Category: Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freuds book The Future of an Illusion is a psychoanalytical work discussing the tenets of civilization and the impact of religious ideas on society. Success in any community is dependent on controlling peoples desires and harnessing their collective ability to create wealth. However, wealth congregates around the minority upper class, and the ruling class exerts subsequent pressure on the masses. Freud points out that religious ideals require no justification and can be used in tandem with civilization to uphold humanity to a higher standard. As put forth by Freud (1961), the objectives of a perfect and nurturing society are illusory sentiments associated with religion that are fundamentally unachievable but are effective in suppressing peoples desires.

Freuds work decodes the nature of man and is particularly informative on his belief process. The analysis of how civilization is dependent on the exploitation of the masses is exceedingly accurate, especially considering societys narcissism. To gain any form of advancement, people need to consider other cultures inferior, which relates to present-day problems. War, disease, and hunger are rampant global problems. However, the wealthy minority hoards the worlds wealth while the majority suffers. Moreover, the book delivers an in-depth understanding of belief systems and further exposes readers to the illusory nature of other systems in society, whether legal or political. Indeed, man upholds himself to a standard that is hard to achieve. Nonetheless, these ideals are necessary because they constantly motivate him to be better. Regarding accuracy and in-depth analysis, Freud takes care to establish his work in a contemporary timeline and carefully unravels how civilizations work and their crux.

In conclusion, Freuds book provides its target audience with an in-depth understanding of how religious ideals shape and mold our actions making it an apt reading recommendation. Furthermore, the book psychoanalyzes the manner a society achieves success through the correlation between civilization, wealth, and peoples desires. Civilization requires the coercion of the masses to ensure success and the ideals of religion, such as compassion and caring, are useful in controlling peoples desires.

Reference

Freud, S. (1961). The future of an illusion. (J. Strachey, Trans.). New York, NY: Norton.

In life, human beings go through a process of development. Many theorists have come up with ways of explaining the development through stages or a continuous series. There is a need to examine the theories that explain the steps to understand this growth pattern. The inside-out and outside-in approaches also makes help explain the language development procedures.

Sigmund Freuds Development Theory

Stage theories are theories that describe the development processes in the growth of children to adulthood. During such events, people exhibit typical behavior patterns at each stage. They build certain capacities at the stages that enable them to cope with life (Shenk, 2010). The developments are only in particular age groups in a persons growth. Development across the lifespan of every individual takes the form of very distinct stages through to adulthood.

One of the theorists who put the scenes into perspective is Sigmund Freud. Freuds theory of psychosexual development states that personality becomes evident by the age of five. The experiences in ones early life help to develop a person and influence behavior in his or her later stages in life (Diem-Wille, 2011). If a person skips certain steps during this development, he or she becomes fixated at that stage. According to this stage theory, there is the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latent stage, and the genital stage.

The oral stage begins at birth to one year. The childs primary interaction with the world is through the mouth. The child learns and adapts to the use of mouth to eat, laugh, suckle, and taste. The anal stage begins from one year to three years (Diemi-Wille, 2011). The child at this stage begins to learn the control of the bladder and bowel. The parents need to train the child on toilet issues until she can do it on her own. The phallic stage ranges from the age of three to six years.

The Ids primary focus is on the genitals. The child starts getting attracted to the opposite sex. The boy undergoes the Oedipal complex while the girl experiences the Electra complex. The kids start adopting the characteristics of the same sex parent. It results in the formation of the super-ego. The latent stage is between six years and eleven years. The child suppresses the Ids energies and continues to develop the superego. The child begins to develop social skills and makes friends outside the family circle. The genital stage starts at the age of eleven years up to eighteen years. Puberty sets the stage rolling. The person develops attraction with the opposite sex. She now becomes a reliable person. However, if there was fixation at any stage, then the characteristics of that stage can become relevant later in the persons life.

Freuds theory has attracted both criticism and positive feedback. The scientific and feminist critics have some observations to make (Shenk, 2010). One is that the argument is biased towards the male child development. It picks little information on the girls psychosexual development stages. It is also not easy to test the theory scientifically. The scientists have been unable to measure contexts such as the libido. The future predictions of the theory have no proof as to relate to occurrences of the past. The theory was only concentrated on case studies and not solid research. The adult patients in the study could not provide concrete information about the development.

The Inside-out and Outside-in Theories

The inside-out theory deals with the language development from the internal perspective. It is called the Internal Language development. The development begins from a disorganized, crying newborn baby to an organized and well articulated spoken words. She starts telling stories and inventing things with easy words (Diemi-Wille, 2011). The I-language is something that happens to the child and not necessarily what the child does. It is the private and in-built adaptive way of learning things. The child develops the urge to learn the language and begins with simple pronunciations until he can make sentences. Noam Chomsky focused his studies on the internal knowledge.

The outside-in language development model refers to the acquisition of knowledge through environmental exposure. As the child grows and interacts with people like parents and teachers, he learns to develop a language with their help. Theorists like Andy Clark, Edwin Hutchings, and Lev Vygotsky were more concerned with the study of the tongue acquisition from the environment. Vygotskys research on E-language was to establish the language function through the social interaction.

The I-language proponent discovered the learners ability as being innate and intentional. The learning desire focuses on the individual and initial state (Diemi-Wille, 2011). The E-language proponent, Vygotsky, discovered that the desire is empirical and embedded on the learners desire through interactions.

For Chomsky, the child has learned more than the experience can provide in the environment. The words from a person are clear and in delicate and intricate ways. Vygotskys theory thrives on development. It is a process and happens throughout a persons life. The changes and factors that cause such change are necessary to establish the growth patterns in an individual.

Chomsky agrees that children have a natural curiosity to learn the language. They do not need anyone to tell them what to say (Shenk, 2010). They just develop a mechanism of understanding what things and people mean to them, and they have an urge to form a communication sign or word. Their cognitive structure grows in the long run and helps them to attach meanings to the words they speak. They acquire symbols at the tender age and carry them along with adaptive changes as they grow.

Vygotsky has a different view. He believes that children are pre-adapted to learning. They have to associate with various people in their growth patterns to align to particular habits. They are ready and willing to learn from those that they will meet in life (Diemi-Wille, 2011). The active participants are mainly family members, and the next group is the teachers. Others join this list as friends and partners who help to shape the language in a different perspective.

Vygotsky also thinks that the development of a language is a cause. It does not just result from cognitive development. The child learns some things not because he has chosen to, but that others have made him develop the urge. For instance, going to school is not a choice that the child does. It is the parents and guardians who think it is the right thing to do. The child may start choosing the career after he has gone through various education stages. Although the involvement of adults makes a difference in a childs life, it may not necessarily become the gratification of a childs needs.

References

Diemi-Wille, G. (2011). The early years of life. London, UK: Karnac.

Shenk, D. (2010). The genius in all of us. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Sigmund Freud thought that children may get sexual pleasure from any area of their bodies and that they go through five psychosexual phases during childhood that create their adult personalities. The human psyche, according to Freud, comprises three components that operate on distinct levels of consciousness and interact with one another to form actions. The Id is there from the moment we are born and symbolizes everything we get from our parents (Baltes, 1987). It is the fundamental component of our personality and the source of our desires and instincts. The pleasure principle governs this unconscious aspect of our mind, which wants immediate fulfillment regardless of repercussions or reality.

