Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality 

                                                  Dr Giby Geevarghese ,

                                            Mar Theophilus Trainig College Nalanchira

                                                

Sigmund Freud – The father of Psychoanalytic Theory

Main Points

•Biographical Sketch

•Components of Personality

•Defense mechanisms

•Psychosexual stages

•Criticisms and take home message

1. Biography

Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)

•Jewish background, though avowed atheist

•Lived in Vienna until Nazi occupation in 1938

•Had medical background- wanted to do “neurophysiological research”

•Private practice with specialty in neurology

•Private practice in nervous and brain disorders

Freud (cont.) 

•Early 1900s published many works--

–Interpretation of Dreams (1900)

–The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901)

–1905 concept of sexual drive being most powerful personality component

•1906 Psychoanalytic Society formed

• Many works burned in Nazi occupation (starting 1933)

•Left Austria, fled to England 1938

•Died of jaw cancer 1939

2 . Levels of Awareness

•Conscious

•Preconscious

•Unconscious

Conscious

•Current contents of your mind that you actively think of

•What we call working memory 

•Easily accessed all the time

Preconscious

•Contents of the mind you are not currently aware of

•Thoughts, memories, knowledge, wishes, feelings

•Available for easy access when needed

Unconscious

•Contents kept out of conscious awareness

•Not accessible at all

•Processes that actively keep these thoughts from awareness 

3 . Freudian Components of Personality

•The Id

•The Ego

•The Superego

Id

•Resides completely at the unconscious level

•Acts under the pleasure principle

–immediate gratification, not willing to compromise

–Generates all of the personality’s energy

Superego

•The moralist and idealistic part of the personality

•Resides in preconscious

•Operates on “ideal principle” 

–Begins forming at 4-5 yrs of age

–initially formed form environment and others (society, family etc)

–Internalized conventions and morals

•Essentially your “conscience”

Ego

•Resides in all levels of awareness

•Operates under “reality principle”

•Attempts negotiation between Id and Superego to satisfy both realistically

Conflicts of Personality Components

•Conflicts between the Id, Superego and Ego arise in unconscious mind

•Can’t be reached bc in unconscious

•Come out in various ways

•Slips of tongue (“Freudian slip”)

•Dreams

•Jokes

•Anxiety

Life and Death Instinct  Life Instincts (Eros)• Instincts that deal with basic survival, pleasure, an d reproductionDeath Intincts(Thanatos)• unconscious desire to die

4 .Defense Mechanisms….

•Denial

•Refusal to accept external realities  because  too threatening to enter awareness

•Repression

•Internal impulses and memories too threatening so bared from entering awareness

•Projection

•Attribute unacceptable thoughts or impulses onto others (project these inappropriate thoughts etc onto others)

Displacement

•Shifting attention from one target that is no longer available to a more acceptable or “safer” substitute

Sublimation

•Healthiest defense mechanism

• Compromise

•Takes socially unacceptable impulses and turns them into something positive & acceptable

Reaction Formation

•Converting unacceptable and dangerous impulses into something positive to reduce anxiety

Rationalization

•Explaining an unacceptable behavior in a way that overlooks present shortcomings or failures 

Regression

•Reverting to behavior that is characteristic to an earlier stage of development when confronted with stress or anxiety

5 .Psychosexual Development

•Oral Stage (0-18 months)

–Pleasure centering around the mouth (sucking, biting etc)

–Focus: weaning- becoming less dependent

–Not resolved? aggression or dependency later in life-- fixation with oral activities (smoking, drinking, nail biting etc.

•Anal (18-35 months)

–Fixation on bowel and bladder elimination

–Focus: search for control 

•Not resolved? anal retentive (rigid and obsessive personality) or anal expulsive (messy and disorganized personality)

•Phallic (3-6 years)

–Focus: genital area and difference btwn males and females

–Electra Complex or Oedipus Complex

Complexes in the Phallic Stage

•Oedipus Complex (boys)

•Unconscious sexual desires towards mother, father is competition 

•Simultaneously fears the dad- “castration anxiety”

•Electra Complex (girls)

•Unconscious sexual desires towards father and mother is completion 

•Penis envy

•Resolution?

•Kid identifies with same sex parent

•Latency (6 yrs to puberty)

–Sexual interest is repressed

–Kids play with same sex others-- until puberty

•Genital (puberty and beyond)

•Sexual urges awaken

•If developed “properly” develop these urges towards opposite sex members with fixation on the genitals

Freud: criticisms and critiques

•He studied very few people so not representative sample

•Process of psychoanalysis interviewing- exhibit preconceived notions and biases

•His measures/methods were untreatable

•Definitions don’t lend themselves to experimentation

•One’s personality is fixed and unchanging

•Obsessed with sex and aggression