Psychoanalytic Approaches to Personality

The area of psychology with perhaps the most controversial history, due to it’s complete

lacking of empirical evidence, psychoanalysis, has it’s origins in the teachings of Sigmund

Freud. Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy developed by Freud in the early 1900’s,

involving intense examinations into one’s childhood, thought to be the origins of most

psychopathology which surfaced during adulthood. Ideas about the subconscious, which

saw the human mind as being in continuous internal conflict with itself, and theories that all

actions are symbolic, for “there are no accidents”, were also major themes of the

psychoanalytic approach. Successful therapy was a long-term and costly process, which

most people during that time, with the exception of the wealthy, could not afford.

Sigmund Freud’s main contribution to this new field of studying personality was in the

area of the understanding the unconscious, an aspect of the mind to which, he claimed, we

did not have ready access to, but was the source of our actions and behavior. Freud believed

the human mind was divided into three parts: the id, ego, and super-ego. The id is man’s

(generic meaning, referring to both sexes) instinctual, primitive, and hedonistic urges for

pure pleasure, which the id was bent on experiencing, without regard to any consequences.

The super-ego is man’s senses of morality, first brought on by experiences with authoritative

figures and parents, which basically hold ideas of what is right and wrong, and is almost a

direct paradox to the id. The ego, which can be seen as the mediator between the id and the

super-ego, takes into account the activities of the external world, and attempts to invoke

some balance among all three parts of the mind, with failure resulting in neurosis of some

kind.

Freud’s “Lecture III” provides, what I believe to be another important theory in

understanding personality from this perspective, stemming from his notion of parapraxes, or

unintentional acts that are actually unconsciously intentional. Such is the case with the

familiar “Freudian slip”, where something is said which is actually a distortion or paradox of

what is actually meant. This goes along with what are called symbolic acts, which are

actions we take that, although we insist they have no meaning, or were accidental in nature,

are actually intentional. For example, the act of forgetting is, according to Freud, a kind of

intentional defense mechanism, that we unconsciously use to repress memories, or put things

out of our minds.

Although much of Freud’s work has been highly criticized by many of his detractors,

there are certain aspects of his theories which I find quite important to the study of