Psychoanalytic Theory Personality According to Sigmund Freud

Personality
 An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving

Attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is
unique Personality Theory
 
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

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Founder of psychoanalysis
Proposed the first complete theory of personality
A person’s thoughts and behaviors emerge from tension generated by unconscious motives and unresolved
childhood conflicts.
Learn more about Freud at: www.freud.org.uk www.lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/freud

Methods of Studying the Unconscious

Free Association Freudian technique of exploring the unconscious mind by having the person relax and say
whatever comes to mind no matter how trivial or embarrassing

The Couch
Projective Tests
Tests where a patient is asked to say whatever comes to mind as they view an ambiguous picture or inkblot.
Dreams & Slips of the Tongue
Freud said dreams were the “Road to the Unconsciousness” –You let down your guard when sleeping and
unconscious wishes and desires come forth. Slips of the Tongue – accidentally say something. –Example: “One,
two, three, four, five, SEX, I mean six!” –These are the wishes and desires of your unconscious ID
 The Psychodynamic Perspective: Freud’s View of the Mind

Psychoanalytic Approach Conscious – all things we are aware of at any given moment
Psychoanalytic Approach Preconscious – everything that can, with a little effort, be brought into
consciousness
Psychoanalytic Approach Unconscious – inaccessible warehouse of anxiety- producing thoughts and drives

The Psychodynamic Perspective: The Id, Ego, and Superego

Psychoanalytic Divisions of the Mind
Id—instinctual drives present at birth –does not distinguish between reality and fantasy –operates according to
the pleasure principle
Ego—develops out of the id in infancy –understands reality and logic –mediator between id and superego
Superego – the moral principle –internalization of society’s & parental moral standards –One’s conscience;
focuses on what the person “should” do –Develops around ages 5-6. –Partially unconscious –Can be harshly
punitive using feelings of guilt

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

he Personality Id: “I want” Superego: “I should” Ego: “I will”

The Psychodynamic Perspective: Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Psychosexual Stages
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

Oral Stage (birth – 1 year) 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

Anal Stage (1 – 3 years)

 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

Phallic Stage (3 – 5 years)

 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
 Boys feel hostility and jealousy towards their fathers but knows their father is more powerful. This leads
to…
 Castration Anxiety results in boys who feel their father will punish them by castrating them.
 Resolve this through Identification – imitating and internalizing one’s father’s values, attitudes and
mannerisms.
 The fact that only the father can have sexual relations with the mother becomes internalized in the boy
as taboo against incest in the boy’s superego.

Electra Complex
 Girls also have incestuous feelings for their dad and compete with their mother.
 Penis Envy – Little girl suffer from deprivation and loss and blames her mother for “sending her into the
world insufficiently equipped” causing her to resent her mother
 In an attempt to take her mother’s place she eventually indentifies with her mother
 Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need for attention or domination in females
 Latency Stage (5 – puberty)
 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

Genital Stage (puberty on)

 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

Freud’s Stages of Development

Defense Mechanisms Unconscious Self-Deceptions

Defense Mechanisms
 Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting
reality.

 Repression
 Puts anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind
 The basis for all other defense mechanisms

Denial
 Let’s an anxious person refuse to admit that something unpleasant is happening

 Regression
 Allows an anxious person to retreat to a more comfortable, infantile stage of life

Reaction Formation Replacing an unacceptable wish with its opposite

Projection Reducing anxiety by attributing unacceptable impulses or problems about yourself to someone else

Rationalization Displaces real, anxiety-provoking explanations with more comforting justifications for one’s
actions Reasoning away anxiety-producing thoughts

Displacement Shifts an unacceptable impulse toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

Sublimation A form of displacement in which sexual urges are channeled into nonsexual activities that are
valued by society

 Undoing Unconsciously neutralizing an anxiety causing action by doing a second action that undoes the first.