 Explain the Freudian approach to Personality.

 Explain the factors influencing the development of personality as pointed out by Sigmund Freud.
(drives, unconscious, ego,first 5 years of life)

Freud is the father of modern personality theory, he explained his understanding of personality in his
Psychoanalytical Theory. Freud’s understanding of personality was based on his experiences with patients, his
analysis of his own dreams, and his vast reading in the various sciences and humanities. Freud saw human
personality in a deterministic, pessimistic way, he focused more on causality( behavior is a function of past
experience), unconscious motives and biological influences. Let’s discuss in detail each of his views on
personality:

Pessimistic view: According to Freud, we come into the world in a basic state of conflicts of instincts.
Instincts are the basic elements of the personality, the motivating forces that drive behaviour and determine
its direction. Freud used the German word ‘Trieb’ which is best translated as a driving force or impulse.
Instincts are a form of energy- that connects the body’s needs with the mind’s wishes. According to Freud, the
various drives can all be grouped under two major headings: Sex or Eros(life instincts) and Aggression or
Thanatos (death instincts). The psychic energy manifested by the life instincts is the libido.
Freud regarded sex as our primary motivation and aim of the sexual drive is pleasure, but this pleasure is not
limited to genital satisfaction. Freud believed that the entire body is invested with libido. Besides the genital,
the mouth and anus are especially capable of producing sexual pleasure and are called erogenous zones. His
personality theory revolves around the necessity of inhibiting or suppressing our sexual longings. Sex can take
many forms, including narcissism, love, sadism and masochism.
The aim of the destructive instinct, according to Freud, is to return the organism to an inorganic state. Because
the ultimate inorganic condition is death, the final aim of aggressive drive is self-destruction. As with the
sexual drive, aggression is flexible and can take a number of forms, such as teasing, gossip, sarcasm,
humiliation, humor and the enjoyment of other people’s suffering.

While explaining the structure of personality, Freud introduced the concepts such as:
 Id: At the core of personality and completely unconscious is the psychical region called the id. It is the
reservoir for the instincts and libido. Id is a powerful structure of the personality because it supplies all the
energy for the other two components. Id works on pleasure principle, though its concern with tension
reduction, the id functions to increase pleasure and avoid pain. Id strive for immediate gratification hence,
it is called as primary-processing thought. The id is selfish, pleasure-seeking structure, primitive, amoral,
insistent and rash.
 Ego: Ego is the region in the mind that is in contact with reality. It grows out of the id during infancy. It is
governed by the reality principle, which it tries to substitute for the pleasure principle of the id. It is called
as secondary-processing thought because once the ego is well developed the child is taught to deal
intelligently and rationally with the outside world and to develop the powers of perception, judgement,
recognition and memory. The ego does not prevent id satisfaction. Rather, it tries to postpone, delay, or
redirect it in order to meet the demands of reality. Hence it is called the decision-making or the executive
branch of personality.
 Superego: This represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and
idealistic principles as oppose to the pleasure principle of the id and realistic principle of the ego.
Superego grows out of ego, and like ego, it has no energy of its own. Superego is unrealistic in its demands
for perfection, hence it differs from ego. The superego has two subsystems, the conscious (born out of
punishment) and the ego-ideal (born out of experiences).
According to Freud when there is anxiety there is a conflict among these components of personality
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structures. This he called as Neurotic anxiety(conflict b/w ID and Ego), Moral anxiety ( conflict b/w Superego
and ego) and reality anxiety ( based on reality). Freud saw human personality is a conflict of all these aspects
hence he ahs pessimistic view towards human personality.

