PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF

PERSONALITY
BY: SIGMUND FREUD
Personality
 An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving

Personality Theory
 Attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every
individual is unique
PERSONALITY PERSPECTIVES
 Psychoanalytic—importance of unconscious processes and childhood experiences
 Humanistic—importance of self and fulfillment of potential
 Social cognitive—importance of beliefs about self
 Trait—description and measurement of personality differences

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Psychoanalysis emphasizes unconscious motivation – the main cause of behavior lies buried in
unconscious mind.
 It is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality.

LAYERS OF THE MIND

1. Conscious Mind
2. Pre- Conscious Mind
3. Unconscious Mind

CONSCIOUS MIND
 All the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you are aware of at this particular moment represent
the conscious level
 Includes everything we ‘re aware of
 Awareness of our own mental process(Thoughts and Feelings)
 Rational
 Examples: Thoughts and Perceptions

PRE – CONSCIOUS MIND

 A region of the mind holding information that is not conscious but is easily retrievable into conscious
awareness
 Holds thoughts and memories not in one’s current awareness but can easily be retrieved (childhood
memories, phone number)
 Represent Ordinary Memory
 Fact Stored are available for future use
 Examples: Memories and Stored Knowledges

UNCONSCIOUS MIND
 A region of the mind that includes unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
 Not aware of these thoughts, wishes, etc… but they exert great influence over our conscious
thoughts & behavior.
 Freud felt that dreams were “The royal road to the unconsciousness” – behind the surface image
(manifest content) lied the true hidden meaning (latent content).
 Can also surface as “slips of the tongue” or Freudian Slips.
 Examples:
 FEARS
  UNACCEPTABLE SEXUAL DESIRES
 VIOLENT MOTIVES
 IRRATIONAL WISHES
 IMMORAL URGES
 SELFISH NEEDS
 SHAMEFUL EXPERIENCES
 TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES

3 STRUCTURES OF PERSONALITY
1. Id
2. Ego
3. Superego
1. ID
 The “ID” is formed during the infancy stage.
 Operates on PLEASURE PRINCIPLE – to gain instant gratification and avoiding pain.
 “BAD BOY OF OUR PERSONALITY”

Freud’s Concept of the “Id

• The part of personality that consists of unconscious energy from basic aggressive and sexual drives
• Operates on the “pleasure principle” - the id demands immediate gratification
• Is present from birth

Id: The Pleasure Principle

• Pleasure principle—drive toward immediate gratification, most fundamental human motive
• Sources of energy
 Eros—life instinct, perpetuates life
 Thanatos—death instinct, aggression, self- destructive actions
• Libido—sexual energy or motivation

2. SUPEREGO
 The “SUPEREGO” develops by the end of preschool years.
 Operates on MORAL PRINCIPLE
- exerts influence on what is right and wrong.
 “FOLLOWS THE RULES”

3. EGO
 The “EGO” is formed during toddler and preschool.
 Operates on REALITY PRINCIPLE
– does realistic and logical thinking.
 “THE RATIONAL LEVEL”

Freud’s Concept of the “Ego”

 The part of personality that mediates the demands of the id without going against the restraints of
the superego
 Follows the reality principle

Ego: The Reality Principle

 Reality principle—ability to postpone gratification in accordance with demands of reality
 Ego—rational, organized, logical, mediator to demands of reality
 Can repress desires that cannot be met in an acceptable manner

5 PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

According to: Sigmund Freud

STAGE 1: ORAL
STAGE 2: ANAL
STAGE 3: PHALLIC
STAGE 4: LATENCY
STAGE 5: GENITAL
 Freud believed that early experiences are very important in human development.
 During these stages of development, the EROGENOUS ZONES associated with each stage serves as
source of pleasure.
 A person can become FIXATED or stuck in a stage when a basic need is not met, therefore it may
affect development.
 In Freudian theory, the childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure seeking
energies are focused on different parts of the body
 The stages include: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
 A person can become “fixated” or stuck at a stage and as an adult attempt to achieve pleasure as in
ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages

1. ORAL STAGE – Birth to 18 months

 Pleasure comes from oral through mouth sucking eating , mouthing, chewing and biting.

 Mouth is associated with sexual pleasure

 Pleasure comes from chewing, biting, and sucking.
 Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not handled correctly
 Fixation can lead to oral activities in adulthood

2. ANAL STAGE – 18 months until 3 years

 Pleasure focuses on bowel movement (withholding/eliminating feces)

 Gratification comes from bowel and bladders functions.

 Toilet training can lead to fixation if not handled correctly
 Fixation can lead to anal retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood

ANAL STAGE FIXATIONS:

 ANAL EXPULSIVE (Messy and Disorganized)
  ANAL RETENTIVE (Obsession with cleanliness, perfection and control

3. PHALLIC STAGE – 3 to 6 years

 Pleasure through genitals.
 Child starts to recognize what it means to be a girl or a boy.
 Conflicts arise due to greater emotional attachment to one parent over another.
 Focus of pleasure shifts to the genitals
 Sexual attraction for opposite sex parent
 Boys cope with incestuous feelings toward their mother and rival feelings toward their dad (Oedipus
conflict). For girls it is called the Electra Complex.
 Child identifies with and tries to mimic the same sex parent to learn gender identity.

OEDIPUS COMPLEX ELECTRA COMPLEX

OEDIPUS COMPLEX
 Boys feel hostility and jealousy ELECTRA COMPLEX
towards their fathers but knows their  Girls also have incestuous
father is more powerful. This leads feelings for their dad and
to… compete with their mother.
 Castration Anxiety results in boys  Penis Envy – Little girl suffer
who feel their father will punish them from deprivation and loss and
by castrating them. blames her mother for “sending
her into the world insufficiently
equipped” causing her to
resent her mother
PHALLIC STAGE FIXATIONS:
 Vanity
 Sexual Deviances (Exhibitionism)
 Weak or Confused Sexual Identity

4. LATENCY STAGE – 7 to 11 years

 Focuses on physical and academic skills of the children.
 Sexual urges remain repressed
 The child builds up social group with their same gender.
 (Boys with Boys, Girls with Girls)
 Sexuality is repressed due to intense anxiety caused by Oedipus complex
 Children participate in hobbies, school, and same-sex friendships that strengthen their sexual
identity

5. GENITAL STAGE – 12 years onwards

 The puberty stage where sexual urges are once again awakened.
 Focus their sexual urges towards the opposite sex peers.
 Pleasure is centered on the genitals.
 Incestuous sexual feelings re-emerge but being prohibited by the superego are redirected toward
others who resemble the person’s opposite sex parent.
 Healthy adults find pleasure in love and work, fixated adults have their energy tied up in earlier
stages

“The only person on whom you have to compare yourself is YOU in the past”
- SIGMUND FREUD

Group 1- BTLED-HE 1
Members:

Ivan Dennis Salupan

Mhelva Duavis
Lovely Mae Enaje
Marilou Alvarez