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Contributions and shortcomings of psychoanalytic theory by sigmund freud
Strength and weakness of freuds theory
Contributions and shortcomings of psychoanalytic theory by sigmund freud
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Over the years, people have wondered what goes on in a person's mind that guides them to meet their needs. Sigmund Freud developed a system of personality that boldly attempts to explain the course of personality and what was it origins. Freud theory assumes that one's personality is shaped and some powerful inner forces motivate one's behavior. According to Freud, personality differences commence from the different ways in which people deal with their underlying drives. By picturing a continuing battle between antagonistic parts of personality, Freud was able to develop three systems that make up the total personality. The three systems of personality are the id, ego, and the superego. If the three systems work together in harmony and unite together to form one complete organization, it enables one to create a positive transaction with the environment. If the systems are fighting with each other, one is said to be dissatisfied with himself or the world. By examining the ego, the id, and the superego, one should see how these three systems of personality play an important role in the development of one's personality. In doing so one should understand what conscious and unconscious, and the functions of the id, ego, and superego. Freud did not invent the idea of the conscious versus the unconscious. However, he was responsible for making it popular. What you are of aware of at any particular moment is called being conscious. By being conscious you are aware of certain things such as your present perceptions, memories, thoughts, and fantasies. All of our knowledge is bound up with consciousness. Consciousness is the surface of the mental The Ego and the Id 3 apparatus. All perceptions, whether it is received from both within and without, are conscious. Freud (1960) said \"that very powerful mental processes of ideas exist which can produce all the effects of the mental life that ordinary ideas do, though they themselves do not become conscious\" (p. 4). This is an indication that there are other parts of the mind in which thoughts occur. According to Freud (1960), \"the state in which the ideas existed before being made conscious is called by us repression\" (p. 4). It is by the theory of repression that the concept of the unconscious is obtained. The unconscious is the largest part of the mind. All the things that are not easily available t... ... middle of paper ... ...e or feelings of guilt or inferiority the superego will take on the role of the parents. It is the super ego that inner restraints on upon lawlessness and disorderly, thus enabling a person to become a law abiding member of society. The ego struggle to keep the id happy. The ego meets with obstacles in the world. It occasionally with objects that actually assists it in attaining it goals. The ego keeps a record of the obstacles and aides. It also keeps a record of punishments and rewards administered out by the two must influential objects in the world of a child, its mom and dad. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take becomes the superego. As stated earlier the primary function of the id is to satisfy its immediate instincts, drive and urges it superego that links the mind to society and reality. As Freud (1960) states \"superego is however, not simply a residue of the earliest choices of the id; it also represents an energetic reaction formation against those choices\" (p.24). The id, ego, and superego play a vital role in a person's development of their personality. If thy work together in harmony a person will grow up to be a be a healthy mentally person.
(Thombs &Osborn, 122). Each of these plays a different role, but they interact with each other. The id is the original foundation of one’s personality and deals with the instinctual drive. The instinctual drive is the inner source. The id is created at birth and it is also the basic life form which the ego and superego then starts to differ from one another. Since the id has instinctual drives, the individual’s body then starts to crave things. This is where addiction comes to play. The ego comes from the id to satisfy the individual’s needs and the superego is like the conscience. It separates wrong from right. Patients tend to think that these addictions helps them cope with their problems.
The superego endeavours to be the mediator between the selfish, immoral values of the id, and the conscious views of the ego. According to Freud, the superego contains two aspects- “One is the conscience, which is an internalization of punishments and warnings. The other is called the ego ideal. It derives from rewards and positive models presented to the child.” (Boere) Similarly to Freud, Jung separated the human psyche into three parts. However, in Jung’s understanding, the unconscious mind was separated into the ego, the collective unconscious and the personal unconscious. According to Jung and agreeing with Freud, the ego “identifies with the conscious mind” (Boere) while the personal unconscious comprises of recollections that are “easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason.” (Boere) Jung concludes his theory of the unconscious mind with the collective unconscious which he describes as “the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with” (Boere) For example, love at first
"Id, Ego, Superego, and the Unconscious in Psychology 101 at AllPsychOnline." Psychology Classroom at AllPsych Online. 21 Mar. 2004. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .
In all the psychology of the personality is difficult to understand, because trying to read what someone is thinking about you and your personality is a tough process. This was roughly and explanation into the view of Freud’s view of the id, ego, and superego and some of the psychoanalysis stages that come in the crazy world and studies of Sigmund Freud. Even though his views are not popular today some people still research them and think to themselves he might not be as weird as people told me he was.
The unconscious mind can be explained in various ways and can take on various attributes. Carl Jung the author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious,” defines unconsciousness as the first reactions and interactions a person endeavors. Several Physicists believe that the unconscious mind acts separately from our voluntary thinking. Scientist believes that understanding the unconscious mind is key to determining what type of archetype a person may have or develop. Experiments such as, reaction to stimuli, have lead cognitive psychiatrist to determine the strength of the unaware and involuntary mind. In addition, many social physicists have also believed that the unconscious mind is unaware of it actions and that the unconscious part of our brain can sometimes be focused on several signs that our conscious self can’t see.