Focus on Unconscious Motives: Freud’s original conception divided personality into three levels:
 The Unconscious
 The Preconscious
 The Conscious
As mentioned earlier Freud laid much emphasis on Unconscious, according to him unconscious contains all
those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our
words, feelings, and action. We can experience unconscious contents through indirect means such as meaning
behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and certain kinds of forgetting called repression. Dreams serve as a
particularly rich source of unconscious material, hence he used Dream analysis for his therapy. Apart from
these means Unconscious materials often enters into consciousness but in a disguised form. Unconsciousness
materials go through censorship at 2 levels that is primary censor (between Unconscious and preconscious)
and secondary sensor (between the preconscious and the conscious) because unconscious materials are most
often contains strong sexual or aggressive motifs, because childhood sexual and aggressive behaviors are
frequently punished or suppressed. Punishment and suppression often creates feelings of anxiety, and the
anxiety in turn stimulates repression , that is, the forcing of unwanted, anxiety-ridden experiences into the
unconscious as a defense against the pain of that anxiety. Freud believed that a portion of our unconscious
originates from the experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us through hundreds of
generations of repetition. He called these inherited unconscious images our “Phylogenetic Endowment”. But
he did not rely more on this to explain his theory.
Conscious
The Preconscious level of the mind contains all those elements that are
not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or with some
difficulty. The contents of the preconscious come from two sources i.e Final censor
conscious perception and unconscious.
Preconscious
The conscious is the limited part of the personality because only a small
portion of our thoughts, sensation, and memories exists in conscious
Primary censor
awareness at any time. These contains element from outer world perceived
through sense organs and nonthreatening elements from unconscious via
preconscious. Unconscious
To explain this level of personality Freud used ice berg as an example.
Levels of Personality

Deterministic view: Freud gave the concept of psycho-sexual stages, where he gave 5 stages namely oral,
anal, phallic, latency and genital stages. Among these 5 stages Freud emphasized more on oral, anal and
phallic stages because he believed that human personality is crystallized by the fifth year of life. At each of
these stages child has a threat of fixation and this fixations plays a role in adult personality and
psychopathology. Let’s discuss each of these stages in detail:

The Oral Stage (Birth-1year): It is the first stage of psycho-sexual development, lasts from birth until some

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time during the second year of life. The erogenous zone at this level is mouth because the infant derives
pleasure from sucking, biting, and swallowing. Though mouth serves the need of basic survival like nutrition,
Freud laid greater emphasis on erotic satisfactions derived from oral activities. At this stage infant learns from
the mother to perceive the world as good or bad, satisfying or frustrating, safe or perilous.
The two types of possible personality that will be developed due to fixation at this stage are of two types. They
are:
1. Oral incorporative behavior(taking in)
2. Oral aggressive or oral sadistic behavior (biting or spitting out)

1. Oral incorporative behavior(taking in): Adults fixated at the oral incorporative stage are excessively
concerned with oral activities, such as eating, drinking, smoking, and kissing. If, as infants, they were
excessively gratified, their adult oral personality will be predisposed to unusual optimism and dependency.
Because they were overindulged in infancy, they continue to depend on other to gratify their needs. As a
consequence, they are overly gullible, swallow or believe anything they are told, and trust other people
inordinately. Such people are labeled oral passive personality types.

2. Oral aggressive or oral sadistic behavior (biting or spitting out): This occurs during the painful, frustrating
eruption of teeth. As a result of this experience, infants come to view the mother with hatred as well as love.
After all, she has been responsible for everything in the infant’s environment, so she must also be responsible
for the pain. Persons who become fixated at this level are prone to excessive pessimism, hostility, and
aggressiveness. They are likely to be argumentative and sarcastic, making so-called biting remarks and
displaying cruelty toward others. They tend to be envious of other people and try to exploit and manipulate
them in an effort to dominate.

The oral stage concludes at the time of weaning, although some libido remains if fixation has occurred. Then
the infant’s focus shifts to the other end.

The Anal stage (1-3 years): Freud believed that the experience of toilet training during the anal stage has a
significant effect on personality development. Anal is the erogenous zone in this stage. Defecation produces
erotic pleasure for the child, but with the onset of toilet training, the child must learn to postpone or delay this
pleasure. For the first time, gratification of an instinctual impulse is interfered with as parents attempt to
regulate the time and place for defecation.At this stage the child has a weapon that is, the child has control
over something and can choose to comply or not with the parents’ demands. If the toilet training is not going
well—for example, if the child has difficulty learning or the parents are excessively demanding—the child may
react in one of two ways.

