David Carroll
09/15/2022
Dr. Wright
Psychology of Personality
Case Study 1: Steve
1. If Freud were to see Steve’s case study, he would be giddy at the opportunity to break
down Steve’s Id, Ego, and Superego. According to his case file, Steve is a very affectionstarved individual and has been since early childhood. Part of the reason Steve acts the
way he does towards women is rooted in how he was brought up, meaning we need to
take a look at his mother. The file remarks on her neglecting Steve emotionally while still
caring for his physical needs as a child. The superego relies on instincts - the ego - built
upon by the parents who cultivate what the child needs and how they should look at the
world. Inferring from Steve’s dream description as well as his friend’s suspicions of the
relationship between Steve and his mother, we can conclude that Steve’s resentment
towards his mother and severe lack of emotional support throughout his childhood led to
the development of an Oedipus complex, in which the way he treats women and
relationships as a means for sexual gratification are desperate (yet futile) attempts to fill
the kind of emotional void left by Steve’s mother. Put frankly, Steve’s motivations for his
actions toward people of the opposite sex is due to both a deep-rooted resentment towards
his mother and the yearning for emotional gratification that is temporarily reached by
continually seeking out sexual partners until the novelty of a fresh relationship has worn
off. This situation is mostly if not entirely on the internal side, as Steve’s resentment
toward his single mom would have the opportunity to grow and sour over the years
without a positive emotional figure in the picture.
2. To describe Steve’s Id, ego, and Superego, we first need to describe what these mean
according to Freud. The Id contains our baser instincts that define our desire to fulfill our
biological needs (procreation, sexual urges, hunger, curiosity, emotions, etc.). The Ego is
responsible for much of what we experience, taking in information through our senses to
be run through our Id. The Ego is responsible for much of our personality and rational
thinking through being able to directly process and observe the world around us. Finally,
the Superego is the moral compass of both the Ego and the Id, providing a sense of
emotional and contextual standards that have been cultivated from the moment an
individual can process and understand information. In other words, our Superego is our
moral compass and the very thing that regulates the 2 other psychological parts of the
human mind. Now, on to what Steve has going on. First, Steve’s Id seems to be indulged
heavily, particularly on the side of sexual gratification and his attachment issues. Coupled
with his resentment towards women and his sex addiction, Freud would describe Steve’s
Id as emotionally malnourished, or intimacy-starved to put it bluntly. Another apt
description of Steve’s more destructive side to his Id is condescending. Second, the Ego
Steve represents is very divisive, insecure, and yet egotistical. Using women for
gratification and to sate frustration towards his estranged mother in an unhealthy manner
seems to be one of the driving factors in how Steve’s Ego operates, while the other is a
secret yearning to be in a loving relationship despite his flaws and his inabilities to
maintain a relationship in a non-superficial way. Finally, his Superego is along the lines
of “Women, am I right?” and “I can’t remember a time in my life where a woman cared
for my attention when it wasn’t while I was pining for her.” Put another way, Steve’s
Superego is preoccupied with the dilemma of dealing with a man who has little to no
regard for a woman’s emotional wellbeing unless it leads to the two sleeping together
while also attempting to find ways of resolving/rationalizing the impact the neglectful
relationship that he and his mother had. This is Steve’s primary conflict: an inability to
move past a stunted idea of what a sexual relationship is like and yearning for a deeper
connection that other people seem to be capable of maintaining when Steve has a
yearning for such a relationship that he has never had experience with, even in the sense
of a paternal connection.
3. Steve’s fixation on sex is likely a sign that he is in the Sadistic-Anal phase, shown plainly
by the sheer number of women he has successfully slept with before the young age of
twenty-one. Another blatant sign of his fixation on this psychosexual stage is the method
by which he treats the emotions of the women he tries - and succeeds - to sleep with. The
case study provided remarks on the short period in which Steve’s “relationships”
typically last; each of them sharing a very similar time frame with only one outlier.