The Id gives birth to the Ego, which develops due to the result of our attempts to meet the I wants. The id works on the reality principle and acts as a mediator, attempting to find a middle ground between what the Id desires and what the outside world can provide (Baltes, 1987). The Superego emerges from the Ego and serves as an internal representation of the environments moral ideals (Baltes, 1987). The Superego evaluates what we should or should not do morally, and it guides us through the shoulds of our lives. When we do good, the Superego rewards us with pride and happy sensations; when and when we do not, the Superego punishes us with guilt, humiliation, or fear.

Sigmund Freud claimed that humans undergo a succession of psychosexual phases in a set order during childhood. These stages include activities that focus on a particular erogenous zone  a sensitive section of our body. We create a healthy personality, according to Freud, by effectively transitioning from one psychosexual stage to the next (Baltes, 1987). A troublesome personality results from failure to address difficulties or becoming trapped at any psychosexual stage.

Sigmund Freuds psychosexual theory is notable for emphasizing the relevance of early childhood experiences in personality development and as a factor in later actions. The quality of experiences they experience during the psychosexual phases impacts the relationships that people form, their perspectives on themselves and others, and their degree of adjustment and well-being as adults. Despite being one of the most complicated and contentious theories of child development, we cannot overlook Freuds essential contributions to psychology and human development.

Reference

Baltes, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23(5), 611626. Web.

Argument

The main argument laid out by Freud in The Uncanny is that there is strangeness in the ordinary. Psychoanalysts rarely investigate the subject of aesthetics understood as a feeling of the qualities of feeling. However, the uncanny interested Freud as something belonging to all that is terrible, which arouses horror but cannot be used in a definable sense. The German etymology served as one of the core aspects of Freuds analysis of the uncanny while the understanding of his theory was based on an overlooked explanation of why certain phenomena are uncanny. It had to do with the apparent confirmation of surmounted primitive beliefs (Freud 2003). According to Freuds theory of the uncanny, the collective and individual pasts influenced the development of specific beliefs in magical and animistic phenomena, which would affect the feeling of the uncanny.

Support

To support the theory, Freud expanded his exploration of language. In German, unheimlich, which is the opposite of Heimlich, means native, familiar, or belonging to ones home. Uncanny is frightening because it is unfamiliar and unknown, given the circumstance that something else is added to what is unfamiliar and novel to make it uncanny (Freud 2003). A person should be first presented with something familiar, then bring the unfamiliar to get the feeling of the uncanny. Therefore, the self is familiar when placed in situations where the self is perceived in an anomalous way. Then, ones true self can only have the impulse to protect the self.

Evidence

To explore the concept of the uncanny, Freud sought evidence in language and the meanings that are placed on the term. Beyond the opposition of Heimlich and unheimlich as terms denoting familiar and unfamiliar, the author finds new meanings of Heimlich such as obscure and inaccessible to knowledge (Freud 2003). The barrier is what later brings Heimlich and unheimlich together to form the uncanny, as something unfamiliar gets added to which is familiar. Through the analysis of different uses of Heimlich in the German language, Freud concluded that the meaning of the word develops toward an ambivalence until it would finally coincide with its opposite, unheimlich.

The analysis of language further prompts the idea of the double, which appears as a degree of development. This degree of development is linked to Freuds theory regarding narcissism, or self-love, of a child. It occurs when a child creates different projections of themselves to develop an ego (Freud 2003). The double comes into play when the narcissism of the child emerges later in adult life, which causes them to return to the primitive state, causing the uncanny.

Critique

If the psychoanalysis of Freud is correct that any emotional effect can transform into anxiety through repression, it followers that there are kinds of anxiety resulting from something that has reappeared. Such feeling anxiety seems uncanny and is being discovered again as its repression has made it strange and unfamiliar. Put simply, Freuds uncanny is a phenomenon that should be kept hidden, but it is being discovered. The uncanny reminds people of their id (ego, super-ego), which has repressed their impulses. The importance of Freuds theory of the uncanny is that the phenomenon applies to everyday life during which triggers bring back past conflicts and primitive beliefs that receive renewed affirmation.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. 2003. Uncanny. London: Penguin Books.

Theorist’s Background

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist who is credited to have developed the field of psychoanalysis. He was the first child of Amalia and Jacob, her husband. The family resided in a small rental house situated above a blacksmith’s shopping facility in Freiberg. Freud has traced his development of the sense of self-confidence and destiny to his early years being brought up in a simple provincial area (Gillam, 2011). The family was not well-to-do but had enough money to run the household and get a nanny to look after Sigmund and Anna, his younger sister. Unfortunately, the family had the nanny arrested and jailed when the she was found to be stealing money and toys from home. However, Sigmund was devastated when he found out that his nanny was in jail.

Sigmund’s Parents

Freud’s father, who was a traveling wool merchant, had two sons already, Phillip and Emmanuel, from his previous marriage (Gillam, 2011). He was 40 years old at Freud’s birth. He usually appeared to have been a relatively authoritarian person. Jacob was also optimistic, and a kind man and Sigmund appreciated these qualities from him. Sigmund Freud had inherited the sense of humor from his father whenever he wanted to bring out moral features and free thought.

Freud was fortunate enough to enjoy the unlimited mother’s love. Her mother usually referred to him as ‘my golden sigi.’ Later as an adult, Sigmund wrote that ‘if a man has been his mother’s undisputed darling, he retains throughout his life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it’ (Gillam, 2011). Though she could sometimes be demanding, Sigmund was ever thankful for her love and support throughout his life.

Moreover, Sigmund’s parents believed their son was a genius, and they had high aspirations for him. Therefore, in helping him achieve his desires, Sigmund’s parents gave him every chance to study and explore his interests. For instance, a street poet had made a prediction that Sigmund would grow up to serve as a government minister. Consequently, Sigmund decided to study law due to his quest to join the government. To support his son’s new interest, Jacob hung pictures of the Hapsburg government in their house.

Sigmund Siblings

Phillip and Emmanuel were Jacob Freud’s two grown sons from his previous marriage. Therefore, as a young Sigmund, he already had a nephew, that is, John, who was a son to his half-brother. While John older than Sigmund, he was among his best childhood playmates in Freiberg. Sigmund’s contact with John formed the model of all his relations with male friends in Sigmund’s life. Moreover, their relationship with was both friendly and aggressive, loving, and at the time, a bit hateful.

Because of their unique familial relationship, a controversy raged regarding who was to be supreme over the other. This contention emanated from the fact that while John was older and muscular, as his uncle, Freud was his senior. In October 1857, a year after Freud was born, Julius was born, thus becoming the second son of Freud’s mother. Freud was extremely jealous of Julius, who was reducing their mother’s attention towards Freud. Consequently, the memory of this experience attributed to the development of his theories about sibling rivalry.

