KARYL T.

BUER
ASSIGNMENT IN THEORY 105

Sigmund Freud

According to Freud, human behavior, experience,

and cognition are largely determined by
unconscious drives and events in early childhood.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Discuss Freud’s “id”, “ego” and “super-ego” and his six

basic principles of psychoanalysis and how
psychoanalysis is used today as a treatment for a
variety of psychological disorders

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Key Points

 Psychoanalysis is a clinical method for

treating psychopathology through dialogue
between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
 The specifics of the analyst’s interventions
typically include confronting and clarifying
the patient’s pathological defenses, wishes,
and guilt.
 Freud named his new theory the Oedipus
complex after the famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The Oedipus
conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness.
 The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche
that operates on the “pleasure principle” and is the source of basic impulses and
drives.
 The ego acts according to the reality principle (i.e., it seeks to please the id’s
drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief).
 The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the
personality structure.
 The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the
personality structure

Key Terms

 Oedipus complex: In Freudian theory, the complex of emotions aroused in a

child by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex.
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ASSIGNMENT IN THEORY 105

 the unconscious: For Freud, the unconscious refers to the mental processes of
which individuals make themselves unaware.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of

psychoanalysis. Interested in philosophy as a student, Freud later decided to become a
neurological researcher in cerebral palsy, Aphasia, and microscopic neuroanatomy.
Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of
repression and established the field of verbal psychotherapy by creating
psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue
between a patient and a psychoanalyst. The most common problems treatable with
psychoanalysis include phobias, conversions, compulsions, obsessions, anxiety,
attacks, depressions, sexual dysfunctions, a wide variety of relationship problems (such
as dating and marital strife), and a wide variety of character problems (painful shyness,
meanness, obnoxiousness, workaholism, hyperseductiveness, hyperemotionality,
hyperfastidiousness).

The Basic Tenets of Psychoanalysis

The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include the following:

 First, human behavior, experience, and cognition are largely determined by

irrational drives.
 Those drives are largely unconscious.
 Attempts to bring those drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in
the form of defense mechanisms.
 Besides the inherited constitution of personality, one’s development is
determined by events in early childhood.
 Conflicts between conscious view of reality and unconscious (repressed) material
can result in mental disturbances, such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety,
depression etc.
 The liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through
bringing this material into the consciousness.

Psychoanalysis as Treatment

Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the “analysand”

(the analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and
dreams, from which the analyst induces the unconscious conflicts. This causes the
patient’s symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to
create insight for resolution of the problems. The specifics of the analyst’s interventions
typically include confronting and clarifying the patient’s pathological defenses, wishes,
and guilt. Through the analysis of conflicts, including those contributing to resistance
and those involving transference onto the analyst of distorted reactions, psychoanalytic
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ASSIGNMENT IN THEORY 105

treatment can hypothesize how patients unconsciously are their own worst enemies:
how unconscious, symbolic reactions that have been stimulated by experience are
causing symptoms.

The Id, The Ego, Super-Ego

Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid and thus turned to ancient
mythology and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his
new theory the Oedipus complex after the famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by
Sophocles. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual
development and awareness. In his later work, Freud proposed that the human psyche
could be divided into three parts: Id, ego, and super-ego. The id is the completely
unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the “pleasure
principle” and is the source of basic impulses and drives; it seeks immediate pleasure
and gratification. The ego acts according to the reality principle (i.e., it seeks to please
the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief).
Finally, the super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the
personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual’s
ego, ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency that criticizes and prohibits his or
her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions.
KARYL T. BUER
ASSIGNMENT IN THEORY 105

Perhaps Freud's single most enduring and important idea was that the human psyche
(personality) has more than one aspect.
Freud's personality theory (1923) saw the psyche structured into three parts (i.e.,
tripartite), the id, ego and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives. These
are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical.
According to Freud psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of
the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-
ego operates as a moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates
between the desires of the id and the super-ego.
Although each part of the personality comprises unique features, they interact to form a
whole, and each part makes a relative contribution to an individual's behavior.

What is the id?

The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the
inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality present at birth, including the sex
(life) instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and the aggressive (death) instinct -
Thanatos.
The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly
and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn
child is all id and only later does it develop an ego and super-ego.
The id remains infantile in its function throughout a person's life and does not change
with time or experience, as it is not in touch with the external world. The id is not
affected by reality, logic or the everyday world, as it operates within the unconscious
part of the mind.

The id operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that every
wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. When
the id achieves its demands, we experience pleasure when it is denied we experience
‘unpleasure’ or tension.
The id engages in primary process thinking, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and
fantasy oriented. This form of process thinking has no comprehension of objective
reality, and is selfish and wishful in nature.

What is the Ego?

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ASSIGNMENT IN THEORY 105

The ego is 'that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the
external world.'
(Freud, 1923, p. 25)
The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is
the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason,
whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable.
The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of
satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid
negative consequences of society. The ego considers social realities and norms,
etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.

Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure (i.e., tension reduction) and avoids pain, but unlike
the id, the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure. The
ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of
satisfying without causing harm to itself or the id.
Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can do is stay
on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the
action were its own.
Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider. The ego is
'like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superiour strength of the horse.'
(Freud, 1923, p. 15)
If the ego fails in its attempt to use the reality principle, and anxiety is
experienced, unconscious defense mechanisms are employed, to help ward off
unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good things feel better for the individual.
The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational, realistic, and
orientated towards problem-solving. If a plan of action does not work, then it is thought
through again until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the
person to control their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.
An important feature of clinical and social work is to enhance ego functioning and help
the client test reality through assisting the client to think through their options.

What is the superego?

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from
one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 years during the phallic
stage of psychosexual development.
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ASSIGNMENT IN THEORY 105

The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society
forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to
turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

The superego consists of two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The
conscience can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt. For example, if the ego
gives in to the id's demands, the superego may make the person feel bad through guilt.
The ideal self (or ego-ideal) is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be, and
represents career aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behave as a
member of society.
Behavior which falls short of the ideal self may be punished by the superego through
guilt. The super-ego can also reward us through the ideal self when we behave
‘properly’ by making us feel proud.
If a person’s ideal self is too high a standard, then whatever the person does will
represent failure. The ideal self and conscience are largely determined
in childhood from parental values and how you were brought up.