Chapter 12: Personality
Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Introduction
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Biography
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1856 – 1939
Raised in Vienna,
Austria
Wanted to be famous
 became medical
doctor
Family
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Step-mother was close
in age
Freud was oldest
Father was distant
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Introduction
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Professional influences
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Jean-Martin Charcot
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French physician
Used hypnosis to treat mental d/o’s
Josef Breuer
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Pub. paper  “Studies in Hysteria” in which he proposed idea
that past traumas and psychol. scars are causes of hysteria
(common mental d/o at time)
Hypnosis as treatment of hysteria (cond. where ind exp’s
physical symptoms w/o apparent cause)
Pt would re-enact event so emotional energy could be discharged
(catharsis)
Case of Anna O.
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Introduction
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Historical influences
and events
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Culture of Vienna
World War I
Jewish doctor working
in Austria during rise of
Hitler
1938  flees Nazis and
moves to England
1939  dies of throat
cancer due to smoking
cigars
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Introduction
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Freud’s influence
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Three significant intellectual revolutions in
history of thought
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Copernicus and Heliocentric Theory
Darwin and Evolutionary Theory
Freud and Psychoanalytic Theory
Where do you see influence?
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First game in town  most therapists/theorists agree
or push off of his theory to disagree
Art and literature
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Introduction
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Things to keep in mind when studying his theory
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Bias of presenters
Language concerns
Influence of historical and personal influences
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Historical
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Vienna and sexuality
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WW I
Personal
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Family
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Career as doctor
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Therapist  goes from abnormal to normal beh
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
New Topic  Levels of awareness
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Conscious = our current thoughts—
what we are thinking about at
present time
Preconscious = memories that are
not in conscious mind, but could be
easily recalled
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Levels of awareness (cont’d)
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Unconscious = thoughts, desires, impulses, and
memories not in conscious mind and not easily
recalled
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Saw material as inadmissible to conscious mind
Repressed  driven from conscious awareness
Too anxiety-producing/too threatening
Affects behavior
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Disguised as symptoms
Freudian slips (aka – parapraxes) –
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Today video clip
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Video clip
Dreams
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
NEW TOPIC  Structures of Personality
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Id
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Definition
 Inherited source of psychic energy (libido)
 Our primitive innate urges
 “Cauldron full of seething excitations
which knows no values, no good or evil, no
morality.”
 Original structure of personality  ego and
superego developed from the id
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Id (cont’d)
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For Freud, psychological reality includes the individual
(organism) with needs of hunger, thirst, avoidance of
pain, sex, etc.
Nervous system is part of organism  One of the
functions of the nervous system is to be sensitive to
organism’s needs
Id works to translate organism’s needs into motivational
forces known as instincts (which drive us to meet needs)
Instincts: inborn psychological representations of our
bodily needs (how we “know” our needs?)—they direct
and drive our beh toward their satisfaction
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Id (cont’d)
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Instincts
 Life Instincts (Eros)
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Pleasure and preservation of species
Rooted in biological process of anabolism
(constructive metabolism or building up)
Motivates us to perpetuate self by seeking
food, water, etc.
Also motivates us to perpetuate species
through reproduction
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Id (cont’d)
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Instincts (cont’d)
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Death instincts (Thanatos)
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Aggression and self-destructive tendencies
“The goal of all life is death.”
Rooted in biological process of catabolism
(destructive metabolism or breaking down)
Influence of Fechner’s constancy principle 
desire of all organic states is desire to return to
stability of inorganic state (no change, therefore
balance)
Influence of WW I  concept begins to appear in
his writing in 1920’s (Beyond the Pleasure
Principle)
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Id (cont’d)
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Pleasure Principle
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Id intolerant of frustration
When needs not met, tension and frustration build.
Satisfaction of need releases tension which in turn
causes pleasurable experience
Summary: Need not met => tension => lack of
balance => attempt to satisfy need => need met =>
tension reduced => pleasure
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Id (cont’d)
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Problem  Id resides completely in unconscious
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Id unable to contact conscious world to satisfy own
needs
Only able to conjure up images
Primary Process Thinking: ability to form mental
image of what would satisfy need and reduce tension
 Wish fulfillment: when use of primary process
thinking actually satisfies need and reduces
tension
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Ego
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Arises out of necessity  Id unable to contact reality
 Therefore cannot reduce tension
 Ego develops out of id to satisfy needs of id
Ego = structure that attempts to satisfy demands of id
while taking into account what reality and superego will
allow
 Part of personality that is connected to conscious
world
 Carries out intentions of unconscious id
Resides in conscious, preconscious, and unconscious
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Ego (cont’d)
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Reality Principle: prevention of reduction of
tension (satisfying need) until appropriate and
acceptable object can be found
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Takes reality and superego into consideration
Directs behavior to maximize pleasure and to
minimize pain
What is the best thing to do? What’s available?
Secondary Process Thinking: realistic, logical,
and problem-solving
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Superego
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Internalized societal values which come from parents
Our inner voice/conscience
Develops from resolution of Oedipus Complex/Electra
Complex (explained later)
Two subsystems
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Ego-ideal = what is proper, good  internalization of rewards
Conscience = what is improper, bad  internalization of
punishments and warnings
Social needs that are in conflict with id’s needs
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
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Superego (cont’d)
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Resides mostly in preconscious and
unconscious
Tries to inhibit ego from giving in to
amoral id
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Substitutes moral goals
Strives for perfection
Moral Principle: substitution of moral
goals as motivation of behavior—what is
right thing to do?