Life was not all well in Freiberg or any other place in Europe during the second half of the 19th century. The industrial revolution had just made the domestic industries to collapse that had earlier thrived in small towns across Europe. An economic slump reduced the demand for wool; thus, Sigmund’s father found it challenging to find work (Gillam, 2011). Moreover, political unrest also had festered during this time among nom-German speaking groups. Therefore, amid these unfavorable economic and political situations, the Freuds resolved to move to Vienna Austria in 1860. Here Jacob hoped to find less prejudice and more work. Freud left Freiburg at the age of four, and for the rest of his life, he was always emotionally disturbed that had lost something. He was to leave behind people he knew and cherished, for instance, his close relatives, and playmates.

Education

Sigmund was given primary education at home by his parents until he was nine. He then joined a gymnasium, which offered an accelerated academic program that prepared one for University education. He later joined the University of Vienna in 1873 at the age of 17 to study medicine. Sigmund worked at the Vienna General Hospital after graduating. He collaborated with Josef Bruer, who was his friend and mentor, in treating a condition known AS hysteria. Bruer introduced Freud to Anna’s case, who was suffering from hysteria (Sandhu, 2015). The ideas that emerged from that case greatly interested Freud. Therefore, he decided to commit the remaining part of his career to develop the ideas in the model of psychoanalysis. These two men later published a book in 1895 known as Studies on Hysteria, which is regarded as the founding text of psychoanalysis.

Sociopolitical and Sociocultural Influences on Psychoanalytical Theory

In the 19th century, Austria witnessed a more severe precise kind of Victorian sexual morality code of conduct than was the case in England. However, the presence of this extreme sexual morality did not hinder Victorians from speaking about sexuality. For instance, most of the urban middle-class people were having an earnest moral obsession regarding sexuality, especially in children and women (Columbia College, n.d). Therefore, their sexual knowledge and interests were perceived to be limited naturally. Despite this perception, in the instances of exceptions, this knowledge and enthusiasm were carefully controlled. Therefore, young women were required to uphold their virginity prior to getting married. On the same note, the private sexual experimentation of adolescents and children, for instance, masturbation was highly restrained. The increasing knowledge of sexual infections such as syphilis formed in people’s minds the connection between having multiple sex partners and a disastrous epidemic. Therefore, sexuality required control by self-morality and careful observation of the family. Because sexuality issues affected the entire population, it was considered to be a political and social aspect.

The 19th century was characterized by a new accumulation of sexuality patterns in addition to personal, familiar, and political moderation of sexuality. Similarly, there was an emergence of scientific articles that revealed how sexuality had a significant role in human nature. Therefore, new patterns served as encouraging contexts for Freud to develop the psychoanalytic theory. For instance, he described how all forms of irrational sexual desires influence the mind in healthy adults, neurotic adults, and even children. Moreover, Freud also concerned with how the mind conflicts with its sexuality (Columbia College). During this period, too, the emerging field of sexology was expanding. Several medical researchers provided detailed accounts on the kinds and varieties of sexual identities and behaviors. These scholars also tried to associate class to sexuality; for instance, how criminality relates to sexuality.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist in June 1914 aroused the World War 1(1914-1918); consequently, significant changes took place in the lives of Freud and the people of Europe. At first, Freud was convinced that Austria and its allies could retain their superiority. However, the war continued, and he started developing some senses of despair (Gillam, 2011). The violence that unleashed in World War 1, to no small extent, disturbed Freud. However, he was not surprised. Instead, he reminded the people that humans are born with basic instincts that are difficult to control. Hence, the desire to harm others or to be selfish is among the most ancient inborn tendencies. Therefore, according to Freud, human has always attempted to redirect dark forces by doing well successfully. However, there is still the risk that some occasions will bring evil outcomes (Gillam, 2011). Furthermore, the war of 1914-1918 further attracted the attention of ego drives. It was discovered that the soldiers who became neurotically sick due to war experiences had certain types of dreams. These dreams were triggered by the soldiers’ attempt to recreate recent traumatic experiences of the war.

From the experience of the war, Freud decided to expand his earlier perception of the mind as categorized into the conscious and unconscious. He further denoted that there were three important parts of the brain. He identified these parts as the ego, the id, and the ego, and lastly, the superego. According to Freud, as humans grew to adulthood, they developed these different parts of the brain. The id usually operates in the unconscious part of the brain and is concerned with basic needs for survival and reproduction (Sharf, 2011). Moreover, as the child grows, it develops an ego that can regulate these fundamental needs. Hence, the ego allows the child to reason before acting since the ego controls consciousness. Later the superego is developed by the mind. This part of the brain is used to evaluate actions based on how the family and society judged them. Freud exhibited that these three aspects of the mind may compete among themselves, but in a healthy person, they are always in balance. Later, Freud published his analysis on this investigation in The Ego and the Id 1923.

Freud had high hopes that psychoanalysis would primarily benefit from the war. He was convinced those who experienced the brutal acts of war could successfully reveal the murderous desires of humanity. Therefore, Freud believed that the key to addressing the effects of neurosis was assessing the patient’s tendency to resist remembering the occasion that activated this neurosis. Most patients could not make remembering these events at first. This condition was experienced since the events were located in the unconscious part of the mind, where it was difficult to control (Psychologist World, 2016). Therefore, the procedure of psychoanalysis only became successful through conducting transference. This condition occurs when the patient shifts the emotions previously felt towards an authority figure to the psychoanalyst. Therefore, the harmful impulse is eventually eliminated in the contact between the psychoanalyst and the patient. The elimination of the destructive power is thus possible by conducting a discussion of the event that arouses the harmful impulse.

The war also aroused a new passion in the field of Psychoanalysis as a technique for managing the war-associated afflictions. This disorder is clinically referred to as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A few people claimed that the soldiers could be faking the neuroses to be excluded from the military service. However, Freud believed that the high number of soldiers had experienced real wounds in their minds. Electroshock treatments were used to treat these soldiers before some psychoanalysts suggested a better alternative method. Freud generated a new way of examining the patient’s brain and drawing out his unconscious emotions. This technique was found to be more successful in curing the patients.

Conclusion

Psychoanalysis has continued to expand in recent years. We are currently in a position to achieve what Freud could not achieve then. Besides, it is observed that there are different impacts of different cultures on their practitioners. For instance, it is vital that the analysis, in its limited life, has experienced changes in European culture. From the Victorian era, it has experienced the liberation of women, economic changes, wars, and depression. Besides, there has been a great awakening of the influence of religion. Consequently, these new changes have generated new problems for men, and previous ones have become less critical. However, modification in the psychoanalysis theory has not been entirely accepted by most of the analysts. Today, some see neurosis in terms of libido and perceive the Oedipus complex as the central problem.

References

1. Columbia College. (n.d.). Historical context for the writings of Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/writings-sigmund-freud/context
2. Gillam, S. (2011). Famous neurologist. Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing Company.
3. Sandhu, P. (2015). Step aside, Freud: Josef Breuer is the true father of modern sychotherapy. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/step-aside-freud-josef-breuer-is-the-true-father-of-modern-psychotherapy/
4. Thompson, C. (1957). Psychoanalysis: Evolution and development. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Introduction to Freud and Rogers’ Theories of Personality

Psychology has been a part of our lives for many years and there are a multitude of perspectives on human personality. Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers theories of personality have changed the world of psychology forever. There analysis on human progress and the steps it takes towards building and shaping our personalities is truly genius. Among both theorists you will see as they are both ventured into in great detail how they differ in regards to the science of how personality is created and have some similarities to one another in regards to their foundations and overall what personality is for a human.

