Personality Theories
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of psychoanalysis, spent much of his life developing an intricate theory of how the psyche, or mind, operates. Central to Freud's theory, and perhaps his greatest contribution to psychology, is the notion that our psyche is composed of parts within our awareness and beyond our awareness. Specifically, the psyche consists of parts that are conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious Freud proposed that the conscious part of the psyche is that part which you are currently aware of or are actively thinking about. It consists of all the thoughts that presently occupy your mind. The preconscious part of the psyche consists of the thoughts, memories, and knowledge that you are not currently aware of, but that are available to you. It's your storehouse of memories and knowledge. Freud's most unique contribution towards understanding the psyche is the idea that part of our psyche is unconscious, or outside of our awareness. Freud proposed that the unconscious is a part of our psyche that we do not have access to. It holds thoughts, memories, impulses that we are not aware of and that we cannot be aware of because they may be potentially damaging to us (i.e., cause anxiety). Even though we are not aware of the contents of our unconscious, Freud proposed that the impulses and drives within it cause much of our behavior. Freud posited that in addition to conscious, preconscious, and unconscious components of our psyche, the psyche also is composed of three structures: the id, ego, and superego. Some of these structures operate unconsciously, and others are within our awareness. The Id Freud referred to the most primitive part of our psyche as the id. We are born with the id and it residues within the unconscious. The id is driven by primitive animal instincts including sexual and aggressive impulses. It functions according to the pleasure principle in that it seeks to maximize pleasure and...
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