Freud's Theory Of Personality Theory

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In Freud’s practice he also developed some notions he used to describe the drives of personality. There are three elementary mechanism of personality, according to Freud. One part of the personality reflects what is biological. The second concept represents what is true psychologically of the person. Last but not least, the third reflects the contribution society has had to the personality (Allen, 2006). That includes the id, ego and superego. The id functions by the pleasure principal, which is reducing any type of pain or discomfort by reaching pleasurable feelings. The need for these desires to be met has no limitation, meaning whether said pleasurable act is right or wrong for the person the desire is still to be met – this is called …show more content…

The anal stage which pleasure is brought through defecating due to the stimulation that is brought during this process. The phallic stage which is well known in the Freudian theory where the child, male and female, develop feelings and desire for the parent of the opposite sex and develop a hate or fear toward the parent of the same gender for this reason. The latency period is when the child begins to withdraw feelings for the opposite sex parent that occurred in the phallic stage. And last but not least, the genital stage when sexual feelings are now matured, puberty begins and the sexual urges and desires are no longer aimed at the parents of the opposite sex rather towards another person (Allen, 2006). He also came to the conclusion that dreams were crucial to the new way of therapy because they could potentially have hidden desires that the patient would not initially speak freely about. The interpretation of dreams then found itself as prominent to the theory of psychoanalysis and therapeutic process. According to Freud, dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious”. It is the interpretation of the dreams that is important, not so much the dream itself. The study of dream interpretation stands to be the first attempt in giving significance to dreams. …show more content…

Many have developments within the Freudian framework. This included Anna Freud, E.H. Erikson, Melanie Klein, Karen Horney and many others. Anna Freud emphasized the field of the ego and the self defense mechanisms. “She also indicates resistance to treatment as a form of defense against instinct. She theorized that the effects associated with the instinctual impulses also are defended against in the ego, for example by the means of mastering them by putting them through a metamorphosis, which may manifest itself as emotional suppression or denial, among other things (A. Freud, 1966) (Plaut, Northwestern University).” Erik Erikson’s contribution to the theory of development is great. The stages Freud talks about in the developmental theory are drawn-out by Erikson in a far more difficult manner. He also linked a related progressive matter and a virtue with each stage. This especially is crucial because the failure to find a solution to those issues gives account to many problems. (Plaut, Northwestern University). Melanie Klein emphasized the pre-Oedipal stages that are found during the phallic stage, when a boy begins to desire his mother and in turn fears or hates his father. She also surfaced many of the issued that transpire during the developmental stages and concluded that many of these issues are what gave way to later psychic developments. Carl Jung’s

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