Freud\'s Psychoanalytic Theory Freud\'s Personality

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud's Personality Structures. Freud divided the personality into a structural model -- the Id, the ego, and the superego. The id is what a person has at birth, the very selfish part of an individual, destined to try and satisfy person needs and wants. Babies reach for what they want, because their id drives them to do the reflexive thing. Later in life the ego is developed, which is more sophisticated and can help to satisfy the impulses the id responds to. Basically, according to Coon, the ego directs the energies "supplied by the id"; the id is like "a blind king or queen, whose power is awesome" but must rely on others to carry out orders and the ego is like the power that carries out those wants that the kind and queen have (Coon, 2008, 399).

The superego on the other hand "…acts like a judge or censor for the thoughts and actions of the ego" (Coon, 399). Part of the superego is the conscience, lets the person know when guilt is the emotion due to things the conscience has asked for but are not provided. The ego ideal is the second part of the superego -- the ego ideal is "…the source of goals and aspirations," Coon continues. In essence, the superego is a kind of built in "internalized parent," Coon explains, attempting to bring behavior under control.

Developmental States -- Freud. In Freud's work he identified several stages of psychosexual development. The Oral Stage was between birth and 18 months; if the child is too focused on "oral pleasures" like sucking he or she may have an "oral fixation" or an "oral personality" later in life and become a person that drinks too much, eats too much, etc. During the Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) according to Freud the child focuses pleasure on "eliminating and retaining feces" and has to learn to "control anal stimulation" (develop bathroom habits). During the Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years) the child is aware of his sexuality (genitals) and, Freud asserted, has sexual desires for his mother (Oedipus Complex). The Latency Stage (6 to puberty) those wild sexual urges abate somewhat and children interact well with peers of their own gender. Genital Stage (from puberty on into life) is a time when sexual urges are having an impact on the person. Adolescents begin to direct their desires on members of the opposite sex (www.AllPsych.com).

Defense Mechanisms -- Freud. Arthur Clark writes that Freud listed a total of 17 defense mechanisms; some of those include "conversion, displacement, isolation, projection, repression, and retreat or withdrawal from reality" (Clark, 1998). "Unconscious processing" means that when threatened a person is not consciously thinking about the threat; "subjective distortion" means putting the onus on the counselor or someone else rather than absorb the threat. "Denial" is probably the most obvious defense mechanism and intellectualization is another one. A woman I know cheated on her boyfriend and when a friend told the boyfriend that she was seen having lunch with another man, she denied it was romantic and claimed it was a job interview. The boyfriend was so wildly in love with her that he accepted her denial as the truth. She was a very believable person who could tell a lie with absolutely a straight face, giving away nothing.