Psychopathology: theories, assessment, and clinical applications

Psychology - Freud

THE FREUDIAN PERSPECTIVE of PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

Explain Freud's views on the structure of personality and the functions of each of the structures he proposed.

Freud described the human mind as comprising three specific major components, each with distinct - and in some cases, conflicting - characteristics and functions (Gerrig and Zimbardo 2005). The "Id" corresponds to unexamined and unchecked human desires; consequently, it also represents the childhood phase of human personality development in which the individual relates to the external world exclusively in terms of wants. Freud emphasized the connection between the Id and the "pleasure principle" and suggested that it is the primary basis for the dominance of sexual pleasure, particular, in the hierarchy of human energy (Gerrig and Zimbardo 2005).

The "Super Ego" represents the polar opposite of the Id by virtue of its function to limit the degree to which the adult behavior is controlled by the Id (Pinker 2002). It equates with human moral conscience because it is responsible for maintaining learned social rules and the principles valued by parents and society. Freud conceived of the Super Ego as consisting of (1) the Ideal, representing behaviors known by the individual to be desired by parents and other authority figures, and (2) the conscience, representing the individual's innate need to comply with the Ideal. Therefore, the Super Ego is also the source of human guilt (Pinker 2002).

The "Ego" is a modulating force that, according to Freud, mediates between the unexamined wants of the Id and the limitations of the Super Ego. The Ego is synonymous with rationality and adulthood; more specifically, the Ego provides the proverbial "voice of reason" that keeps the individual from gravitating to close to either of the two polar extremes represented by the Id and the Super Ego (Gerrig and Zimbardo

2005). In principle, Freud views the development of human personality as largely attributable to neurological functions representing particular components of personality rather than neurological structures, and in that sense, his prescient views predating the technology that would later confirm the neurological basis of human perception and behavior by a full half-century (Dennet 1991). On the other hand, the detailed descriptions provided by Freud for the precise conflicts and interactions among and between the Id, Super Ego, and the Ego amount more to arbitrary characterizations rather than to the precise neurological processes envisioned by Freud (Dennet 1991).

That is not to deny the existence of the various urges emphasized by Freud and the factors responsible for their degree of expression in human conduct. Contemporary psychologists acknowledge the profound role played by various neurological components of human behavior as well as their general connection to specific parts of the brain, all of which contribute in complex ways to shape individual behavior. But they differ from Freudian psychology in the suggested source of the individual's response to those natural urges.