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Sigmund Freud Theory
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Sigmund Freud Theory
There are fundamental structures in our mind and our personality is shaped with the help of structures like ID, ego, and superego. A human possesses several characteristics and structures that shape our personality that can be analyzed by others. Sigmund Freud developed his own school of thoughts and came up with a number of theories in the field of psychiatry.
Historical Background of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia, his father worked as a wool merchant while his mother was a house wife. His family moved to Vienna, where he started to develop his connections and interest with psychology. Freud was an intelligent student and his mind was very alert while studying in a medical school. He was keenly interested in academia and was a brilliant student as compared to other students. Because of his extra ordinary performance he remained the head of his class. After school, he started to study and began his research work with the help of Ernst Bruke, who was his physiology professor. He was then introduced with the concept of reductionism, which states that neurology can control our personality but he did not continue. However, they successfully studied neurophysiology and their research study contributed to the invention of the cell-straining technique. His professor helped him to obtain grants and sent him to study under popular psychiatrists of that time, i.e., Charcot and Bernheim. He gained popularity among other researchers in psychiatry, which helped him to meet his goal and offered to work collectively to contribute in the field of psychiatry. They all collectively launched a movement known as a psychoanalytic movement. Freud was more self-centered and believed in his own ideas, so it was a problem for him to consider and accept the opinions that were against his thoughts. This was a negative trait, but this became one of the reason for more competition in other schools of thought. These competitions did not deter his enthusiasm towards his own school of thought, and he came up with the theory of sexuality in 1995. In this theory, he wrote three essays discussing the theory of sexuality, which was a reason for further isolations from the mainstreams of psychiatry. Later on, he presented the “Interpretation of Dreams” in 1900, which was a source to make his career and his reputation. He stated that mental and physical jurisdictions both are parts of our nature and one cannot separate any of them. Sigmund Freud presented the psychoanalytic theory, which states that our behaviors and traits are the outcomes of three main components of our mind and they are the ID, ego, and superego.
Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Freud’s theories are surrounded by human psychology and psychoanalytic theories in which he contributing despite living in isolation. Another name for Psychoanalytic theory presented by him is Freud’s structural theory of personality. He developed this theory while shaping and forming individuals’ behaviors and personalities, this theory places an emphasis on conflicts of our unconscious psychology. There are five developmental stages, through which dynamic interactions progress in our minds. There are five psychosexual stages of development.
Psychosexual Stages of Development
Psychosexual can be understood in psychological and sexual aspects. With human growth and time human, the nature of conflicts changes based on ID, ego, and superego. These ongoing conflicts in our various sections of the mind are sometimes uncontrollable because of human growth, and surroundings. There are five stages through which these conflicts progress, and Freud named them as the psychosexual theory. Each stage has a different focus on the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital while these stages are related to a varying physical center of pleasure. For the representation of these stages, a child is presented as an example, including their biological energies (ID) and their social and moral interactions (superego) as their biological instincts subject them for pleasure seeking in relation to different parts of the body. If a child can resolve internal conflicts than it will be perceived as the child can resolve conflicts in futures. Furthermore, the child may get able to cope with future functions and critical situations as an adult. If a child fails to resolve these issues at this stage then it means that the child may not be able to resolve future conflicts like an adult and it will lead to unhealthy traits in personality. Being able to solve issues and conflicts means to survive as a healthy human being, which will result in successful commitments and resolutions. Being able to cope with various situations means that an individual can develop according to these developmental stages leading towards a mature personality in the future as an adult or grown kid. These five developmental stages are interdependent of three levels, while each level has to serve a purpose in the development and shaping of our personality.
Human mind
In the late 19th century, contributions and studies about human psychology were important and they had all focuses. Freud focused on the human mind and its role in the field of behavioral sciences while discussing functions and concepts of our mind they are presented in a scientific method. There are three divisions, which help us to create and make our reality
Conscious Mind
Consciousness means that an individual is aware of things going on in surroundings, and able to store it in mind. It leads to recall and memorize various activities going on in the environment, and the human mind. “To be able to realize” means that an individual may qualify to recall everything that happened to him/ her in the future, that may help to cope with critical situations in the future in an appropriate way. However, this division only makes 10 percent of individuals’ activities and works of their minds. The conscious mind also fails to explain those events, which occur randomly and events those are created by our mind. A conscious mind may help to increase our ability to focus on things going on in our minds in a particular state. Another thing for which our mind may help to address is the ability to imagine those things, which do not exist in nature and reality at all. Apart from criticisms, our conscious mind plays the role of scanners, which enhances the capabilities to think and observe nature and its images. Our mind captures events, which may lead to triggering events in which an individual reacts according to its importance. Now it depends on an individual whether he/she stores these events or reacts to these. These events can be stored consciously and unconsciously within the premises of our mind, which makes sure about the availability.
