Sigmund Freud
![Picture](/uploads/2/6/0/3/26030171/5717291.jpg?406)
Sigmund Freud, who came up with the psychoanalytic theory, believed that one's personality is determined in early childhood. He placed a great emphasis on the unconscious mind since he thought that the unconscious force controls most of our minds, which are like ice-burgs. His psychosexual stages include oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, and adult genital stage (in order).
Human personality forms as a result of a conflict between are pleasure seeking urges (id) and our moral standards (superego). He would have said that I have a strong ego because I balance my desires (id) and moral standards (superego) well. I usually follow the reality principle, which is ego. But in some instances, I do seek gratification by resting and playing. In these cases, my id was probably stronger than my ego. However, after gratifying myself, I would feel guilty because of superego. Moreover, I probably have similar moral standards as my parents because through identification in the phallic stage, I would have accepted their values and standards. For example, my parents have always stressed the importance of being modest and generous to people and their values of modesty and generosity have become important standards for me as well.
I am in the adult genital stage right now, meaning that I was not fixated at any of the previous stages. Since I was not fixated before, I do not have consequent, related tendencies such as being anal retentive or expulsive.
It is hard to exactly interpret my personality through Freud's theory because he focused more on the unconscious mind. Freud would use free association and dream analysis (manifest & latent contents) to find out what is going on in my unconscious mind. He might also claim that some characteristics of my personality are caused by defense mechanisms. I might have repressed a childhood trauma (although I do not think so) and used intellectualization to address my unconscious desire by learning academically about the topic that I was unconsciously interested in.
Human personality forms as a result of a conflict between are pleasure seeking urges (id) and our moral standards (superego). He would have said that I have a strong ego because I balance my desires (id) and moral standards (superego) well. I usually follow the reality principle, which is ego. But in some instances, I do seek gratification by resting and playing. In these cases, my id was probably stronger than my ego. However, after gratifying myself, I would feel guilty because of superego. Moreover, I probably have similar moral standards as my parents because through identification in the phallic stage, I would have accepted their values and standards. For example, my parents have always stressed the importance of being modest and generous to people and their values of modesty and generosity have become important standards for me as well.
I am in the adult genital stage right now, meaning that I was not fixated at any of the previous stages. Since I was not fixated before, I do not have consequent, related tendencies such as being anal retentive or expulsive.
It is hard to exactly interpret my personality through Freud's theory because he focused more on the unconscious mind. Freud would use free association and dream analysis (manifest & latent contents) to find out what is going on in my unconscious mind. He might also claim that some characteristics of my personality are caused by defense mechanisms. I might have repressed a childhood trauma (although I do not think so) and used intellectualization to address my unconscious desire by learning academically about the topic that I was unconsciously interested in.