Freud and Psychodynamic Theory

Freud and Psychodynamic Theory

Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in the Moravian town of Freiberg, then

a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today a part of Czechoslovakia.

He was born into a family full of enough complexity and confusion to

give him significant material for his ruminations on the individual

mind and its connections with others. His mother, Amalia, an

assertive, good-looking woman, was twenty years younger than her

husband Jacob. She was his third wife; he was forty at Freud's birth.

Freud's siblings were two half-brothers, grown-up, a constant reminder

of the oddity of his position. His own confusions, hatreds, love and

desires from this period appear to have had significant impact on his

later work on development.

Components Of Personality

Id

As the baby emerges from the womb into the reality of life, he wants

only to eat, drink, urinate, defecate, be warm, and gain sexual

pleasure. These urges are the demands of the id, the most primitive

motivational force. In pursuit of these ends, the id demands immediate

gratification: it is ruled by the pleasure principle, demanding

satisfaction now, regardless of circumstances and possible undesirable

effects. If a young child was ruled entirely by his id, he would steal

and eat a piece of chocolate from a store regardless of the menacing

owner watching above him or even his parents scolding beside him.

The id will not stand for a delay in gratification. For some urges,

such as urination, this is easily satisfied. However, if the urge is

not immediately discharaged, the id will form a memory of the end of

the motivation: the thirsty infant will form an image of the mother's

breast. This act of wish-fulfillment satisfies the id's desire for the

moment, though obviously it does not reduce the tension of the

unfulfilled urge.

Ego

The eventual understanding that immediate gratification is usually

impossible (and often unwise) comes with the formation of the ego,

which is ruled by the reality principle. The ego acts as a go-between