Welcome back guys. This is the 4th part to the personality perspectives series and today we’re talking about the psychoanalytic perspective.
Ask ten people on the street to name a famous psychologist, and chances are, most will say Sigmund Freud. He is often credited as the father of modern psychology, yet many of his ideas remain deeply controversial. From theories about the unconscious mind to the infamous Oedipus complex (that’s for another day), Freud’s work has been both revolutionary and widely criticized. Despite this, his influence is undeniable—not necessarily because his theories were all correct, but because he shaped how we think about the mind. In many ways, we didn’t just inherit Freud’s ideas—we made him famous. I don’t know if it was his controversial theories or his untestable hypotheses, but we continue to talk about him, and every psychology book has mentions of him, and his legacy continues. Today, we’re talking about his perspective of personality: the psychoanalytic perspective.
Freud believed that much of our personality is shaped by unconscious drives, early childhood experiences, and inner conflicts between different parts of our psyche. According to Freud, personality is structured into three parts: the Id – the primitive, pleasure-seeking part of our mind, the Ego – the rational part that balances desires and reality, and the Superego – the moral compass that guides our sense of right and wrong. Basically, the ego negotiates between the id and the superego to get maximum pleasure without causing discomfort from the superego. Freud also introduced the idea of defense mechanisms, like repression (pushing painful memories away) and projection (blaming others for our faults) that aid in calming the id and superego down when things don’t go their way.
I have one more note to make: this is merely a scratch of Freud’s ideologies. We could go on forever, but it gets really dark, mature, and twisted really fast, and I don’t want to go into the details right now. If you’re still interested, research the Oedipus Complex. If you still want to learn more, by all means, go ahead.
See you tomorrow.
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