Psychoanalytic Theory
Personality According to
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
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
Psychoanalytic Approach
• Developed by Sigmund Freud
• Psychoanalysis is both an approach
to therapy and a theory of personality
• Emphasizes unconscious motivation
– the main causes of behavior lie
buried in the unconscious mind
Psychoanalysis as a Therapy
• A therapeutic technique that attempts
to provide insight into one’s thoughts
and actions
• Does so by exposing and interpreting
the underlying unconscious motives
and conflicts
Psychodynamic Perspective
• A more modern view of personality
that retains some aspects of Freudian
theory but rejects other aspects
• Retains the importance of the
unconscious mind
• Less emphasis on unresolved
childhood conflicts
The Psychodynamic
Perspective:
Freud’s View of the
Mind
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
Conscious Mind
• All the thoughts, feelings, and
sensations that you are aware of
at this particular moment
represent the conscious level
Preconscious 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)
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.
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
anxietyproducing
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, selfdestructive 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,
planful,
mediating
dimension
of personality
Conscious
Ego
Superego
Moralistic,
judgmental,
perfectionist
dimension of
personality
Irrational,
illogical,
impulsive
dimension of
personality
Preconscious
Unconscious
Id
Information
in your
immediate
awareness
Information
which can
easily be
made
conscious
Thoughts,
feelings,
urges, and other
information
that is difficult
to bring to
conscious
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)
• 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
Freud’s Stages of Development
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
Freud’s Stages of Development
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
Freud’s Stages of Development
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
Freud’s Stages of Development
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