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Psychoanalytictheory Freud 150321051741 Conversion Gate01
Psychoanalytictheory Freud 150321051741 Conversion Gate01
Psychoanalytictheory Freud 150321051741 Conversion Gate01
Personality According to
Sigmund Freud
Personality
• 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
– 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
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
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
The Personality
Id: “I want”
Superego: “I should”
Ego: “I will”
Psychoanalytic Approach
Rational, Information
planful, in your
mediating Conscious immediate
dimension Ego awareness
of personality
Superego Preconscious Information
which can
Moralistic, easily be
judgmental, made
Unconscious conscious
perfectionist
dimension of
personality Id Thoughts,
feelings,
urges, and other
Irrational, information
illogical, that is difficult
impulsive to bring to
dimension of conscious
personality awareness
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
• Lets 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.
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)