Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Abstract

Sigmund Freud is the founder of Psychoanalytic Theory that described the psychic structure of a person comprising of three aspects: 1) Id, which consisted of two basic instincts, the life instinct and the death instinct, and Id was expressed based on pleasure principle and repressed in the subconscious when there was no opportunity for it to be expressed; 2) Ego, which controlled the behavior from Id based on the social rules and the reality principle to help in making decisions; and 3) Superego, which expressed itself based on conscientiousness, ideal, and moral principle. The strength of all three aspects of the psychic structure of each person was different; each person dealt with the differences; so each person ended up with different personality. Freud explained that the strength of the three personality structures being different was due to the development of personality in the first three stages included the oral stage, the anal stage and the phallic stage, which occurred in the first five years of life.