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s conduct. Over centuries Psychologist’s have studied the way humans personalities and minds develop as we go through our life span starting as infants and ending in adulthood, which eventually leads to death. There are many psychologists whose ideas about personality have greatly affected the field of psychology entirely but the two theories that really appealed to me are those of Sigmund Freud and Carl rogers. Sigmund Freud holds the title of being the “father of psychiatry” as he has accomplished many things in the field of psychoanalysis. Freud’s theory has been scrutinized over the years for being seen as sexist but it is still one of the most hot discussions to date. His theory of personality says that there are five stages of psychosexual development that humans go through starting from the infantile stage which is during the first four to five years of age.

These are the most crucial years for personality formations according to Freud. He believes that infants go through their own phase of sexuality as they show interest in genitals. Unlike adult sexuality, children cannot reproduce but they can satisfy their sexual impulses with other organs which begins with the oral phase. During this first stage infants are fixated on their mouths as it is the first organ of pleasure. Children relieve this pleasure through sucking with their first experience of sucking being through the nipple when born. As children develop they have their first autoerotic experience which is when they suck their thumb. This phase typically lasts from birth until turning a year and a half old before moving into the next stage of development. Following the oral phase comes the anal phase that begins from the age of a year and a half until the child turns three years old.

This stage primarily focuses on children adopting healthy potty training habits. During this stage children can sometimes behave in a very aggressive manner, especially towards their parents so to satisfy their need to destroy they take an interest in their feces which is a pleasure they receive from defecating through potty training. The next stage to follow the anal phase is the phallic phase which begins at the age of three years old and continues until the child turns five years old. During the phallic phase childrens sexual interest is primarily focused towards their gentials and they learn to develop substitues for the sexual attraction they have towards the opposite sex. Due to the fact that many parents frown upon their child masturbating at their age they learn to repress that urge. The next stage to follow is the latency stage which begins at age five and ends at age twelve. During this phase of changing from a child to an adolescent, you begin to develop healthy inner sexual feelings towards the opposite sex.

They begin to go to school and create friendships, create hobbies for themselves, and continue to repress their sexual drive. The last stage of development is the genital stage which is from the age of twelve years old up into adulthood. In this final phase all of the previous stages are combined which creates a healthy mental onset of sexual feelings and behaviors. It is through all of these stages that really help to shape a person’s personality in life as they transition into adulthood.

The Structure of Personality According to Freud: Id, Ego, and Superego

Each level of development serves as a purpose towards the creation of one’s personality. A person’s ability to be able to solve some inner conflicts as they go through each stage will really determine how they will cope and function as an adult. All of these stages get processed into a three level system that consists of superego, ego, and id. Superego is essentially reality or as Freud liked to call it the “screening center”. Superego is the level that takes into consideration the opinions of parental guidance, society, etc and goes against your own personal pleasures which commonly leads to conflict. Ego is like the mediator out of the three levels. At this level you can rationalize, make judgements, plan, defend, and analyze information until you can come out with an outcome that is satisfactory. Finally there is the id which is the center of our ego. The id is what is constantly fighting for everything to go our way in anything you take on in life.

Carl Rogers’ Humanistic Approach to Personality

Now Carl Rogers is the complete opposite of Sigmund Freud. Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who believed in person centered therapy and that in order for an individual to grow that they needed to be surrounded by a genuine, empathetic, and accepting environment. Rogers biggest contribution to the world of psychology was the idea of self-actualization. He believes that without these important relationships, one’s personality will not be developed properly. Rogers identified five characteristics that displayed a fully functioning person which includes being open to experiences, existential living, trust, creativity, and a life that is fulfilled. Being open to experiences means accepting the positive and negative emotions we go through in life and processing those emotions in a healthy manner. Existential living goes hand in hand with experiences in the sense that this characteristic has to do with appreciating the present with the experiences that you go through and not have any preconceptions. This means not looking back to the past or thinking too much of the future to come. Trust is involved with a person’s feelings, and instincts meaning being able to trust yourself and the choices that you decide to make. Creativity to Rogers meant being able to think in this manner and being able to take risks in your life. This involves being able to adjust to change and wanting to go out of your way to seek new experiences. Finally living a fulfilled life is when a person is truly happy and feels good about their lives. When this arises a person will go out of their way to look for new challenges and experiences. The central idea to Rogers theory of personality is through self-concept which would be a person’s set beliefs.

Rogers’ Concept of Self and the Fully Functioning Person

Rogers describes the self as being our inner personality which he believes is shaped by a person’s experiences and the understanding of those experiences. Rogers claims that the two major factors that shape our personalities are childhood experiences and the opinion of others. A child’s feelings about themselves is crucial to their mental health and how they choose to go out chasing after their goals and ambitions in life. Rogers says that feeling accepted and valued by others is an essential feeling that children want in life. Children want to be loved unconditionally for who they are. The self aka our personality includes three key components which are self-worth, self image, and our ideal-self. Self-worth involves our self esteem which is what we think and feel about ourselves. According to Rogers these feelings of self-worth develop very early in a person’s childhood and is first formed by a child’s interactions with their mom and dad. Next is self-image which is how we see ourselves whether it be good or bad. Our self-image affects how a person thinks, feels, and chooses to behave in life. The ideal-self is the person that we would like to be in our lives. It involves our goals and aspirations in life which is constantly changing as we grow. Amid both of these theorists there are many differences and similarities that allow them to both be a part of the branch of psychology but in different subdivisions. Between these theories there are a few differences that are easily point out one of them being that in Rogers theories he describes one’s personality as a whole whereas Freud breaks down personality into three equal parts being the superego, ego, and id. Another difference among the two theories is that Rogers does not analyze the history of any of his patients whereas Freud’s theory shows how if certain phases in a child’s life are not completed correctly that they would have problems in certain areas as adults.

Differences and Similarities Between Freud and Rogers’ Theories

Rogers idea of the ideal-self is shown as a positive where he wants his patients to be able to reach their goal of their ideal-self and then essentially create a new ideal-self with more goals and aspirations because we are constantly changing. Freud’s idea of the ideal self would be the superego portion of this theory which is very negative. Your superego is constantly telling you what it is in life that you are doing wrong rather than the good things. The similarities between the two theories are as follows: both theories talk about one’s natural drives in life for example Freud’s id and rogers idea of being genuinely yourself. Finally both Rogers and Freud’s theories began through the study of people who were emotionally a mess. Overall I feel that between both Carl Rogers and Sigmund Freud’s theories that Rogers Humanistic theories is the more accurate representation of the human personality. Rogers looks a person as an individual and not as something that can be altered by science. The human mind is one of the most complex organs in the human body and shaping our personalities as individuals should be done in an enviornment that allows us to grow and prosper in a healthy fashion. Being able to take on experiences and learn from them at our own descretion is very important especially in a childs life as they are just beginning to see what the world they live in is actually like. Rogers really pushes towards living in the moment which not many people do in this generation.

