The topic of personality has always been of significant interest to the field of psychology, with many psychologists making discoveries that have further our modern understanding of the human mind and its impact on personality and behavior. Of all the psychologists that have contributed to this field, none have made contributions has extensive and significant as Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th, 1856 as 1 of 8 children from a Jewish family. At the age of 4, Freud’s father moved his family to Vienna, Austria, where he spend the majority of his life. However, in during the last few years of his life, he moved to London to avoid Nazi persecution.

Freud’s contributions to the field of psychology from 1856 to 1939 led him to be considered as the father of psychoanalysis. One of his major findings was the “Talking Cure,” which is a therapy that investigates the workings and interactions between the conscious and unconscious mind. This “cure” was first determined when Freud learned about Bertha Pappenheim (referred to as Anna O.) from the physician Josef Breuer. Bertha, a patient of Breuer, was diagnosed with hysteria, however, when Breuer hypnotized Bertha, he realized that Bertha would reveal information unconsciously that she wouldn’t remember or reveal when conscious. This sort of unconscious revelation of information over a period of time led to her hysteria symptoms decreasing in severity. However, Freud further expanded off of this discovery by utilizing the talking cure when working with patients, where he determined that there was no need for hypnosis. He realized that patients would freely reveal their thoughts when they felt physically and mentally realized, such as when lying down on a couch, as well as encouraged to safely share their thoughts by the psychologist, who is tasked with creating a safe space. This strategy became known as free association. Both the “Talking Cure” and free association are the processes of revealing and unearthing what people have hidden and repressed in order to achieve greater mental health and happiness.

Freud also became one of the first psychologists to study human motivation. he argued that mental illness is a product of NURTURE and not nature. His foundational argument was that motivation drives behavior, so the needs that humans have at a particular moment, such as the need for food, shelter, and clothing, drive human decision and action. Freud also determined that being deprived of a need arouses the feelings of drive and desire. While animals respond instinctively, humans learn various ways to respond. This is specifically accomplished through utilizing motivation as a tool because human motivation explains the reasons why people behave the way that they do according to Freud. Furthermore, people are thought to always have their drives or desires in the back of their minds. On the more extreme end of the spectrum, this includes the will to live or the will die, but more commonly, these drives can include the desire to impress another person or to work towards a goal, such as medical school. These desires, however, can cause people people to behave irrationally at times. The irrational behavior due to hidden desires and repressed thoughts is what Freud considered to be the cause of mental illness.

Freud more specifically argued that people are born with a certain number of instincts or drives, a product of the fact that the human mind has 3 aspects which influence behavior, which are known as Ego, Superego, and Id. Of the three basic personalities structures, only the id is totally unconscious, which means that we are completely unaware of it while the ego and the superego both contribute to our conscious mind. Let’s now explore the 3 aspects of the human mind in greater depth. The id is the most infantile and demanding part of the self that is known for being insatiable. The id is rule by the “Pleasure Principle,” which is the aim to find things that create pleasure and avoid pain. As mentioned above, the id consists of the unconscious part of our minds as well as controlling the primitive parts of our personality, which include aggression and sexual drives. What’s interesting is that young children’s minds are mostly governed by id, which is why they seek things that make them happy and cry when confronted with things that create both physical and emotional pain. The second component of the human mind is the Ego, which is the part of our mind that battles against the Id and Superego with reason, logic, and rationale. The ego is ruled by the “Reality Principle,” which is the fact that you cannot always get what you want. The ego component of our minds is the balancer, so it decision are made based on what is believed to be appropriate thing to do when the Id and Superego both want something unrealistic on opposite sides of the spectrum. This is why the ego is known as our “consciousness,” helping real in behaviors that the id wants to engage in that wouldn’t be correct or appropriate. The ego also plays the role in helping the id maintain control until its urges and desire can be satisfied. The last component of our minds is the superego, which is the abusive part of our minds. The superego is the part of our mind that unreasonably abuses you for not fulfilling all of our responsibilities and not living up to your potential. The superego contains rules concerning what constitutes good or appropriate behavior as well as standards concerning what constitutes bad, immoral, or embarrassing behavior. The superego is a partially unconscious part of the mind that tries to act as our conscience by telling us to “do this because it is right,” but just like the id, the superego needs to be regulated because we need freedom. While the Id is the part of the mind that tells us to engage in raw and uncontrolled behaviors, the superego is the complete opposite end of the spectrum, as it is too righteous. So, the id can be thought of as the uncontrolled child while the superego can be thought of as a the righteous grandmother. The ego can be thought of as the mediator, so like the parent in the child and grandmother’s squabbles.

Freud also developed the conflict model, the idea that the self is NOT unified. The idea of self is not a coherent, singular entity, which means that we are not entirely rational or completely in control. Rather, the idea of self is composed of competing elements within ourselves. This is highlighted by the battle between the id, ego, and superego. Freud believed that there is no way to resolve the competing elements and that the only way to stay healthy is to not let any one of them “get the upper hand” or control over the other components, which would lead to sickness (neurosis or psychosis).

Freud also developed hypotheses for how one component dominating an individual’s mind leads to different personality developments. If, as an adult, your id is too dominant, you are characterized as self-absorbed, and someone who doesn’t care about others and is only out for yourself. If, as an adult, your ego is too dominant, you are characterized by someone who is robotic in nature, so you distance yourself from others and are rational, efficient, unemotional, and cold. Finally, if as an adult, your superego is too dominant, you are characterized as someone who is guilt-ridden or sanctimonious.

Ultimately, Freud’s theory requires there to be a balance between all three components of the mind for an individual to be capable of surviving without having too much freedom and control to the point where you are only worried about yourself versus having too much guilt about your actions and decisions to the point where you can not have a happy life. In our next Biopsychology blog, we will discuss the classical conditioning and the human learning experience!