FREUD’S PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

 Personality according to Freudian theory is formed on the basis of conflict. Conflicts may be evoked between pleasure seeking and reality, love and hate, passivity and activity. Growth towards maturity is dependent on the individual’s success in resolving these conflicts. From Freud’s point of view, personality is determined by the first five or six years of life. Any behaviour displayed afterwards is a result of what kind of life one led when they were young.

Instincts

Instincts are the fundamental elements that constitute the personality, they are motivating forces that drive behaviour and determine its direction. Freud called this concept in German as Trieb, which is translated as a driving force or impulse. Instincts are a form of energy i.e. transformed physiological energy that connects the body’s needs with the mind’s wishes. The stimuli (hunger or thirst, for example) for instincts are internal.

Freud divided mental activity into three levels: conscious, preconscious and the unconscious and these will be discussed below.

 MIND STRUCTURE

According to early researchers, human beings were viewed as rational beings that were controlled by the processes they were aware of. It was argued that the human mind was divided into conscious, preconscious and unconscious. Freud believed that the majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level. He believed that most of what drives people is buried in their unconscious. This theory has been likened to an iceberg where the vast majority is buried beneath the water surface as illustrated below. The water would represent everything that we are not aware of, have not yet experienced and have not been integrated into our personalities. 

 

THE CONSCIOUS

This refers to all sensations and experiences of which a person is aware of at any given time which includes memories and intentional actions that each person identifies with. For instance, as you read these words, you will be conscious of the page and whatever is happening around you like people’s movements, noise from distance and so on. Freud believed that the majority of what we experience, like emotions, beliefs and impulses are not available to us at conscious level. 

The conscious makes up a very small part of who we are. In other words, at any given time, we are only aware of a very small part of what makes up our personality, most of what we are is buried and inaccessible. Therefore, he considered the conscious as a limited aspect of personality because only a small portion of the thoughts, sensations and memories exists in the conscious awareness at any given time. In his iceberg example, the conscious would be merely the tip of the iceberg.

THE PRECONSCIOUS OR SUBCONSCIOUS

The preconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but can easily be brought to consciousness. This is believed not to be in awareness at a particular time but it can be brought to reality at any given time if prompted. It includes information that is not at the moment being thought of but it can be easily remembered. For instance one mother’s middle name, name of your best friend, telephone number and some childhood memories. You are not thinking about these things at the moment but they can easily be remembered when required.

THE UNCONSCIOUS

While we are fully aware of what is in the conscious mind, we have no idea of what information is stored in the unconscious. The term refers to mental processes which a person is not aware of. Such kind of material remains in the unconscious because making it conscious would produce too much anxiety. For example, forgotten traumatic memories like, one being raped and some denied wishes like wishing someone to die. 

The unconscious is a larger invisible portion below the surface and its vast dark depths is believed to be a home of instincts which are a major driving power behind all behaviours. The unconscious contains all sorts of significant and disturbing material which we keep out of awareness because they are too threatening to acknowledge fully.

Furthermore, Freud’s view was that human beings were influenced by the forces they were not consciously aware of. Through his theory Freud argues that an individual’s personality is a collection of childhood experiences which can continue having an effect as person grows. For this reason, he divides the human personality into three main components being the Id, ego and superego all developing at different stages of one’s life. The three combine to make the complex behaviour of a human being.