Personality structure according to 3. Freud

Introduction

Psychological knowledge is as ancient as man himself.
He could not exist without being guided by the motives of behavior and character traits of his neighbors. Recently, there has been growing interest in issues of human behavior and the search for the meaning of human existence. Managers are learning how to work with subordinates, parents are taking classes on raising children, spouses are learning how to communicate with each other and “quarrel competently,” teachers are learning how to help their students and students of other educational institutions cope with emotional anxiety and feelings of confusion.

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Section I. General physiology. Physiological basis of behavior. Introduction

... its role in the formation of psychosomatic diseases of the body. Physiology of purposeful activity (behavior). 48. The role of social and biological motivations in the formation of purposeful activity..., the relative antagonism of their influence. Higher nervous activity 35. Innate form of behavior (unconditioned reflexes and instincts), their significance for adaptive activity. 36...

Along with an interest in material well-being and business, many people seek to help themselves and understand what it means to be human. They strive to understand their behavior, develop faith in themselves and their strengths. Realize the unconscious sides of the personality, focus, first of all, on what is happening to them at the present time.

When psychologists turn to the study of personality, perhaps the first thing they encounter is the variety of properties and their manifestations in its behavior. Interests and motives, inclinations and abilities, character and temperament, ideals, value orientations, volitional, emotional and intellectual characteristics, the relationship between the conscious and unconscious (subconscious) and much more - this is a far from complete list of characteristics that we have to deal with if we try draw a psychological portrait of a person.

Possessing a variety of properties, the personality at the same time represents a single whole. This entails two interrelated tasks: firstly, to understand the entire set of personality properties as a system, highlighting in it what is commonly called a system-forming factor (or property), and, secondly, to reveal the objective foundations of this system.

The psychoanalytic theory of personality developed by S. Freud, which is very popular in Western countries, can be classified as psychodynamic, non-experimental, covering the entire life of a person and using the internal psychological properties of the individual, primarily his needs and motives, to describe him as a personality. He believed that only a small part of what actually happens in a person’s soul and characterizes him as a person is actually realized by him. No other movement has become as famous outside of psychology as Freudianism. This is explained by the influence of his ideas in Western countries on art, literature, medicine, anthropology and other areas of science related to man.

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The personality of Sigmund Freud

concentrated its attention on the study of deep structures of the psyche. The personality of Sigmund Freud can safely be called one of the most significant for...

; Abstract on general psychology on the topic: “The Personality of Sigmund Freud” Completed by: 2nd year student 521 ... organ, then the painful changes that occur in it must have material causes. Therefore, they should be eliminated...

Freud opposed traditional psychology with its introspective analysis of consciousness. The main problem of psychoanalysis was the problem of motivation. Just as image and action are realities that perform vital functions in the system of relations between the individual and the world, and not inside a reflective consciousness closed in itself, one of the main psychological realities is motive.

Briefly about creating a method

The theory of psychoanalysis has made a real revolution in the field of psychology. This method was created and put into operation by the great scientist from Austria, doctor of psychiatry Sigmund Freud. Early in his career, Freud worked closely with many eminent scientists. Physiology professor Ernst Brücke, founder of the cathartic method of psychotherapy Joseph Breuer, founder of the theory of the psychogenic nature of hysteria Jean-Marais Charcot are just a small part of the historical figures with whom Sigmund Freud worked together. According to Freud himself, the peculiar basis of his method arose precisely at the moment of collaboration with the above-mentioned people.

While engaged in scientific activities, Freud came to the conclusion that some clinical manifestations of hysteria cannot be interpreted from a physiological point of view. How to explain the fact that one part of the human body completely loses sensitivity, while neighboring areas still feel the influence of various stimuli? How to explain the behavior of people in a state of hypnosis? According to the scientist himself, the above questions are a kind of proof of the fact that only a part of mental processes are a manifestation of central nervous system reactions.

Many people have heard that a person immersed in a hypnotic state can be given a psychological setting, which he will definitely fulfill. It is quite interesting that if you ask such a person about the motives for his actions, he can easily find arguments explaining his behavior. Based on this fact, we can say that human consciousness independently selects arguments for completed actions, even in cases where there is no particular need for explanations.

During the years of Sigmund Freud's life, the fact that human behavior can depend on external factors and motives secret to consciousness was a real shock. It should be noted that it was Freud who introduced such concepts as “unconsciousness” and “subconsciousness”. The observations of this outstanding scientist made it possible to create a theory about psychoanalysis. Briefly, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis can be described as the analysis of the human psyche in terms of the forces that move it. The term “force” should be understood as the motives, consequences and influence of past life experiences on future destiny.

Freud was the first person who, using the method of psychoanalysis, was able to cure a patient with a half-paralyzed body

History of psychoanalysis

In 1885, Sigmung Freud went to the clinic of psychiatrist Jean Charcot to study hypnosis. There, the founder of psychoanalysis became interested in neuropathology. He observed patients with paraplegia.