Conclusion: Evaluating Freud and Rogers’ Contributions to Understanding Personality

Living in the present and being able to appreciate how far you have come as a person, and how many of your goals have been achieved is crucial to your mental health and overall well being. If we were to constantly look to the past and reminisce in the dreary experiences that we have been through or look very far into the future and think about our lives as a whole and thinking of death is a detriment to your mental health. You have to be present and go where life takes you in order to be able to self actulalize to be best of your abiliy and live your life to its absolute fullest. Our personality really displayes how every human differentiates from each other whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, quite and shy or social and bubbly the uniquness of our personalitites among the human race is astonishing.

References

1. The Freudian Theory of Personality. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://journalpsyche.org/the-freudian-theory-of-personality/.
2. De Sousa, A. (2011, January). Freudian theory and consciousness: a conceptual analysis**. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3115290/.
3. Joseph, S., & Murphy, D. (n.d.). Person-Centered Approach, Positive Psychology, and Relational Helping: Building Bridges – Stephen Joseph, David Murphy, 2013. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022167812436426.
4. Revisiting Carl Rogers Theory of Personality. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://journalpsyche.org/revisiting-carl-rogers-theory-of-personality/.

The father of psychoanalysis as it’s can be described. Sigmund Freud was born in Austrian on May 6, 1856 and die of cancer on September 23, 1939. As we know Freund was an neurologist, who created an innovative approach of the human personality.

Early Beginning

Sigmund Freud was born in May 6, 1856 in the country Freiberg, Moravia( which now belong to Czech Republic ). Freud father was a businessman who had to move with his family to Vienna, where the family got settled. In Vienna where Sigmund Freud started with his early education. Freud began his journey of studying medicine at the University of Vienna. After Freud graduated from college, he stated to work in the Vienna general hospital. Freud went to Paris as an understudy of the nervous system specialist Jean Charcot. On his arrival to Vienna the next year, Freud set up in private work on, spend considerable time in anxious and mind issue. In 1886 was the year the Sigmund Freud wedded Martha Bernays, who them became the mother of his 6 kids.

Work

As mention before Sigmund Freud was the father of psychoanalysis. According to Kendra “Time Magazine alluded to Freud as one of the most significant scholars of the only remaining century.”(cherry,2019). Why? because Freud was somebody always used to think outside the box as we like to say. Sigmund Freud help society to evaluate the way we think about the different area like for example: childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Sigmund Freud was name professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna in 1902, where he works approach was human behavior, he held the position until 1938.

Major Theories

One of his most suffering thoughts is the idea of the oblivious personality, which is a supply of contemplations, recollections, and feelings that lie outside the familiarity with the cognizant personality. He additionally recommended that character was comprised of three key components, the id, the sense of self, and the superego. Some other significant Freudian speculations incorporate his ideas of life and passing impulses, the hypothesis of psychosexual improvement, and the instruments of safeguard.

Freud’s hypotheses were tremendously persuasive, yet subject to significant analysis both now and during his own life. Nevertheless, his thoughts have turned out to be intertwined into the texture of our way of life, with terms, for example, ‘Freudian slip’, ‘constraint’, and ‘disavowal’ showing up consistently in regular language.

In spite of the fact that Sigmund Freud contributed a lot to the field of phycology through his psychoanalytic hypothesis of human behavior, his work did not abandon examination. Many reprimanded his speculations for being excessively centered around sexuality; throughout the years since his work, numerous different scholars have adjusted and based on his plans to shape new hypotheses of personality.

Performance record

In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was established with Carl Jung, who was close friend Freud. However, many years after Jung was able to build up his very own hypotheses. After World War One, Freud invested less energy in clinical perception and focused on the utilization of his speculations to history, artistry, writing and humanities. In 1923, he distributed ‘The Ego and the Id’, which proposed another basic model of the psyche, partitioned into the ‘id, the ‘ego’ and the ‘superego’

Conclusion

Freud’s work is regularly rejected today as non-logical, there is no doubt that he had a gigantic impact on psychology as well as on the bigger culture too. A considerable lot of his thoughts have turned out to be so saturated with the open mindfulness. The funder of psychoanalysis as we could remember was born in Austrian on May 6, 1856 and die of cancer on September 23, 1939.

References

1. Cherry, K. (2019). Sigmund Freud’s Remarkable Life and Legacy in Psychology. [online] Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/sigmund-freud-his-life-work-and-theories-2795860#freuds-major-theories [Accessed 25 Aug. 2019].
2. Evan Jay, M. (2019). Sigmund Freud | Austrian psychoanalyst. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud [Accessed 25 Aug. 2019].

Biographical Details

Freud was born on may 6th 1856, Freiberg, Moravia to Hasidic Jewish parents. The family moved to Leipzig and then settled in Vienna, where Freud was educated. He was proved an outstanding student, excelling in languages, and English literature.

At the age of 17, Freud joined the medical facility at the University of Vienna to study a range of subjects, such as philosophy, physiology and zoology. He graduated in 1881 and began working at the Vienna General hospital. He worked in various different departments, such as the psychiatric clinic and also combines medical practise with research work. In 1873 he began to study medicine at the university of Vienna. He qualified as a doctor of medicine. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.

He lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practise there in 1886, specialising in nervous disorders. His approach was to encourage patients to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape the Nazis

Interesting facts

1. He was initially an advocate and user of Cocaine. Freud developed an interest in the potential antidepressant effects of cocaine and initially advocated its use for a variety of purposes and after the addictive and harmful side effects of cocaine became known, Freud’s medical reputation suffered somewhat as a result.
2. He became a doctor to marry the woman he loved: When Freud was 26, he fell madly in love with a 21-year-old woman named Martha Bernays and they became engaged two months later. As a poor student still living with his parents, Freud’s science lab job did not pay enough to support a family. ‘ Six months after they met, Freud gave up his scientific career and become a doctor. He spent three years training at the Vienna General Hospital. After four years of waiting, Freud and Bernays were married on September 14, 1886. The couple went on to have six children. However, that Freud later had an affair with his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays.
3. Freud had more than 30 surgeries to treat mouth cancer. Freud has been a heavy cigar smoker all his life. In 1939, after his cancer had been deemed inoperable, Freud asked his doctor to help him commit suicide. The doctor administered three separate doses of morphine and Freud died September 23, 1939.
4. Freuds daughter, anna, was also a famous and influential psychologist. Anna Freud began her career influenced by her father’s theories. She was far from simply living in her father’s rather long shadow, however made important contributions of her own to psychology. She founded child psychoanalysis and summarised the ego’s defence mechanisms in her book ‘The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence [1936]

Theories of Personality

Sigmund Freud developed a collection of theories which have formed the basis of the psychodynamic approach to psychology. The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in psychology that see human functioning based upon the interaction of drives and forces within a person, particularly unconscious, and between the different structures of the personality.

Freud believes that personality develops from our efforts to resolve the conflict between our biological urges and our internalized, socialized reactions to these

Key features and basic assumptions

Unconscious mind:

• Freud [1915] described conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware, and this is seen as the ‘tip of the iceberg i.e. your thirsty so you go grab a drink.
• the unconscious mind comprises mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings or behaviour.
• The preconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness. Mild emotional experiences may be present but the traumatic and powerful negative emotions are repressed and hence not available in this level of conscious i.e. you’re not presently thinking of your mobile number but you can recall it with ease
• Collected unconscious: like Freud, Jung emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality. However, he proposed it consisted of two layers. Personal unconscious, and Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious: comprising latent memories from out ancestral and evolutionary past. According to Jung, the human mind has innate characteristics “imprinted” on it as a result of evolution.

