Personality Theories – Psychoanalysis

Formulated by Sigmund Freud, this theory had such originality, depth, and complexity that its impact on western culture was deeply felt for seventy years. Freud’s conclusion about personality is being id, ego and superego. The id seeks only finding pleasure and to avoid pain. Since id operates in an undisciplined and immature way and cannot make rational decisions, the ego develops to guide these impulses and functions in accordance with the reality principle. A very important function of the ego is the satisfaction of the needs of the id but in a proper time, mode and place sequence. Besides governing the id and its impulses, ego must also control and direct the impulses of superego which consists of the conscience and the ego ideal. Freud believed that the energy for all motivation and the energy for the working together of the three components of personality-id, ego and superego, derives from instinctual energy of the id. The id energy is divided into other life instincts or death instincts. In Freud’s view personality develops and grows as a result of a variety of processes, stresses and experiences, such as maturation, deprivation, conflict and anxiety.