In the course of his work, he was able to identify that there were differences between patients. Those who suffered from hysteria were more severely affected by paralysis than those whose illness was associated only with trauma. Additionally, the scientist was able to find out that hysteria contributes to problems in the sexual sphere.

Thoughts about the discoveries made at the Charcot clinic did not leave Freud even after the end of his internship. He turned to the works of Joseph Breuer, who developed a method of treating patients with neuroses through emotional release - catharsis.

Freud saw possible prospects in the application of this technique. Therefore, he began to combine it with hypnosis and after a year he received the first results.

But this method also lost its effectiveness over time. Freud began to realize that there were patients who did not tolerate hypnosis well or were resistant to the retrieval of painful memories.

The scientist decided that it was necessary to use all the information that the patient shared with the therapist. This information, according to Freud, interacts with each other through the structure of connections. This is how the method of free association appeared.

While working together with Joseph Breuer, Freud witnessed a new phenomenon for him. One of the patients transferred painful memories into the present and projected them onto her immediate environment. She stated that she was carrying Breuer's child. In reality, this event remained a painful memory in her memory. This became the basis for the creation of the concept of transference, the thesis of the Oedipus complex and child (infantile) sexuality.

Later, after the death of a relative, Freud used his methods to treat his own neurosis. During this period he began to study dreams. After the emerging successes, he began to use this method in further work with patients.

Based on observations and practical techniques, classical psychoanalysis emerged. Sigmund Freud presented its foundations in a number of lectures, separating them into a general cycle under the single title “Introduction to Psychoanalysis.” The book was first published in 1917.

The connection between psyche and somatics

Initially, according to Freud, the unconscious was studied within the framework of natural science theories. The psychoanalyst believed that he could find a direct connection between a person’s neurophysiological reactions and the movements of his psyche. The main stages of work at the beginning of the development of his theory were the following: searching for the cause that caused the disease (most often it is some kind of trauma, often it occurs in childhood), research into the consequences (that is, disruptions in the functioning of the psyche) and treatment (it is necessary to provide the patient with the possibility of mental release ). Gradually, Freud began to use word therapy, and this already went far beyond the scope of the natural science concept.

Modern psychoanalysis

The basis of psychoanalysis remains the teachings of Sigmund Freud. His ideas about the unconscious give science a large area to study.

In the 21st century, psychoanalysis is developing in three directions:

A psychoanalytic concept on the basis of which a direction changes its boundaries and is filled with new ideas.
Applied psychoanalysis, which studies the manifestations of society: culture, values and social needs.
Clinical psychoanalysis. This is a whole therapeutic method for working with clients. In therapy, the client is placed lying down on a couch and the therapist sits at the head of the bed. At the same time, the client does not see the therapist. This helps his thoughts flow freely. He gets the impression that he is having a dialogue with himself. This atmosphere allows the client to relax.

The creation of psychoanalysis as a branch of science was an important milestone in the development of psychology. Within the framework of this teaching, features of the psyche were touched upon, which help to understand the source and mechanism of a person’s internal problems

With the development of psychoanalysis, it became possible to work not only with the information that the client gives, but also to reach the depth of his unconscious thoughts.

Freud's childhood and personality formation

A little biography

Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the city of Freiburg in Moravia. The parents of the future father of psychoanalysis were Jews. Mother, Amalia Nathanson, was the second wife of Jacob Freud, who traded wool and fabrics. In 1860, the Freud family moved to one of the poor areas of Vienna. Then this city was like a medal, on one side of which there were waltzes, cafes and entertainment, and on the other - deep poverty.

There is a famous case when Jacob Freud told his son a story. “One non-Jewish representative threw my hat into a dirty ditch and shouted: “Hey, you! Save yourself while you're still alive! “And what did you do in response?” Freud asked his father. "Never mind. I just took out my hat and moved on." Little Zigi was surprised by his father's obedience. Isn't he a "strong" person? This picture greatly wounded the imagination of young Freud.

Having heard a humiliating story from his father, Freud from that time began to internally dream of revenge. He identified himself with the all-powerful Semitic Hannibal, who vowed to avenge Carthage. From a young age, Freud was able to control his anger, make his own judgments, and have endless respect for the Jewish people. The development of Freud's own personality took place on rather favorable soil. Despite the ambivalent attitude of the future father of psychoanalysis towards his parents, they loved their son very much and had many ambitious hopes for him. From a young age, Freud devoted time to reading the works of great philosophers - Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche. At the same time, he was also interested in learning foreign languages - even Latin came easily to him.

Personality structure

Freud's ideas about the conflict nature of man were developed by him in the structural theory of personality. According to this theory, personality is a contradictory unity of three interacting spheres: “It”, “I” and “Super-I” (“Ideal-I”, “I-ideal”), content and action, which are reflected by its essence and diversity .

Let's take a closer look at all three structures.

ID. “The division of the psyche into conscious and unconscious is the main premise of psychoanalysis, and only it gives it the opportunity to understand and introduce to science frequently observed and very important pathological processes in mental life” (S. Freud “I and It”).

