Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality According to Sigmund Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the Id, the Ego and the Superego.
The Id, the Ego and the Superego are three theoretical constructs, in terms of whose activity and interactions, the mental life can be described and complex human behaviours formed. Hence, these three components of the personality structure are functions of the mind rather than parts of the brain.
The Id
According to Freud, the Id is the only component of the personality structure that is present present from birth. This facet of personalit personality y is entirely unconscious unconscious and includes includes all the instinctive and primitive behaviours, hence allowing us to get our basic needs met as newborns.
Freud believed that the Id is ruled by the pleasure principle. This driving force seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants and urges. In other words, the Id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no reality of the situation.
For example, if a child is hungry hun gry s/he will cry until the demands of the Id a re met. And so, if these needs are not satisfied at once, the result is a state of anxiety or tension. In the above example, the child will cry louder!
The Ego
Even if the Id is very important for newborns, to immediately satisfy some of the Id’s needs and desires in the long run, is not always possible. That is why within the next three years, as a child starts to interact more with his/her environment, the second part of the personality begins to develop.
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Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality The Ego is based on the reality principle. The Ego understands that other people have needs and desires and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can eventually hurt us. Therefore, the Ego strives to achieve the Id’s desires in both realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In many cases, the Id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification meaning that, the Ego will eventually allow the behaviour, but only in the appropriate time and place. The Ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
The Superego
By the age of five, or by the end of the phallic stage of development (Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development), the Superego develops. It develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers. The Superego provides guidelines for making judgments.
The Superego can be divided into two parts:
The Ego Ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviours. These behaviours include those which are approved of, by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, va lue and accomplishment.
The Conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviours are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt and remorse.
The Superego acts to perfect and civilise our behaviour. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the Id and struggles to make the Ego act upon idealistic standards
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Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality rather that upon realistic principles. The Superego is present in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind.
The interaction of the Id, the Ego and the Superego
With so many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the Id, the Ego and the Superego. Freud used the term Ego Strength to refer to the Ego's ability to function despite these dueling forces.
If there is a misbalance between the three components, the Ego Strength can become too unyielding or too disrupting.
For example, if:
Id too strong, individual is bound up in self-gratification and uncaring to others.
Ego too strong, individual is extremely rational and efficient, but cold, boring and distant.
Superego too strong, individual feels guilty all the time and may even have an insufferably saintly personality.
On the other hand, an individual with a good Ego Strength is able to effectively manage these pressures.
The Id, Ego, Superego structure of mind complements Freud’s structural model of the conscious, preconscious and unconscious.
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