Subconscious Mind
We sometimes need to recall our memories on an urgent basis or in a critical situation. Our subconscious state of mind helps us to recall these on need base and it has the ability to store information and provide it to us according to our needs. This state of mind can be related to RAM which is part of the computer system, and thus provides and allows us to have access to any random information anytime. Our subconscious stores information, which we use on a daily basis, stores information about our current thoughts, behavioral patterns, emotions, and feelings.
Unconscious Mind
This state of mind helps us to store our experiences and our memories. The information which is not important for us, and we try to forget it intentionally or memories which are being repressed because of traumas which we have faced. These are the memories and experiences by which, our belief systems are created, and our behaviors are formed. Unconscious and subconscious minds have similar roles and these are directly linked to each other. Our unconscious mind stores those emotions, which are deep-rooted and programmed since our brain is developed.
Theory of Freud
Psychoanalysis is one of the rare contribution by Freud in understanding human mind and this is his intellectual achievement, which has transformed the concepts of self-understandings. An individual may chose psychoanalysis no matter he or she is not able to observe his/her behavior. This relates to the climate in which we conduct opinions regarding our different lives. Freud’s psychoanalysis is considered as the intellectual revolution, which was advanced by Darwin.
Humans live a mental life to survive and seek pleasures for their satisfaction and these are divided into three agencies or “categories,” ID, ego and superego ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"jmEmDhm9","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Lapsley & Ste, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Lapsley & Ste, 2012)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":791,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/SDIX7B6H"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/SDIX7B6H"],"itemData":{"id":791,"type":"article-journal","title":"Id, Ego, and Superego","container-title":"Encyclopedia of Human Behavior","source":"ResearchGate","abstract":"Sigmund Freud divided mental life into three agencies or ‘provinces’ that is, id, ego, and superego. The id is the oldest and the most primitive psychic agency, representing the biological foundations of personality. It is a reservoir of basic instinctual drives, particularly sexual (libidinal) drives, which motivate the organism to seek pleasure. The ego is a modification of the id that emerges as a result of the direct influence of the external world. It is the ‘executive’ of the personality in the sense that it regulates libidinal drive energies so that satisfaction accords with the demands of reality. It is the center of reason, reality testing, and commonsense, and has at its command, a range of defensive stratagems that can deflect, repress, or transform the expression of unrealistic or forbidden drive energies. The superego is a further differentiation of the ego, which represents its ‘ideal.’ The superego emerges as a consequence of the Oedipal drama, whereby the child takes on the authority and magnificence of parental figures through introjection or identification. Whereas the id operates in pursuit of pleasure and the ego is governed by the reality principle, the superego bids the psychic apparatus to pursue idealistic goals and perfection. It is the source of moral censorship and conscience.","DOI":"10.1016/B978-0-12-375000-6.00199-3","journalAbbreviation":"Encyclopedia of Human Behavior","author":[{"family":"Lapsley","given":"Daniel"},{"family":"Ste","given":"Paul"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012",12,31]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Lapsley & Ste, 2012).
ID
First division of our mental life is ID, which is an aboriginal and inborn constituent part of our personality. This consists of all biological and inherited fundamentals of personality, which starts from the conception, and this includes sex of individuals, which represents life. ID makes responses to our sudden needs, wishes and desires whether it is immediate or direct fulfilment of these requirements. The personality of a child who is newly born can be related as ID while with the age it develops and promotes to an ego and super-ego. Id of an individual remains same as it was in childhood throughout life of an individual and this does not change with timeframe and our experiences. While, this has no relation with the external environment in which we live. It does not gets affected by nature, rationality, and everyday world because its operations are within the part of our mind, which is called as unconscious part. According to Sigmund Freud, Id is selfish division in our mind, which is only concerned about the present desires. For example, a child cries when he gets hungry, so it becomes a mandatory to fulfil his demands, while after giving him food or milk he stops crying. So as the Id, which has to be satisfied within a time and this has “no idea about judgments: Knowledge about good and bad, no morality”, this only requires fulfilment of desires that are expected. For Freud, Id is based on the “pleasure principle of humans” which is a psychological force and this has tendency to seek immediate satisfaction of any desire being demanded. Id engages individuals in primary processes of thinking, that may be random and it is not necessary and compulsory for an individual to think rationally because, this have no connection with the objective reality.