Psyche: Freud describes the personality structure as the interaction of three systems:

• Id: is the primitive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited components of personality present at birth. The id is the impulsive part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs and desires. Governed by instinctual drives, especially those related to sex and aggression. Obeys the pleasure principle. [entirely in unconscious mind]
• Superego: incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others. Its function is to control the Id’s impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. [divided between conscious and unconscious mind]
• Ego: develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic. It induces people to act with reason and deliberation, and to conform to the requirements of the outside world. Obeys the reality principle. [divided between conscious and unconscious mind]

Defence mechanisms: they are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings. They are used to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt, which arise because we feel threatened, or because our id or superego becomes too demanding. They operate at an unconscious level and help ward off unpleasant feelings or make good things feel better for an individual.

Types of defence mechanisms:

• Repression: employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious
• Denial: blocking external events from awareness
• Projection: involves individuals attributing their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings and motives onto another person
• Displacement: satisfying impulse with a substitute object
• Regression: this is a movement when one is faced with stress i.e. sucking of the thumb
• Sublimation: satisfying the impulse with a substitute object in a socially acceptable way i.e. sport

Psychosexual development

Freud proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place during I’ve psychosexual stages:

• Oral: the mouth – sucking, swallowing, etc [ego develops]
• Anal: the anus – withholding or expelling faeces
• Phallic: the penis or clitoris – masturbation [superego develops]
• Latency: little or no sexual motivation present
• Genital: the penis or vagina – sexual intercourse

Each stage represents the fixation of libido on a different area of the body. As a person grows physically certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration, pleasure or both.

Psychosocial development: Erik Erikson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development. Successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues.

Psychosocial crisis Stages include:

1. Trust vs. Mistrust – [0-18 months]. The infant develops a sense of trust when interactions provide reliability, care and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.
2. Autonomy vs. shame – [18 months-3 years] The infant develops a sense of personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence. It is critical that parents allow their children to explore the limits of their abilities within an encouraging environment which is tolerant of failure. Success leads to feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and doubt.
3. Initiative vs. guilt – [3-5 years] The child begins to assert control and power over their environment by planning activities, accomplishing tasks and facing challenges. Success at this stage leads to a sense of purpose, if initiative is dismissed children develop a sense of guilt.
4. Industry vs. inferiority – [5-12 years] It is at this stage that the child’s peer group will gain greater significance and will become a major source of the child’s self-esteem. The child is coping with new learning and social demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.
5. Identity vs. role confusion – [12-18 years]. Teenagers explore who they are as individuals, and seek to establish a sense of self, and may experiment with different roles, activities, and behaviours. This is important to process of forming a strong identity and developing a sense of direction in life.
6. Intimacy vs isolation – [19-40 years] during this period, the major conflict centres on forming intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.
7. Generativity vs. stagnation – [40-65 years] people experience a need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often having mentees or creating positive changes that will benefit other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.
8. Ego Integrity vs despair – [65+ years] involves reflecting on one’s lie and either moving into feeling satisfied and happy with one’s life or feelings a deep sense of regret. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Basic assumptions:

Our behaviours and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives: the unconscious mind embodies mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings, or behaviours. According to Freud the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behaviour. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives, and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences and stored in the unconscious.

Our behaviour and feelings as adults [including psychological problems] are rooted in our childhood experiences: psychodynamic theory states that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. Events that occur in childhood can remain in the unconscious, and cause problems as adults.

All behaviours have a cause [usually unconscious]: Therefore, all behaviour is determined: psychodynamic theory is strongly determinist as it views our behaviour as caused entirely by unconscious factors over which we have no control. Unconscious thoughts and feelings can be transferred to the conscious mind from the form of revealing what is really on our mind by saying something we didn’t mean to. Slips of the tongue provided an insight into the unconscious mind.

Personality is made up of three parts: the id, ego and super-ego: the id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited components of personality present at birth. The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-making component of personality. The super ego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others.

Parts of the unconscious mind, the id and super ego, are in constant conflict with the conscious part of the mind, the ego. This conflict creates anxiety, which could be dealt with by the ego’s use of defence mechanisms.

Origins of Personality

Freud is most associated with psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic model; however, he actually first got his idea for his model from an advisor he had worked under, his first-year adviser, Ernst Von Brücke. It is Freud that took the idea and further developed it into a full model. Freud greatly admired Brücke and quickly became indoctrinated by this new dynamic physiology.

He based many parts of his model on actual patients he was working with, which is challenging because the population tended to be wealthy, white women, who were having psychological problems.

Methods of Testing

• Case study: Freud conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients in an attempt to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses. Case studies are widely used in psychology and amongst the best know were the ones carried by Sigmund Freud, including Anno O and Little Hans
• Dream analysis: it is in dreams that the ego’s defences are lowered so that some of the repressed material comes through to awareness. Freud went on to propose that a major function of dreams was the fulfillment of wishes. The purpose of dreamwork is to transform the forbidden wish into a non-threatening form, thus reducing anxiety.
• Free association: a simple technique of psychodynamic therapy, is free association, in which a patient talks of whatever comes into their mind. This technique involves a therapist reading a list of words and the patient immediately respond with the first word that comes to mind.
• Projective tests: The ink blots itself don’t mean anything, it’s what you read into it that is important. Different people will see different things depending on what unconscious connections they make.
• Slips of tongue: unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the term of parapraxes, known as slips of tongue. We reveal what is really on our mind by saying something we didn’t mean to.

Contributions of the theory

Freuds psychoanalysis was the original psychodynamic theory but the psychodynamic approach as a whole include all theories that were based on his ideas:

• Jung [1964]: whom made the contribution of collective-unconscious the second layer to personality whereby he emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality. However, he proposed it consisted of two layers. Personal unconscious; essentially the same as Freud’s version of the unconscious. And Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious. This level of unconscious shared with other members of the human species comprising latent memories from out ancestral and evolutionary past.
• Alder [1927]: along with the concepts such as traits, the unconscious, and self-actualization, in psychology the concept of inferiority complex is used to explain personality. First developed by Alder in the 1920s, the concept played an important role in his theory of individual psychology.
• Erikson [1950]: who made the contribution of the psychosocial development where the 8 stages of psychosocial development maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development. Successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues.
• Anna Freud [1936]: became a major force in British Psychology, specializing in the application of psychoanalysis to children. Among her best-known works are The Ego and the Mechanism of Defense.

