Pychoanalytic Approach To Personality

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Dr. Sigmund Freud came up with a lot of controversial notions, but also set standards in psychology that are still used today. Looking at what is known as the psychoanalytic approach to personality will reveal how these theories are still relevant, and continue to define personality traits (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Exploring Freud’s theories of the conscious/unconscious by looking at one’s own id, ego, and superego will help explain the human personality and why one does the things they do. Freud’s ideas were mainly based on how the mind works with a special emphasis on how it is all set up in childhood (Psychoanalytic theory, n.d.). This brings to mind that adults are just children with a lot of practice being adults. Everything one does …show more content…

Why is it that things take people by surprise and why would they care? Is it not already programed what one is to do, or are there extenuating circumstances that make people question their own judgement. This seems like an easy answer for the conscious, but how can people be tripped up by their subconscious? It could be said that one wants to marry someone like their mother, but that would only be in the subconscious or they would be considered weird, or a freak (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Looking at this example shows the origin of this battle of the conscious and unconscious. So the theory kind of proves itself by explaining itself with the properties that make it …show more content…

One can use the Myers-Briggs personality ratings of extraversion, sensing, thinking, and/or perceiving and their opposing or complimentary counterparts for ideas (Personality types and, 2016). Using the first set of personality type explanations would be looking at extraversion and introversion, or the socialness or reclusiveness that one might employ. If one believes that they have penis envy, and they were or were not proud of it, this would help them to decide how social or reclusive to be in that circumstance (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Taking the next steps with the same example, one might prefer to indulge their sensing/intuition, their thinking/feeling, or their perception/judgement to help them get a handle on their presence, what it is exhibiting, and how they feel about

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