11.3 The Psychodynamic Approach: Forces That Lie beneath Awareness

Rather than trying to understand personality in terms of broad theories for describing individual differences, Freud looked for personality in the details: the meanings and insights revealed by careful analysis of the tiniest blemishes in a person’s thought and behavior. Working with patients who came to him with disorders that did not seem to have any physical basis, he began by interpreting the origins of their everyday mistakes and memory lapses, errors that have come to be called Freudian slips.

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The theories of Freud and his followers (discussed in the Treatment chapter) are referred to as the psychodynamic approach, an approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness—motives that can also produce emotional disorders. The real engines of personality, in this view, are forces of which we are largely unaware.

psychodynamic approach

An approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness—motives that can also produce emotional disorders.

The Structure of the Mind: Id, Superego, and Ego

Sigmund Freud was the first psychologist to be honored with his own bobble-head doll. Let’s hope he’s not the last.
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To explain the emotional difficulties that beset his patients, Freud proposed that the mind consists of three independent, interacting, and often conflicting systems: the id, the superego, and the ego.

The most basic system, the id, is the part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, the psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse. If governed by the id alone, you would never be able to tolerate the build-up of hunger while waiting to be served at a restaurant but would simply grab food from tables nearby.

id

The part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives.

Opposite the id is the superego, the mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority. The superego acts as a kind of conscience, punishing us when it finds we are doing or thinking something wrong (by producing guilt or other painful feelings) and rewarding us (with feelings of pride or self-congratulation) for living up to ideal standards.

superego

The mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority.

The final system of the mind, according to psychoanalytic theory, is the ego, the component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands. The ego is a regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world. It is the mediator between the id and the superego. The ego helps you resist the impulse to snatch others’ food and also chooses the restaurant and pays the check.

ego

The component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands.

Joseph Mirachi/The New Yorker Collection/cartoonbank.com

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According to Freud, how is personality shaped by the interaction of the id, superego, and ego?

Freud believed that the relative strength of the interactions among the three systems of mind (i.e., which system is usually dominant) determines an individual’s basic personality structure. He believed that the dynamics among the id, superego, and ego are largely governed by anxiety, an unpleasant feeling that arises when unwanted thoughts or feelings occur, such as when the id seeks a gratification that the ego thinks will lead to real-world dangers or that the superego sees as leading to punishment. When the ego receives an “alert signal” in the form of anxiety, it launches into a defensive position in an attempt to ward off the anxiety. According to Freud, it does so using one of several different defense mechanisms, unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses (see TABLE 11.2). Psychodynamically oriented psychologists believe that defense mechanisms help us overcome anxiety and engage effectively with the outside world and that our characteristic style of defense becomes our signature in dealing with the world—and an essential aspect of our personality.

defense mechanisms

Unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses.

Table : Table 11.2 Defense Mechanisms

Repression is the first defense the ego tries, but if it is inadequate, then other defense mechanisms may come into play.

Defense mechanism

Description

Example

Repression

Removing painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from the conscious mind: “motivated forgetting.”

Not lashing out physically in anger; putting a bad experience out of your mind.

Rationalization

Supplying a reasonable sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) one’s underlying motives or feelings.

Dropping calculus “allegedly” because of poor ventilation in the classroom.

Reaction formation

Unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite.

Being rude to someone you’re attracted to.

Projection

Attributing one’s own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group.

Judging others as being dishonest because you believe that you are dishonest.

Regression

Reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development, a time when things felt more secure, to deal with internal conflict and perceived threat.

Using baby talk, even though able to use appropriate speech, in response to distress.

Displacement

Shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative

Slamming a door; yelling at someone other than the person you’re mad at.

Identification

Dealing with feelings of threat and anxiety by unconsciously taking on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope.

A bullied child becoming a bully.

Sublimation

Channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities.

Diverting anger to the football or rugby field, or other contact sport.

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Psychosexual Stages and the Development of Personality

Freud also proposed that a person’s basic personality is formed before 6 years of age during a series of sensitive periods, or life stages, when experiences influence all that will follow. Freud called these periods psychosexual stages, distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures.

fixation

A phenomenon in which a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage.

psychosexual stages

Distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures.

Problems and conflicts encountered at any psychosexual stage, Freud believed, will influence personality in adulthood. Conflict resulting from a person’s being deprived or, paradoxically, overindulged at a given stage could result in fixation, a phenomenon in which a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage. Here’s how he explained each stage and the effects of fixation at each stage.

fixation

A phenomenon in which a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage.

One of the id’s desires is to make a fine mess (a desire that is often frustrated early in life, perhaps during the anal stage). Famous painter Jackson Pollock found a way to make extraordinarily fine messes—behavior that at some level all of us envy.
Martha Holmes//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Why do critics say Freud’s psychosexual stages are more interpretation than explanation?

What should we make of all this? On the one hand, the psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual stages offers an intriguing picture of early family relationships and the extent to which they allow the child to satisfy basic needs and wishes. On the other hand, critics argue that psychodynamic explanations lack any real evidence and tend to focus on provocative after-the-fact interpretation rather than testable prediction. The psychosexual stage theory offers a compelling set of story plots for interpreting lives once they have unfolded, but it has not generated clear-cut predictions supported by research.

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SUMMARY QUIZ [11.3]

Question 11.7

1. Which of Freud’s systems of the mind would impel you to, if hungry, start grabbing food off people’s plates upon entering a restaurant?
  1. the id
  2. the reality principle
  3. the ego
  4. the pleasure principle

a.

Question 11.8

2. After performing poorly on an exam, you drop a class, saying that you and the professor are just a poor match. According to Freud, what defense mechanism are you employing?
  1. regression
  2. rationalization
  3. projection
  4. reaction formation

b.

Question 11.9

3. According to Freud, a person who is preoccupied with control over possessions, money, and people, as well as concerns about cleanliness versus messiness, is fixated at which psychosexual stage?
  1. the oral stage
  2. the anal stage
  3. the latency stage
  4. the genital stage

b.