Another useful detail is Steve’s utilization of relationship-centered language to goad or
persuade his dates into sex. This stage heavily focuses on being aggressive with one’s
urges, and due to the tension created in his early childhood, Steve’s sexual development
has remained regressed to this point where his frustration has formed a sexual outlet that
is routinely satiated by constant sex, despite this feeling not lasting long enough for an
actual relationship to be established.
4. Does Steve display any defense mechanisms? If so, identify them and discuss the process
of those defenses from a Freudian perspective. Steve has 2 defense mechanisms: his nonconfrontational nature and his emotional neglect of relationships. Steve’s defense
mechanisms to his actions are not made explicit by the man himself but instead are
shown in the context clues within his dreams and the description at the beginning of the
case. Addressing the latter, it seems Steve’s friends are aware of his situation with
women as well as the strained relationship with his mother but are unaware of his reasons
for not wanting to engage in long-lasting relationships despite his seamless abilities to get
any woman he wants. That, right there, is a massive defense mechanism for Steve,
outlined within another paragraph further down the same page: his looks. According to
his friends, Steve is attractive and is not shy about sharing that he does his best to look
the best he can, though it isn’t shared with a confident tone. Steve is self-conscious about
his appearance so much so that he continues to attempt at making himself look more
attractive to others, specifically people of the opposite gender, his target for which he
might find release. Another defense mechanism is trickier to place, but it is present in the
middle of the dream outlined in the case file. The dream includes a portion in which
Steve is at a run-down restaurant and noticed by an attractive woman, as well as a
belligerent one who proceeds to insult him in front of close friends and his date. When
cornered, Steve remarks on how no one in the restaurant came to his defense amid this
unprompted aggression towards him without considering standing up for himself at first.
It is only when the insults continue that Steve resorts to calling the police which said
police appear and take the woman into custody. This interaction is telling of Steve’s
tendencies when aggression is pointed toward him: rather than fight, he attempts to flee
from the situation. It is only when he is given no option other than to defend himself that
Steve takes action and attempts to diffuse the situation with the same level of
aggressiveness by threatening to call the police on the woman. From a Freudian
perspective, Steve has issues with confrontation, which he tries to avoid by letting others
diffuse the situation so he to not approach it directly. When dealing with it directly he
matches the aggression that is being pointed toward him. In addition to this, his
relationship pattern is a deep-laid defense mechanism for the neglect he was given by his
mother. In a way, the way Steve acts in his relationships mirrors - though not a 1-to-1
comparison of the degree - the neglect he was subjected to while being raised by his
mother. Freud would likely claim that Steve’s pursuit of women and sexual gratification
is an attempt to temporarily sate his aggressive tendencies without risking a meaningful
relationship that he does not incline to trust or invest in emotionally.
5. Steve’s goals are beyond his understanding in the realm of conscious thought. It is only
in his unconscious that his mind makes connections between current events and the
emotions/people Steve has not attempted to resolve. There are 3 outstanding observations
of Steve’s dream that I believe are his subconscious crying out to be tended to and given
closure: the chase after women, the belligerent and hostile relationship between Steve’s
mother and himself, and the metaphorical dam break that is needed to relieve the years of
suppressed emotions that are bottled up inside him. The first is obvious in our description
of Steve’s character so far and is reinforced in his dream, seeing as at the restaurant he
immediately takes notice of another woman while being on a date with one at the
restaurant. Second, the belligerent woman is an obvious personification of his outlook on
his relationship with his mother. The fact that she only would go away if the police
officers took her away is not a literal solution, but a metaphorical one; someone of
authority needs to get a handle on the situation for or with Steve and his mom, or else the
aggression will only be reflected by Steve as he is cornered without means of an escape.
Lastly, the symbology of the “dam being opened” releasing the floodgates of years of
pressure is a clear-cut example of the kind of emotional release that Steve’s subconscious
is yearning for, one that - like in the dream - can only be done once the situation with his
mother is taken care of. Perhaps an emotional upheaval can be the catalyst to usher in a
realization of sorrow between the two, in which healing is far more likely to take place
than in a simple family counseling environment.