1. Anal aggressive personality

2. Anal retentive personality

1. Anal aggressive personality: One way is to defecate when and where the parents disapprove, thus defying
their attempts at regulation. If the child finds this a satisfactory technique for reducing frustration and uses it
frequently, he or she may develop an anal aggressive personality. To Freud, this was the basis for many forms
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of hostile and sadistic behavior in adult life, including cruelty, destructiveness, and temper tantrums. Such a
person is likely to be disorderly and to view other people as objects to be possessed.

2. Anal retentive personality: A second way the child may react to the frustration of toilet training is to hold
back or retain the feces. This produces a feeling of erotic pleasure (derived from a full lower intestine) and can
be another successful technique for manipulating the parents. They may become concerned if the child goes
several days without a bowel movement. Thus, the child discovers a new method for securing parental
attention and affection. This behavior is the basis for the development of an anal retentive personality.
Stubborn and stingy, such a person hoards or retains things because feelings of security depend on what is
saved and possessed and on the order in which possessions and other aspects of life are maintained. The
person is likely to be rigid, compulsively neat, obstinate, and overly conscientious.

The Phallic Stage (4-5years): At approximately 4 or 5 years of age, children begin a third stage of infantile
development- the phallic phase, a time when the genital area becomes the leading erogenous zone. This stage
is marked for the first time by a dichotomy between male and female development, a distinction that Freud
believed to be due to the anatomical differences between the sexes.Boys develop Male Oedipus Complex and
girls will develop Female Oedipus Complex.

1. Male Oedipus Complex: This is the unconscious desire of a boy for his mother, accompanied by a desire to
replace or destroy his father. Accompanying the boy’s desire to replace his father is the fear that the father
will retaliate and harm him. He interprets his fear of his father in genital terms, becoming fearful that his
father will cut off the offending organ (the boy’s penis), which is the source of the boy’s pleasure and sexual
longings. And so castration anxiety, as Freud called it, comes to play a role. Indeed, further this feeling will be
reinforced by knowing that girls do not have penis. So strong is the boy’s fear of castration that he is forced to
repress his sexual desire for his mother. To Freud, this was a way of resolving the Oedipal conflict. The boy
replaces the sexual longing for the mother with a more acceptable affection and develops a strong
identification with the father. In so doing, the boy experiences a degree of vicarious sexual satisfaction. To
enhance the identification, he attempts to become more like his father by adopting his mannerisms,
behaviors, attitudes, and superego standards.

Phallic conflicts and their degree of resolution are of major importance in determining adult relations with and
attitudes toward the opposite sex. Poorly resolved conflicts can cause lingering forms of castration anxiety and
penis envy. The so-called phallic character or personality type evidences strong narcissism. Although

continually acting to attract the opposite sex, these persons have difficulty establishing mature heterosexual
relationships. They need continual recognition and appreciation of their attractive and unique qualities. As
long as they receive such support they function well, but when it is lacking they feel inadequate and inferior.

Freud described the male phallic personality as brash, vain, and self-assured. Men with this personality try to
assert or express their masculinity through activities such as repeated sexual conquests.

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2. Female Oedipus Complex: Freud was less clear about the female phallic conflict, which some of his followers
termed the Electra complex. Like the boy’s, the girl’s first object of love is the mother, because she is the
primary source of food, affection, and security in infancy. During the phallic stage, however, the father
becomes the girl’s new love object.The girl blames her mother for her supposedly inferior condition and
consequently comes to love her mother less. She may even hate the mother for what she imagines the mother
did to her. She comes to envy her father and transfers her love to him because he possesses the highly valued
sex organ. Thus, a girl develops penis envy, a counterpart to a boy’s castration anxiety. She believes she has
lost her penis; he fears he will lose his.

