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Sigmund Freud's Psychodynamic Theories

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Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychodynamic theorist. Freud studied the unconscious mind and believed that how humans behave, their emotions and feelings all originate from the unconscious mind. He believed that the personality consisted of three parts: the id, ego and superego.
• The id is the impulsive part of the personality which makes “I want” demands (Thompson & Meggit, 2004)
• As we grow the ego develops which operates according to the reality principle, trying to balance the demands of the unconscious with what is possible (Thompson & Meggit, 2004)
• The superego emerges between the ages of 4 to 6. It relies on the morality principle acting as a censor and conscience by telling what is right and wrong. (Thompson & Meggit, 2004)

Freud proposed a “stage theory”. He believed that an individual must pass through one stage to reach the next stage of development and thought that each stage could have a negative outcome and an individual could become stuck or fixated in a stage (O 'Brien, 2013).
Freud’s five stages of psychosexual development are:
• Oral (0-2 years)
• Anal (2-3 years)
• Phallic (3-6 years)
• Latent (6-11 years)
• Genital (11+ years)

He also studied a number of defence mechanisms.

“Defence mechanisms are mental processes which are automatically triggered when anxiety occurs” …show more content…

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