Freud’s understanding of the unconscious is organized into three echelons: the conscious mind, the preconscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind involves everything we are cognizant of. The preconscious mind signifies regular recollections. The unconscious mind contains emotions, reflections, memoirs and compulsions that are unknown to our conscious perception. Along with the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious, there are the three additional elements to Freud’s structure of personality: the id, ego and superego. Unlike Freud, Jung had a more optimistic theory of the unconscious.
According to cognitive psychologists, the unconscious mind does not appear to have any hidden agenda, drive, or any pre-existing intelligence or motivation, unlike the psychoanalytic model. Freuds’ psychoanalytic theory, is described as motivationally hot and passionate, both complex and dynamic; an unconscious mind as a primary process that uses sophisticated defences, capable of handling complex bodies of knowledge, serving to best protect the secondary conscious mind (Klinger, 1992). This theory is commonly critiqued for assuming the unconsciousness as a fundamental concept “whilst not having addressed the nature of the assumption itself” (Shevrin, 1980, p314)
The concept of superego plays an active role in our daily lives. Freud’s interpretation of superego is most simply understood in the natural observation when observing the participants in the school setting, where a boy around 5-6 years of age playing around with bunch of kids saw the $20 bill lying on the playground with no one around it. He took the money and turned it into the school office in case anyone came looking for it. He wouldn’t want to lose $20, and hoped that whoever had lost it would ask about it in the office which leads me to believe that the child may have an overly strong superego because of the fact that “Once the superego emerges, children have a parental voice in their head that keeps them from violating society’s rules and make them guilty or ashamed if they do” (Sigelman & Rider, 2012, p. 49). According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the superego is the factor of personality composed of our internalized ideals that w...
“There are so many different walks of life, so many different personalities in the world.” Hope Solo describes that there are many different ways to walk the paths of life, and that these paths are filled with people of dissimilar personalities. Similarly to Hope Solo’s idea of incompatible personalities, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, developed the concepts of the id, ego and superego. As Freud described them, these concepts are the three parts of the human psyche. The id part of the brain operates on the “pleasure principle”, the superego is the moral component of the human psyche, and the ego is the balance between both the id and the superego. Freud, along with many other Americans, began to realize that people, especially characters
The basis of this approach is that psychological factors play a major role in determining behaviour and shaping personality. Freud argued that personality is composed of three major systems the id, the ego, and the superego. The id (biological part of personality) is present at birth and consists of inherited instincts and all psychological energies. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, seeking to reduce tension, avoid pain and obtain pleasure. The ego (executive part of personality) is conscious part of the mind, the “real” us.
McLeod (2008) states that the superego attempts to manage the urges of the id and convince the ego to think and act towards moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection. There are two aspects of the superego: the ideal ego and the conscience. The ego ideal is the general idea one has of how to behave to be classified as an upstanding member of society; it includes norms, rules and standards for good behavior. The methods he used to obtain his information and data raised questions from other scientists.
‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ by Sigmund Freud can be concluded that the unconscious mind can be expressed through dreams. As it is believed by his that it represents the fulfilment of wishes. Just as Freud’s ‘iceberg’ model of personality states the conscious is where we have contact with the outside world, the preconscious is material just beneath the surface of awareness and lastly the unconscious where this is difficult to retrieve the material as it is below the surface of awareness. The unconscious holds an individual’s experiences everyday as it is also known as the biological aspect of the mind. As Freud believed some thoughts and wishes are hidden in the unconscious and not made conscious.
In terms of the unconscious and conscious, Freud situates these conceptions in a topographic model of the mind. He divided it into two systems called the unconscious and the preconscious. Their knowledge in the unconscious system is repressed and unavailable to consciousness without overcoming resistances (e.g., defense mechanisms). Thereby, the repression does not allow unconscious knowledge to be completely aware; rather, it is construed by means of concealing and compromise, but only interpretable through its derivatives dream and parapraxes that overcome resistance by means of disguise and compromise. Within the preconscious system, the contents could be accessible, although only a small portion at any given moment. Unconscious thought is characterized by primary process thinking that lacks negation or logical connections and favors the over-inclusions and 'just-as' relationships evident in condensed dream images and displacements. Freud asserted that primary process of thinking was phylogenetically, and continues to be ontogenetically, prior to secondary process or logical thought, acquired later in childhood and familiar to us in our waking life (1900, 1915a).
All these factors are involved in the shaping of the mind. The ID, ego, and superego are always in a never-ending conflict in the unconscious mind. The resultant effect is the difference in behavior and reaction, this forming and showing the differences in personality. The Id is an essential element in our lives because as newborn children, it allows them to get their basic needs. The id wants what feels good at a particular instance with no regard to the reality of a situation. The Id is a pleasure principle seeking gratification with its instincts being aggression, food, and sexual
The first feature, the id, feature of personality is the most common and everlasting element that exists since birth. It is completely unconsciousness and consists of natural and original behavior. As it is the main element of personality, id is considered the main source of psychic energy. According to Freud id is compelled by pleasure principle, which attempts for immediate satisfaction of desires and needs. It will result in a state of anxiety or strain if the needs are not satisfied immediately. Secondly, the ego is a component of personality in charge of dealing with reality. As stated by Freud, the ego progresses from Id and confirms the desires of the id, articulated in an acceptable manner in real life. The main function of ego is to handle conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind. It helps to satisfy needs of id in a socially suitable way. Besides, it supports to release tension with assistance of a process where an object found in reality is created by id’s p...