This female Oedipus complex, Freud suggested, can never be totally resolved, a situation he believed led to
poorly developed superegos in women. Freud wrote that an adult woman’s love for a man is always tinged
with penis envy, for which she can partially compensate by having a male child. The girl comes to identify with
the mother and repress her love for her father, but Freud was not specific about how this occurs.The female
phallic personality, motivated by penis envy, exaggerates her femininity and uses her talents and charms to
overwhelm and conquer men.

The tense drama of the phallic stage is repressed in all of us. Its effects motivate us as adults at the
unconscious level, and we recall little, if anything, of the conflict.

The Latency Period (5-Puberty): The storms and stresses of the oral, anal, and phallic stages of psychosexual
development are the amalgam out of which most of the adult personality is shaped. The three major
structures of the personality—the id, ego, and superego—have been formed by approximately the age of 5,
and the relationships among them are being solidified. The latency period is not a psychosexual stage of
development. The sex instinct is dormant, temporarily sublimated in school activities, hobbies, and sports and
in developing friendships with members of the same sex.

The Genital Stage (Adolescence- Adulthood): The sexual energy pressing for expression in the teenage years
can be at least partially satisfied through the pursuit of socially acceptable substitutes and, later, through a
committed adult relationship with a person of the opposite sex. The genital personality type is able to find
satisfaction in love and work, the latter being an acceptable outlet for sublimation of the id impulses.

Freud saw human personality is mostly shaped by pat causes rather than by people’s goals for the future. He
laid more emphasis on biology and neglected social influence and on the point of uniqueness versus
similarities he took a middle stand.

Critical Analysis of Paychoanalytic Theory:

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Pros:

 Brought in a 2nd major revolution in the field of psychology, by explaining that neuroses are
psychologically determined and curable through therapeutic conversations that is Free association or
Talking therapy.

 Importance laid on Unconsciousness

 Giving importance to child development and care during critical period of life.

 His ideas have been used in many other field than psychology that is in movies, arts etc.

 Concept of defence mechanism

Cons:

 Is not very scientific in nature. Freud relaid more on deductive reasoning than on rigorous research
methods, and he made observations subjectively and on a relatively small sample of patients, most of
whom were from the upper-middle and upper classes.He concepts such as libido etc can not be tested
literally.

 He did not understand women sufficiently and that his theory of personality was strongly oriented
towards men.

 Excessive emphasis on deterministic view that is within first 5 years of life personality will be crystallized.
Most of the time our personality tends to change based on our future goals and experiences of adult life.

 Emphasizes more on biology and neglected social influences.

 Pessimistic view of human personality that is we are all victims of instincts, drives and conflicts of id, ego
and superego and first 5 years of life. No free will.

Psychopathology of Freudian theory:

The aim of the sex drive is pleasure, but this pleasure is not limited to genital satisfaction, whichever activity
that provides pleasure like for example; reading, writing, exercise, singing, drawing, cooking etc it depends
entirely on each individuals. Freud believed that the entire body is invested with libido. Besides genitals, the
mouth and anus are especially capable of producing sexual pleasure and are called erogenous zones. The
ultimate aim of the sexual drive (reduction of sexual tension) cannot be changed, but the path by which the
aim is reached can be varied. It can take either active(directly involving in pleasurable activities like
masturbation) or passive (indirect involvement in pleasurable activities such as seeing sexual pictures etc)
form, or it can be temporarily(until one gets married) or permanently(celibacy or a state where one doesn’t
seek for pleasure in whatever he does) inhibited. Because the path is flexible and because sexual pleasure
stems from organs other than the genitals, much behaviour originally motivated by Eros is difficult to
recognize as sexual behaviour. To Freud, however, all pleasurable activity is traceable to the sexual drive.

The aim of the aggressive drive, according to Freud, is to return the organism to an inorganic state. Because
the ultimate inorganic condition is death, the final aim of the aggressive drive is self-destruction. As with the
sexual drive, aggression is flexible and can take a number of forms, such as teasing, gossip, sarcasm,
humiliation, humor, and the enjoyment of other people’s suffering.

