Personality psychology is expanding widely in modern day science, it is continuously making progress in both conceptual and methodological fronts. Sigmund Freud was the first to develop modern personality theory with his psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalysis is the psychiatric practice of this theory. Freud’s theory of personality is based on three assumptions where personality is governed by unconscious forces that we are unable to control, childhood experiences that play an important role in shaping adult personality and that personality is shaped by the manner in which children cope with sexual urges. He stated that the human mind is like an iceberg in the ocean, floating 10% above the water and 90% below. This shows that the unconscious as Freud proposed makes up the vast majority of our mind.
Freud theorized that personality comes in three structures, the id, ego and superego, he coined these terms and proposed this division of the mind as abstract ideas to help us understand the ways and works of personality. All three are arranged into different layers of awareness including conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The id is totally unconscious, thus making us unaware of its workings. This part of the mind includes our basic instincts, inborn dispositions and animalistic urges. It takes on the primitive and instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle is aimed to satisfy our biological urges and drives. The id is irrational, imagines and dreams of unrealistic situations by inventing things in the mind in order to get what we want. Biological urges and drives include feelings of hunger, thirst, sex and other natural body desires directed to derive pleasure. The ego lies in both level conscious and preconscious of the mind, this personality structure starts to blossom in childhood and can be interpreted as the “self”. It is in contact with the outside world and has the ability to retrieve memories when needed. The decision-making part of personality is given to ego where it operates by a reality principle. This can be interpreted as it tries to help the id’s need for instant gratification whilst deciding the contrast between real and imaginary. As an example, if a person faces hunger, the id will start to imagine and dream about food. However, the ego will determine ways to get real food in reality so it can be said that the ego does assist to satisfy needs through reality. The superego covers all three different layers of awareness in the brain. It is responsible for the moral element of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong morally. A person will get a feeling of pride when he or she does something appropriate but if he or she does something inappropriate, the superego flushes the person with feelings of guilt. The superego works like a moral meter for children, it creates feelings or pride or guilt given to the views and principles which have been implemented within the child’s social surroundings. Freud also believed that a child develops through a series of stages associated with their physical development while an adult’s personality is affected by how they are able to resolve problems critically at each stage. Each stage is given a name according to the erogenous zone that the body experiences pleasure from its environment. In each stage, children must cope with distinct immature sexual urges that influence adult personality. Fixation results if the child fails to move forward from one stage to another and is usually caused by excessive gratification or frustration of needs at a specific stage.
At the beginning of oral stage, children are reliant on their mothers and seek pleasure from sucking and swallowing. This stage lasts up to 18 months from the birth of a child. Tactual stimulation can be gained by sucking and swallowing. These needs are met with by sucking the breast of the mother as the erotic drive is localized in the mouth. The mother becomes the first love object for the child as feeding at the mother’s breast is an essential activity for the child. Freud hypothesized that children who are fixated in early oral stage seeks pleasure in adulthood from activities like excessive eating, smoking, drinking and kissing. He stated that people like so are oral-incorporative or oral-ingestive. For late oral stage, fixation takes place with children seeking pleasure by biting and chewing that makes the teeth erupt the mouth. This results in chewing objects and nail-biting in adulthood. These adults are also sarcastic and critical, Freud called those that fixated at this stage as oral-aggressive or oral-sadistic.
In the second stage, known as the anal stage, there is pleasure sensation of excretion and gratification is met through expulsion and retention of faeces caused by erotic stimulation of the anal mucosa. Children experience anal stage from 18 months up to 3 years. This stage is divided into two other sub stages which are the anal expulsive period and the anal retention period. The anal expulsive phase overlaps with the closing stages of oral period. The mode of seeking pleasure is through expulsion of faeces that removes discomfort gives relief to the child. A child’s first experience with the external regulation of an instinctual impulse can be derived from toilet training. He or she has to grasp to postpone the pleasure coming from defecation. Surroundings and environments of the children are explored by them in this stage, however, they are controlled and disciplined by their parents. Traits of being unorganized and generous can be categorized as anal expulsive are due children who are fixated in this stage. For anal retentive characters, children will grow to adults with personality traits of being mean and systematic.
Phallic stage is the third stage that starts when a child is 3 years old and proceeds until he or she is 5 year of age. At this stage, the foundation of sex can be found and the child finds it pleasurable when he or she touches their genitals. The act of playing their genitals is observed to relieve tension as well as delivering instant gratification for the child. This stage varied for different genders or children. Freud believed that boys grow to be more attached to their mothers and are aware that they are in competition with their father and sibling to fight for the mother’s affection. Boys in this stage resent their father’s presence and develop castration anxiety and fear of punishment from their father. Castration anxiety is a male’s fear of losing his genitals which Sigmund Freud link to Oedipus complex, used to describe boy’s tendency to be attracted to their mothers and to resent their fathers. For girls, they tend to decline their mother and have feeling of resentment for not being born with a penis. In spite of that, their attraction towards their father increases due to their own lack of penis. Freud once again proposed that female children in the phallic stage have penis envy and this can only be resolve when the child turns into a woman and gives birth to a male child. Difficulties in relationships and sexual activities are the problems faced by adults whom are fixated in this stage.