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Structures of Personality (cont’d)
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
NEW TOPIC  Dynamics of Personality
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Homeostasis and hedonism
 Homeostasis = balance
 Hedonism = striving for pleasure
 For Freud, all beh = build up and release of
tension and how we go about doing this
 Needs met => balance achieved
 Need not met => no balance & tension
 Release of tension => pleasurable
 Thus, we seek pleasure
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Conflict
 Normal development = clash of instinctual
impulses of id which seeks immediate
gratification and restraining forces of
superego and real world
 Ego is battleground
 Personality result of how ego negotiates
demands of id, sanctions of superego, and
constraints of reality
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Libido
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Psychic energy
Freud believed we were closed energy system
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Had finite amount of energy available for tasks
Influence of knowledge in Physics at time (Helmholtz’s principle
of conservation of energy)
When energy used for one purpose, it is unavailable for
other purposes
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Causes problems
If one need not met, energy is directed from other needs until
first need is satisfied
Creates imbalance (which id does not like)
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Anxiety
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Anxiety (Freud’s definition): tension ego feels
that results from anticipation of danger
Types/sources
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Realistic anxiety: anticipated threat from real world
Moral anxiety: anticipated threat from superego (fear
of punishment)
Neurotic anxiety: anticipated threat from id (fear ego
will lose control to id)—what most interested Freud
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Defense mechanisms: ego’s unconscious
ways of dealing with anxiety. They protect
ego by altering threat in some way.
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Repression: forcing unacceptable material out of
conscious awareness
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All of memory or part of it (e.g., emotional
component—as if telling someone else’s story)
Unconscious process
Suppression = conscious attempt at forgetting (putting
memory in preconscious)
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Defense mechanisms (cont’d)
 Displacement: transfer of psychic energy from
original object to safer object
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Original object too dangerous or unavailable
“Kick-the-dog”
Identification: incorporating features of another
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“If-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them”
During Phallic Stage of development, use of
identification results in birth of superego in ind
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Defense mechanisms (cont’d)
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Sublimation: instinctual sexual impulses diverted
to more socially acceptable and more creative
channels
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Art work, poetry, music, etc.
Da Vinci’s Madonna
Artistic displacement
Projection: externalizes (removes from self)
unacceptable impulses by seeing them in another
person
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Dynamics of Personality (cont’d)
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Defense mechanisms (cont’d)
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Rationalization: using unreasonable reasons to
explain behavior
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Intellectualizing reasons for doing something
unacceptable
Basically, BS’ing your way
Reaction formation: replacing impulse with
opposite (usually in extreme)
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Kill-them-with-kindness
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Examples of Defense Mechanisms
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Repression
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Projection
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Displacement
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Rationalization
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Identification
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Reaction Formation
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Sublimation
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
NEW TOPIC  Stages of Psychosexual Development
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Oral Stage
 Birth to 1
 Erogenous zone = mouth
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What is happening at this time?
 Feeding
 Development of teeth
Erogenous zone: area of body that is particularly
sensitive to irritation (tension) which when removed
produces pleasure
 Becomes focus of that stage
 Think homeostasis
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Oral Stage (cont’d)
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Fixation: getting stuck in stage—results in
overemphasis of those issues later in life—
usually from frustration or overindulgence
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Oral Receptive personality:
 Fixation during sucking phase (Life instincts?)
 Char’s  overly trusting, passive, interested in
acquiring knowledge, etc.
Oral Sadistic personality
 Fixation during biting phase (Death instincts?)
 Char’s  sarcastic, aggressive, exploitative
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Anal Stage
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Ages 1 – 3
Erogenous zone = anus
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Toilet-training
First experience with external regulation to internal
impulses
Fixation
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Anal retentive personality: stingy, obstinate, tight,
rigid, highly organized
Anal expulsive personality: cruel, hostile,
destructive, defiant, little self-control
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Phallic Stage
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Ages 3 – 5
Erogenous zone = penis
Parents of opposite sex seen as source of pleasure
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Fancy term = object cathexis  object that will
satisfy impulses (libido) – object becomes focus of
energy
Complex
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Oedipus Complex – boys
Electra Complex – girls
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Phallic Stage (cont’d)
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Oedipus Complex
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Boys
Develops object cathexis for mother and jealousy for father
Castration anxiety: fear of castration from father for Oedipal
urges
Resolution
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Castration anxiety => must use defense mechanism
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Uses identification as defense mechanism
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Identifies with person who is threat => become like them
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Birth of superego in boys
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Seen in boys developing similar interests/hero worship of
father
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Phallic Stage (cont’d)
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Electra Complex
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Girls
Develops object cathexis for father and anger at
mother for not equipping her properly
Penis envy: anxiety daughter feels—she feels she has
been castrated
Resolution
 Uses defense mech of identification to deal with
penis envy (anxiety)
 Becomes like mother – safety in numbers
 Results in birth of superego in girls
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Phallic Stage (cont’d)
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Both Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex are
extremely anxiety-producing
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Must deal with anxiety
Completely repress memory of these experiences
Freud says this is why we do not recall much before
age 4 – 5
Video clip (Bill and Ted) Start at 4:20
Fixation
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Phallic character: reckless, self-assured, narcissistic,
vain, proud, manipulative
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Latency Stage
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Ages 5 – 12
Prior development (esp Phallic Stage) is very
active, very threatening
Sexual impulses repressed
No erogenous zone
Sexual inhibitions develop
Same-sex play most common
Chapter 12: Personality—Freud
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont’d)
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Genital Stage
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Ages 12 +
Erogenous zone = genitals (more general)
Object of satisfaction prior to this stage has been
more self-oriented (narcissistic)
Now, others become important
Focus on reproduction, socialization, group
activities
Freud videos (3 parts)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q9IRY_V
XPs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2eyP6iY
5Do&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex1A2qF
mFWg&feature=related