Freud explains the structure of personality as Id, Ego and Superego. Id is at the core of the personality and it is
completely unconscious. Id works on pleasure principle and it is capable of primary process thinking. Id is the
one which gives rise to Ego which is partly conscious, preconscious and unconscious. It works on reality
principle and is capable of secondary process thinking. Ego further give rises to superego which works on
moralistic or idealistic principle. Ego is called as the executive branch of personality because Ego always tries
to strike a balance between id and superego’s demands and satisfy them in a way that is more appropriate to
reality. Whenever there is threat to ego it creates anxiety. When id rules over ego it will lead to nuerotic
anxiety.It has its roots in childhood and it is defined as the apprehension about an unknown danger. When
superego rules over ego it will lead to moral anxiety.It is basically the fear of one’s conscience. Some amount
of anxiety is necessary for the survival purpose, ego gets anxiety whenever there is tangible danger which may
harm the ego this is called reality anxiety.

In order to escape from this anxiety and to protect the ego, people use different types of defence
mechanisms. Freud postulated several defence mechanisms and noted that we rarely use just one;we typically
defend ourselves against anxiety by using several at the same time. Also, some overlap exists among the
mechanisms. Although defence mechanisms vary in their specifics, they share two characteristics: (1)they are
denials or distortions of reality- necessary ones, but distortions nonetheless, and, (2) They operate
unconsciously,if not it wouldn’t have been so effective. As a result, we may not know the truth about
ourselves and have distorted picture of our needs Freud also strongly propounded that most of our behaviors
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are motivated by unconscious. Unconscious contains sex drives, aggressive drives and repressed feelings.
These unconscious materials come to conscious in a disguise way. These disguise ways can be through slip of
the tongue, dream, certain kinds of forgetting and defence mechanisms. Although defence mechanisms are
normal and universally used, when carried to an extreme they lead to compulsive, repetitive and neurotic
behaviour. The principle defence mechanisms identified by Freud include:

1. Repression: Involves unconscious denial of the existence of something that causes anxiety. For
example:Elder sibling may repress his/her hatred towards younger sibling permanently because hateful
feeling create too much anxiety.

2. Reaction formation:Involves expressing an id impulse that is the opposite of the one truly driving the
person. For example: If a person hates his competitor, he may show too much attention and friendship
towards him in order disguise hatred or jealous feelings.

3. Displacement: Involves shifting id impulses from a threatening or unavailable object to a substitute object
that is available. For example: Father who had a bad day in office in turn may outburst his anger on his
wife and wife in turn displace it on her child.

4. Regression: Involves retreating to an earlier, less frustrating period of life and displaying the childish and
dependent behaviour characteristics of that more secure time. For example: Thinking of being still a
pampered child.

5. Projection: Involves attributing a disturbing impulse to someone else. For example: If person A has a
sexual feelings about person B, A may project it on everybody whoever interacts with person B. Projecting
his own feelings on to others. Extreme type of projection is paranoia.

6. Introjection:Involves incorporating positive qualities of another person into their own ego. For example:
an adolescent may introject or adopt the mannerisms, values,or lifestyle of a movie star.

7. Sublimation: Involves altering or displacing id impulses by diverting instinctual energy into socially
acceptable behaviors. For example: through art, music, literature etc.

8. Fixation: is the permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier, more primitive stage of development.
Like other defence mechanisms, fixations are universal. People who continually derive pleasure from
eating, smoking, or talking may have an oral fixation, whereas those whoa are obsessed with neatness
and orderliness may possess an anal fixation. Fixation is explained in detail in psychosexual stages.

All defence mechanisms protect the ego against anxiety. They are universal in that everyone engages in
defensive behaviour to some degree. Each defence mechanism combines with repression, and each can be
carried to the point of psychopathology. Normally, however, defense mechanisms are beneficial to the
individual and harmless to society. In addition, one defence mechanism- sublimation- usually benefits both the
individual and society.

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