three parts; the id, superego, ego. Just those names alone make me want to learn about this interesting theory, and I really enjoyed researching this topic.

The word ‘id’ is a latin word meaning ‘it’. It is the unorganized part of the personality structure of a person that comprises of impulsive, basic, instinctual drives of a human being. It is the child – like portion of the mind. Of all the three components, id is the only component that is present from birth. Hence it represents bodily needs, wants, desires and impulses that do not care about the demands/expectations of reality and without any accordance to what is right or wrong. According to Freud, id is the unconscious part of the human mind seeking pleasure.