Sigmund Freud's Theory Of The Unconscious Mind

Sigmund Freud (1859-1939) was a neurologist who dedicated his career to finding ways of unravelling the hidden structure and processes of the personality. He believed that we held thoughts, beliefs, instincts and particular drives which we were not always aware of, this he referred to as the unconscious mind. He later developed a structural model of what he believed to be the psyche and used the iceberg analogy to paint this theory. This consisted of three levels of consciousness: conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The conscious was the ‘tip of the iceberg’, this was much smaller and the only visible part of the mind, this is information we are aware of at any one time and can be accessed then and there. The preconscious holds memories

In this development he believed that the id is the pleasure principle and makes the unconscious mind, it is purely driven by pleasure and demands gratification. This is the only system that is present at birth until babies, then later begin to develop the ego and superego. For this reason, behaviour is impulsive and instinctual and failure to go through with these urges can lead to a build-up of tension and anxiety which is only released when satisfied despite any social or external barriers. Because of this, the id alone holds no moral principles or justification of what is right and wrong and will often seek socially unjust urges until the ego develops (at two years of age). The ego is governed by the reality principle and forms part of the conscious and preconscious mind, in so, it is the sole executor of decision making and operates to rationally satisfy the id 's needs according to social norms and etiquette. Most often the ego must compromise and defer gratification if it is not within social expectations, which arises in it feeling considerable anxiety and

The superego is developed when a child is at around four years of age and pursues to control the id’s impulses and incorporates social values and norms instilled in society, it is ruled by the moral principle. It along with the ego makes part of the conscious and preconscious mind. The superego, however, attempts to convince the ego to retain moral goals rather than realistic ones and strives for perfectionism and consequently disdains the ego if it falls short of what it expects to be ideal when giving into the id. This causes moral conflict between the ego and superego and like the neurotic conflict between the ego and id, the use of unconscious defence mechanisms are then employed by the ego to fend off stresses and unpleasant feelings. For example, this can display itself within projection -the displacement of one’s unacceptable feelings onto someone else-, repression -compelling distressing memories or feeling out of the conscious mind and into the unconscious mind- and denial -in which one refuses to accept a