Psychoanalytic Approaches To Personality Essay Research Paper

Psychoanalytic Approaches To Personality Essay, Research Paper

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

personality. I am sure than it is not only me who finds this to be the case, as many of

Freud s ideas, such as the Freudian slip, are common knowledge 70 years later. As the

founder of modern psychoanalytic theory, I cannot help but see Freud s work as critical in

understanding personality. Freud s ideas of the unconscious, though disputed time and

again, have played a key role in understanding personality, and are the cornerstone for all

psychoanalytic theory. Works by those who chose to break away from Freud s strict,

almost non-conditional ideas, such as Jung, Adler and Horney contain subtle references to

Freud s theories, as well as neo-Freudians like Erikson.

Perhaps the most famous of Freud s students-turned-detractor, is Carl Jung, who found

Freud s over-emphasis of sex and relegation of the ideas of a collective unconscious to a

level of small importance, to be erroneous in thought. Jung claimed there were two innate

psychological types, or categories, which people can be placed in: introverts and extroverts.

Extroverts, according to Jung, behave in a manner which they feel would produce approval

from the social crowd, and are more likely to experience positive emotion that introverts.

Unlike extroverts, whose actions are highly motivated by external factors, introverts tend to

act on their own beliefs and internal motives. Both introversion and extroversion are

extremes on a scale, according to Jung, where normal people would fall in the middle,

being equally influenced by both internal and external motives.

Jung also went on to describe four separate conscious orientations which sub-type

introversion and extroversion, categorized as: sensation types, thinking types, feeling types,

and intuitive types. Sensation types focus on experiencing the world via the senses, while

thinking types are more rational and use a cognitive approach to things. While feeling types

tend to focus on emotion, the intuitive type concerns himself (generic) about possibilities in

life, stemming from the unconscious. And, it is perfectly possible, and indeed, necessary,

according to Jung, for on

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