Limitations of the theory

1. Simplifying the human mind into the id, ego and superego and the five psychosexual stages make the approach reductionist
2. Too deterministic: there is little free will to the theory and relates to the philosophical doctrine that all events including human interaction are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.
3. Unfalsifiable: it is difficult to prove wrong
4. The psychodynamic approach places too much emphasis on the psychological factors, without considering the biological/genetic factors that influence and contribute to mental health problems
5. The theory ignores mediational processes such as thinking
6. Case studies are too subjective and cannot generalise results from the data

References

1. Bbc.co.uk. (2019). BBC – History – Sigmund Freud. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/freud_sigmund.shtml [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
2. Betterhelp.com. (2019). History And Principles Of The Psychodynamic Model | Betterhelp. [online] Available at: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/behavior/history-and-principles-of-the-psychodynamic-model/ [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
3. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). Carl Jung. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html
4. McLeod, S. A. (2016, Feb 05). Id, ego and superego. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
5. McLeod, S. A. (2019, April 10). Defense mechanisms. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.ht [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
6. McLeod, S. A. (2019, July 18). Psychosexual stages. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.htm [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
7. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 03). Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
8. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 03). Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
9. McLeod, S. A. (2017). Psychodynamic approach. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychodynamic.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
10. McLeod, S. A. (2019, Aug 03). Case study method. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/case-study.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
11. McLeod, S. A. (2018, April 05). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud?. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
12. McLeod, S. A. (2014). Psychoanalysis. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html[Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
13. McLeod, S. A. (2015). Unconscious mind. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html[Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
14. McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). Carl Jung. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html[Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
15. McLeod, S. A. (2016, Feb 05). Id, ego and superego. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html[Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
16. McLeod, S. A. (2019, April 10). Defense mechanisms. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.ht[Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
17. McLeod, S. A. (2019, July 18). Psychosexual stages. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.htm[Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and credited for the discovery of psychoanalysis. He spent much of his life researching and studying psychology and it took him almost nine years to graduate with his medical degree because he spent so much time interested in neurophysiological research. He sought his medical degree for financial reasons but continued to study his true interests and learn about mental health.

Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia which is now Příbor, Czechia on May 6, 1856. His full name was Sigismund Schlomo Freud. Jakob Freud, his father, was forty-one when he had Sigmund. Jakob already had two grown children by a previous marriage. Amalia, Sigmund’s mother, was twenty-one when Sigmund was born. He was her first child. Jakob and Amalia had 7 more children later on. Freud talked about how he was his mothers favorite. Jakob was a merchant. Sigmund was four years old when his father’s business failed, and his family was forced to move. They settled in Vienna, Austria.

Freud graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium and began medical school at age seventeen. He was not overly thrilled to study medicine. His true passion was science, but he chose medical for financial reasons and attended the University of Vienna. It took him a very long time to complete his studies because he was distracted with doing scientific research, such as dissecting eels and fish to study their organs.

As Freud was in college, he became more intrigued with research and studies of the mind. In 1882, he became a doctor at the General Hospital in Vienna and trained with psychiatrist Theodor Meynert and Hermann Nothnagel, professor of medicine. By 1885, Freud finished a great research project studying the brain’s medullain and became the lead spokesman on neuropathology. His friend, Josef Breuer, a psychologist, had a large impact on Freud’s career. Breuer introduced Freud to hypnosis with a patient of his. He shared with Freud how he would hypnotize the patient and she would talk through her problems and of things she could not remember in her conscious state. The practice was called the “talking-cure.” Freud opened a practice in Vienna specialized in nervous and brain disorders. He determined that hypnosis did not work as well as he hoped and tried a different approach. He ordered his patients to lay down and relax and talk about their feelings. Freud would write down and analyze their words. He named this method “free association.” After this discovery, he shared his findings with Breuer and together they published a paper called Studies in Hysteria in 1895.

In 1896, Freud developed a process called “depth psychology” or known as the psychoanalysis. This is defined as a system of psychological theory and therapy which aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association. Freud was studying dream interpretation and believed dreams were full filled wishes of the unconscious mind. He developed a theory that there were three agencies of the human personality called the id, ego, and superego. Id was primitive instincts such as sex and aggression. Ego was “self” and how it interacted with the world. Superego was defined as the ethical and moral part of the personality that created moral standards for the ego. He published a book called “Interpretation of Dreams in 1990. In 1901 he published “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’ which explained his theory that a slip of the tongued was not accidental, but it explained something meaningful about the person. “Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory” was published in 1905 which explained his theories on sexual drive and writes about how everything is centered from sexual drive beginning in infantry. He goes on the assign sexual meaning to everything.

Sigmund Freud made some of the most renown discoveries of his era. He was married to Martha Bernays in 1887 and they had six children. One of those six children, Anna, followed in Sigmund Freuds footsteps and had as much interest in psychology as he. She went on to become a famous psychologist herself. He left a deep footprint in the world of mental health. He taught about the unconscious mind, repression, and denial. It was because of him; mental disorders were no longer considered only “organic” diseases. Despite all his controversial theories and fame, he was a devoted man to his friends and family. He kept a small circle of friends, which he was ever loyal too and was deeply connected with his family. He enjoyed painting, art, music, and had a hobby of collecting mushrooms. He loved traveling and reading. He was a seeker of knowledge. Freud embraced his own discoveries and was eager to share them with the world. He was also intrigued with the works of his colleagues and embraced their work as well. After many years of smoking cigars, in 1923, Freud was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of his palate. He went through over thirty mouth surgeries, removing parts of his jaw, over a sixteen-year span. During this period and through all his pain, he still refused to quit smoking which lead to his death in 1939 through euthanasia from a private physician. He was cremated, and his ashes were placed in an ancient Greek urn with that of his wife’s ashes.

The question I will be answering is

Discuss the impact on an individual of a conflict between the structures of the mind identified by Freud.

Some well-known psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, carl rogers, and Ivan Pavlov made major contributions in the field of psychology in the understanding of the human mind and behaviour, some of these psychologists were major thinkers and others caused controversy, however, all of them have a major impact on the psychology field, Sigmund Freud’s famous theory was the id, ego and superego, there are however thought to be five major theories on psychology these are biological, psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive and humanistic. Today I will be discussing the id, ego and superego conflicts.

Sigmund Freud theory on the id ego and superego states that each part is responsible for different behaviors, the id, in particular, is responsible for the moral conscience and instinct it mediates between the id and superego it also contains inherited genes we have at birth from our parents, the ego is responsible for working by reason it is able to mediate between the unrealistic and the outer real world, it seeks pleasure yet avoids pain yet it has no concept of what is right or wrong, the ego is also problem-solving so it will always run through a plan until it finds a solution, the superego learns values of morals in society, it contains two components the conscience and the ideal self it can punish the ego by feelings of guilt yet it can also reward us by feeling proud.

When all three go into conflict a multitude of problems can arise mainly anxiety, low self-esteem, disruptive behaviour, Sigmund Freud believed that psychological disorders and particularly the experience of anxiety occur when there is an imbalance or conflict in the id, ego and superego, when the ego finds that the id is pressing too hard for immediate pleasure, it attempts to correct this by using a defence mechanism unconscious psychological strategies used to maintain a positive self-image, an example of the id and superego in conflict could be that similar to a stay home and study or go out and party situation, the conscience of superego would urge us to stay home and study whereas the pleasure seeking id would urge us to go out and enjoy the party, Freud believed that defense mechanisms were essential for coping with everyday life, but any of them could be overused thus leading to conflict, (table 11.4 “the major Freudian defense mechanisms”) examples of the table and the conflicts that can arise are displacements diverting a threatening impulse away from the source of anxiety to a more acceptable source projection disguising threatening impulses by directing them towards others, rationalization generating self-justifying explanations for our negative behaviour, reaction formation making unacceptable motives appear as the exact opposite, regression retreating to a child-like state and safer stage of development, repression or denial pushing anxiety arousing thoughts into the unconscious, sublimination channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive thoughts into acceptable desires (table 11.4 “the major Freudian defense mechanisms”).