Ego
Id is not influenced by the realty and nature while ego is influenced by nature directly, while ego is modified as a part of Id. This state develops between the illogical Id and natural environment. Ego exposes individuals to think rationally and logically, while in nature Id is opposite of ego. Reality principle is what ego follows and it works in a natural way to fulfil the demands of Id and satisfy it. Ego is that state which may compromise and postpone those things and events which leads to negative consequences in an individual’s life and whole society. Ego helps to avoid any futures tensions when there are chances of not meeting desires or they may be delayed. This is considered as an executive control center, which causes self-realization and regulation in individuals, while people lack psychological resources when our ego depletes ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"wtIvPim3","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Leary, Terry, Allen, & Shonkoff, 2009)","plainCitation":"(Leary, Terry, Allen, & Shonkoff, 2009)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":794,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/MWURYLLQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/MWURYLLQ"],"itemData":{"id":794,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Concept of Ego Threat in Social and Personality Psychology: Is Ego Threat a Viable Scientific Construct?","container-title":"Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc","page":"151-64","volume":"13","source":"ResearchGate","abstract":"Although widely invoked as an explanation for psychological phenomena, ego threat has been conceptualized and induced in a variety of ways. Most contemporary research conceptualizes ego threat as a threat to a person's self-image or self-esteem, but experimental operationalizations of ego threat usually confound threats to self-esteem with threats to public image or decreased control over negative events, leading to an inability to distinguish the effects of threats to people's personal egos from threats to public image or threats to feelings of control. This article reviews research on ego threat, discusses experimental manipulations that confound ego threat with other processes, and makes recommendations regarding the use of ego threat as a construct in personality and social psychology.","DOI":"10.1177/1088868309342595","shortTitle":"The Concept of Ego Threat in Social and Personality Psychology","journalAbbreviation":"Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc","author":[{"family":"Leary","given":"Mark"},{"family":"Terry","given":"Meredith"},{"family":"Allen","given":"Ashley"},{"family":"Shonkoff","given":"Eleanor"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2009",8,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Leary, Terry, Allen, & Shonkoff, 2009). For example, John’s daughter want to go for a party, she has to buy new dress and demands to her father to buy her new dress. Her father has a little amount of money in his pocket, which he has saved for his mother’s treatment. He tells his daughter that if he does not take his mother to hospital she will be paralyzed because of high blood pressure. While his daughter cancels her plans to avoid any unwanted outcome and she plans to go for next party.
Ego can be delayed but Id cannot be delayed and ego makes decisions based on rational thinking and has a relation with nature. Ego has the ability to recognize needs of other human beings and in a state of ego being selfish is not worthy for longer time because it hurts other’s desires and wants. To avoid hurting behavior, ego starts making compromises and adopts delaying tactics based on reality principles.
Superego
Superego is considered as the moral part of individuals, which reflects the cultural rules, which are being taught by parents by guiding them when needed, and they influence them. Superego teaches what is wrong and what is wright according to moral values of society. Super-ego gives punishments for those behaviors, which are morally wrong. A child is guided by his parents to not harm any other child, and the same will be guided by super-ego of a child. For example, a child is sitting with other children, and consciously or unconsciously, his mind will subject him to hit that child, but suddenly super-ego will react and will stop that child because this is not right morally. While in contradiction, Id fulfils all the wishes within the time frame and it does not takes care of moral values and it does not makes judgments based on ethical and moral considerations. Super-ego is that state of mind, which will guide you to act in such ways, which are accepted by society, and they are appropriate ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"HQTjiEmE","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Cherry, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Cherry, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":797,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/GDK29UTC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/GDK29UTC"],"itemData":{"id":797,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Id, Ego and Superego: The Structural Model of Personality","container-title":"About. com","author":[{"family":"Cherry","given":"Kendra"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Cherry, 2016). It has control over our senses and helps us to make judgments according to what is right and wrong, this also enables us to fit in our society.
Conclusion
Personality is developed in time phases and it is developed according to psychosexual needs. Psychoanalysis emphasize on self-development and self-conceptualization according to mind states. Id, ego and super-ego has its own characteristics that subjects individuals to perform tasks and activities. Some of activities are socially acceptable and some of them are not. An individual has to take care of moral values and considerations by self-analysis.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Cherry, K. (2016). The Id, Ego and Superego: The Structural Model of Personality. About. Com.
Lapsley, D., & Ste, P. (2012). Id, Ego, and Superego. Encyclopedia of Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375000-6.00199-3
Leary, M., Terry, M., Allen, A., & Shonkoff, E. (2009). The Concept of Ego Threat in Social and Personality Psychology: Is Ego Threat a Viable Scientific Construct? Personality and Social Psychology Review : An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, 13, 151–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309342595
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