The Freudian Theory of Personality

Kandise G. Viar Senior Seminar February 19, 2007

The Topographic Model: Levels of Awareness

Conscious contains the thoughts you are currently aware of. Preconscious large body of retrievable information. Unconscious the material that we have no immediate access to.

The Structural Model: Id, Ego, & Superego

Id present at birth; selfish part of you, concerned with satisfying your desires.

Pleasure principle only concerned with what brings immediate personal satisfaction regardless of physical or social implications.
Id impulses tend to be socially unacceptable.

Wish-fulfillment used to satisfy needs that cannot immediately be met; can imagine, which temporarily satisfies the need. Completely buried in the unconscious.

The Structural Model: Id, Ego, & Superego

Ego develops during the first two years of life; primary job is to satisfy the id impulses in an appropriate manner by taking consequences into consideration.

Reduces tension. Moves freely among the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious parts of the mind.

The Structural Model: Id, Ego, & Superego

Superego develops by the time the child is 5 years old; represents societys and parents values and standards. Conscience right and wrong.

Can be weak little inward restraint. Super moral impossible ideals of perfection.

Moral anxiety ever-present feeling of shame or guilt.

Id, Ego, & Superego Iceburg Illustration

Instincts: Libido & Thanatos

Libido the life or sexual instinct.

Sexually motivated behaviors not only include those with blatant erotic content, but every action aimed at receiving pleasure. The unconscious desire we all have to die and return to the earth. Death instinct is turned outward and expressed as aggression toward others.

Thanatos death or aggressive instinct.

Defense Mechanisms

The egos way of dealing with unwanted thoughts and desires; wants to resolve tension.

Repression active effort of the ego to push threatening material out of consciousness or to keep such material from ever reaching consciousness. This is a constant, active process. Sublimation the ego channels threatening unconscious impulses into socially acceptable actions.
Ex: Aggressive id impulses are channeled into competitive sports.

Defense Mechanisms Continued

Displacement involves channeling our impulses to nonthreatening objects; do not lead to social rewards.
Ex: If someone is angry at the boss, he or she may take that anger out on the children at home.

Denial refusing to accept that certain facts exist; insisting that something is not true.
Reaction Formation hiding from a threatening unconscious idea or urge by acting in a manner opposite to our unconscious desires.
Ex: People obsessed with religious values.

Defense Mechanisms Continued

Intellectualization ego handles threatening material by removing the emotional content from the thought before allowing it into awareness; by considering something strictly intellectual, previously difficult thoughts are allowed into awareness without anxiety.
Projection attributing an unconscious impulse to other people instead of ourselves; we free ourselves from the perception that we are the only ones that have that thought.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud argued that the adult personality is formed by experiences from the first 5 or 6 years of life. Centers on sexual themes. Small amounts of libido used up resolving each crisis. If a child experiences something traumatic or gets an excessive amount of pleasure from one stage this can result in the tying up or fixation of a large amount of libido. Significance of the developmental stages lies in the concept of fixation.

Adult expresses characteristics reminiscent of the stage at which the energy (libido) was fixated. People can get through stages without becoming fixated.

Oral Stage

First 18 months of life. Mouth, lips, and tongue are primary erogenous zones. Traumatic experiences can include feeding or weaning problems. If one develops an oral personality:

Can be dependent as adults. If fixation occurs after the child has teeth may result in excessive aggression as an adult. Express infantile need for oral satisfaction. Adults who smoke or drink excessively, or who constantly put their hands over their mouths may have oral personalities/

Anal Stage

When child reaches the age of about 18 months. Anal region becomes the most important erogenous zone. Most children are being toilet trained at this time. Traumatic toilet training may result in fixation and an anal personality.

May be excessively orderly, stubborn or generous, depending on how their toilet training progressed.

Phallic Stage

Occurs when the child is approximately 6 years old. Penis or clitoris become the most important erogenous zone. Oedipus Complex occurs in the later part of the phallic stage; children at this age develop an attraction to their opposite-sex parent.

Castration Anxiety boys develop the fear that their father will discover their feelings and cut off their penis.
If the boy has already seen his sisters genitals, he concluded that this fate has already befallen her.

Penis Envy after seeing male genitals develop the desire to have a penis; coupled with feelings of jealousy and inferiority.

Resolution of the Oedipus Complex

Children repress their desire for their opposite-sex parent, they realize that they will never have them as long as the other parent is around. Upon resolution the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent. Development of the superego.

Child adopts values and standards of the parents.

Latency Stage

The time before the onset of puberty. Sexual desires abated during these years.

Boys and girls are fairly uninterested in one another.

Genital Stage

The final stage of sexual development. Once the child reaches puberty, the erogenous urges return and are focused in the adult genital regions. If the child has progressed to this stage without leaving large amounts of libido fixated in earlier stages, normal sexual functioning is possible.

Application: Psychoanalysis

Its goal is to bring crucial unconscious material into consciousness, where it can be examined in a rational manner. Ways to bring material into consciousness:

Dreams Projective tests Free association Freudian slips Hypnosis Accidents Symbolic behavior

Strengths and Criticisms of Freuds Theories

Strengths:

Freud developed the first comprehensive theory of personality. Many personality theorists have deemed it necessary to point out where their theories differ from or correct weaknesses in Freuds works.

Strengths and Criticisms of Freuds Theories

Criticisms:

Many Freudian ideas appear in the literature that predates Freuds work. Many of his hypotheses are not testable. Freud relied heavily on case study data for evidence which was extremely biased. Many of Freuds followers broke away from the group because Freud refused to take into account the experiences that happened after 6 years of age and how they may influence personality.

Reference:
Burger, J.M. (2004). Personality: Sixth edition. Thomson & Wadsworth.