When the three go into conflict it can also cause behaviour that’s neither lawful or legal with no moral consequences Sigmund Freud contends that crime is is the substitute of symbolic behaviour in a human being, theft would be committed out of financial insecurities and would rid any feelings of spite and dependence a child who had not yet developed the superego could be prone to acts of delinquincy.

According to Sigmund Freud, anxiety is caused by the conflict of the mind between the id and its powerful impulses and the modifying forces of the ego and superego, the more the id-driven urges are stifled through physical reality or societal norms then the greater the level of anxiety will be. people express their anxiety in many different ways these can include nervousness,panic attacks, misplaced aggression and serious anxiety disorders, healthy personalities are those that have learned balance between the id, ego and superego.

Serious anxiety disorders that can occur when the three forces go in to conflict can range from social anxiety, panic disorder, specific phobias, generalized anxiety, displaced aggression is aggression that cannot be expressed to the source of the anger, Its usually displaced on to someone who had nothing to do with the anger, nervousness differentiates from anxiety people with nervousness display symptoms such as depression, suicidal thoughts or self-harm, both anxiety due to unrestrained feelings and nervousness can cause insomnia and general malaise. alongside hallucinations, extreme mood swings or unexplained outbursts. panic disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected panic attacks that can be recurring, social anxiety is an intense fear of being judged negatively in society, or rejected in a social situation, specific phobias are phobias that are often irrational yet they attribute to the fear of anxiety.

With so many competing forces it is very easy to see how they can go into conflict Sigmund Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the egos ability to work despite the dueling forces of the id and superego, a person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage the other two forces without becoming too disruptive.

Freud thought that the key to a healthy personality is the ability to handle all three forces, if the ego can maintain a healthy balance between the demands of reality, a well-adjusted personality will appear and maintain, a person with an overly dominant id could become impulsive or un controllable, regardless of whether the behaviour is moral legal or acceptable, an overly dominant superego however may lead onto a personality that is moralistic or judgmental, the kind of person who is right even when they are wrong , and unable to accept anyone they see as bad however wrong that judgement may be, an excessively dominant ego can result in to the creation of a personality that’s tied to morals, reality or rules, an almost rigid individual that will not accept wrongness within themselves or admit to right or wrong, paving way for a very self-obsessed egotistical person.

An ego conflict can occur when someone is almost jockeying for the front position for example two people could be left in charge, and this is how conflict can erupt, as one will always want to be solely in charge, very similar to a stroppy pubescent teenager arguing with their parent, they may always assume they know better than the older much wiser parent and thus cause conflict and chaos as they will assume the role of the sole person in charge, however wrong that seems to someone who has control of this force thus leading to damaged relationships or friendships, almost like losing the conflict would be damaging to the person’s self-esteem, the ego tends to develop out of growing awareness, its job is to achieve the id’s pleasure, it denies instant pleasure and it delays gratification, if the ego goes into conflict or it becomes too strong the results can be a cold, uncaring, distant person who appears overly rational and extremely efficient.

An id conflict can occur when basic needs are not met, as it works on an I want basis be that food, water, sleep, love or pleasure as it works really on a pleasure basis, it contains all the basic needs including libido when the needs of the ego are too strong it results in a person that is full of self-gratification and they can appear very uncaring towards other people almost cold-hearted and selfish. (“when the id is denied we experience tension, the ego is modified by direct influence of the external mind”) Sigmund Freud the ego and the id, se19;1 page 25

The superego is the last force to develop, often referred to as the moral part of the mind, it becomes the embodiment of parental and societal ruling, it strives for perfection however unrealistic the idea of perfection may appear, the power it has to enforce rules within the mind often leads to anxiety, it has two systems the ego ideal and the conscience, the ego ideal is rules for good behavior and excellent standards to make the ego thrive, the conscience has the rules for bad or disruptive behaviour, basically all the things that a parent would disapprove of or punish, when the superego is to strong it can lead to anxiety, it can make someone feel guilty constantly or have low self-belief or low self-esteem leading to social anxiety or perhaps feelings of low self-worth.

The conflict between the id and the superego is orchestrated by the ego, this psychological conflict is a very pervasive human experience, It is also the most fundamental battle within all humans, the way a person achieves either instant gratification or long-term reward fundamentally defines many ways to reflect on a person’s character.

Drug and alcohol addiction are often attributed to feelings of low self-worth, anxiety or low self-esteem, they are almost futile attempts to deal with the feelings of inner emptiness unfortunately this is very seldom successful, drug and alcohol use often gves the false feeling of acceptance and self-confidence however these are only temporary measures that often lead to crippling addictions, these individuals attempt to self-medicate and deal with anxiety through self-medication, very often to no success and relief is only ever a temporary measure, addiction is also what could potentially happen when the id ego and superego go into conflict.

My conclusion is that when the id, ego and supergo are in conflict the problems that can arise are anxiety, social anxiety, disruptive behaviour, feelings of guilt, low self-worth, low self-esteem, obsessive compulsive behaviour or even depression, the conclusions are derived are from my research into all of the above and the way that if the the ego in particular has its needs met then a well -adjusted personality should always develop, so if the id has its basic needs met within the pleasure principle as this is what it thrives on then a person will be socially acceptable and well adjusted, when we are born the id is present within basic needs such as the need for food, drink and comfort, this is present before any of the other personality develop with age, a Freud quote regarding the ego and id is “where id is there shall be ego (Sigmund freud 1933,”new introductory lectures on psychoanalysis”)Freud often compared the relationship between the id and ego to that of a horse and its rider, the horse gives the energy it needs to drive forward but the rider guides the horse to determine direction, however the rider may sometimes lose direction, so sometimes the ego may have to steer the id in the direction it wants to go in, (“people live with their id exposed, they’re not good at concealing what is going on inside”phillip seymour hoffman) people cannot hide feelings of self gratification,cold heartedness or selfishness, however a person with good ego strength has the ability to manage the id and superego effectively but if the ego is too strong it can lead to feelings of uncaring,cold,distant or even bored people,the id works on an I want basis and needs its basic needs to be met,when the basic needs are too strong the conflict that can occur is a person who us very cold hearted, uncaring towads others and full of self-gratification, an ego conflict can occur when somebody with a strong superego doesn’t achieve front runner in all aspects of life this leading to a person who can appear cold hearted and selfish, the superego is the last force to develop this strives for perfection and is often referred to as the moral part of the mind, a conflict within the superego would lead to anxiety disorders such as nervousness,social anxiety, feelings of guilt,it has two systems the ideal self and the conscience, whereas the ideal self strives for perfection, good behaviour and excellent standards, the conscience has the rules for bad or disruptive behaviour.

References used

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