Freud attached great importance to this division: “psychoanalytic theory begins here.”

The word "ID" comes from the Latin "IT", in Freud's theory it refers to the primitive, instinctual and innate aspects of personality such as sleep, eating, defecation, copulation and energizes our behavior. The id has its central meaning for the individual throughout life, it does not have any restrictions, it is chaotic. Being the original structure of the psyche, the id expresses the primary principle of all human life - the immediate discharge of psychic energy produced by primary biological impulses, the restraint of which leads to tension in personal functioning. This discharge is called the pleasure principle.

Submitting to this principle and not knowing fear or anxiety, the id, in its pure manifestation, can pose a danger to the individual and society. It also plays the role of an intermediary between somatic and mental processes. Freud also described two processes by which the id relieves the personality of tension: reflex actions and primary processes. An example of a reflex action is coughing in response to irritation of the respiratory tract. But these actions do not always lead to stress relief. Then the primary processes come into play, which form a mental image that is directly related to the satisfaction of the basic need.

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Z. Freud on personality structure

... and a supplier of energy for other areas of the personality and, forming the driving forces of the personality, is expressed, as a rule, in desires and drives. Freud considered this sphere to be dominant ... of great strength and libidinal freedom, and the need for a strong ruler immediately responds to this and endows him with superpower, to which he ...

Primary processes are an illogical, irrational form of human ideas. It is characterized by an inability to suppress impulses and distinguish between the real and the unreal. The manifestation of behavior as a primary process can lead to the death of the individual if external sources of satisfying needs do not appear. Thus, according to Freud, infants cannot delay the satisfaction of their primary needs. And only after they realize the existence of the outside world does the ability to delay the satisfaction of these needs appear. From the moment this knowledge appears, the next structure arises - the ego.

EGO. (Latin “ego” - “I”) A component of the mental apparatus responsible for decision making. The ego, being a separation from the id, draws part of its energy from it to transform and realize needs in a socially acceptable context, thus ensuring the safety and self-preservation of the body. It uses cognitive and perceptual strategies in its effort to satisfy the desires and needs of the id.

The ego in its manifestations is guided by the principle of reality,

the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the body by delaying gratification until the possibility of its discharge is found and/or appropriate environmental conditions. The ego was called by Freud a secondary process, the “executive organ” of the personality, the area where intellectual processes of problem solving take place. Liberation

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016_Man. Its structure. Subtle World

... You should really think about a person’s inexorable responsibility for his thoughts. Psychic energy is absolutely necessary during the transition or change... night work and visits with the aim of providing assistance to people on Earth, often completely unknown to us. The further phase will be... The Subtle World is useless if it does not pursue a specific goal of cognition and study of reality. These phenomena are acceptable, but...

Bringing some ego energy to bear on problems at a higher level of the psyche is one of the main goals of psychoanalytic therapy.

Thus, we come to the last structure of the psyche.

Skin vector.

general characteristics

the color of greatest comfort is khaki
geometry of greatest comfort - cross
place in the quartile – outer part of the quartile SPACE, extrovert
type of thinking – logical, building cause-and-effect chains.

Key task: separating your space from the outside world, preserving and accumulating resources. Species role: commander of a group of hunters. In peacetime: creator and keeper of food supplies. Possible disadvantages: excessive control over the situation, stinginess.

External signs

He is not tall. Ideal, athletic body type: slim, flexible, fit. The skinman's lips are thin, tightly compressed - the upper lip is practically invisible.

A skinny woman is thin, lean, beautiful, swift, agile, flexible like a cat. Only a woman with skin gracefully holds space in stiletto heels - she moves beautifully and quickly in high heels. The skin gait is fast and dancing. The leather worker has an excellent sense of rhythm.

The skin person needs to think about diets less than others, but all he does is change one diet to another. Having gained a couple of extra pounds, the skinner begins to invent more and more restrictive diets for himself.

Kozhnik prefers a strict, business-like style of clothing at work and a sporty style of clothing outside of work. For men, a mandatory part of their wardrobe is a tie; a skinny woman also often uses this piece of clothing in her wardrobe. Favorite skin hairstyle: hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

A skin gesture is an index finger that can be used to point, threaten, edify.

A leather worker's skin is delicate, sensitive, ideal, velvety. At a certain state of the vector, it is the skinners who apply tattoos to their bodies and give themselves piercings.

Kozhnik is very dexterous and flexible: he always accurately calculates his movements in space: he went around, ran around, and didn’t hit anyone.

In addition to a flexible body, a leather worker also has a flexible psyche. Its distinctive feature is the possibility of a 180-degree turn: today I will assert and prove one thing, and the next day with the same conviction - the opposite; The only question is what is more profitable for me to say at the moment. This allows them to easily and quickly adapt to any changing conditions, be it a change of job, moving to another city or even to another country. And thanks to a good analytical mind, they quickly process information. Skin type people will always be able to find their niche in a new environment. They know how to evaluate benefits, strive to increase efficiency, know how to save time and money, and get great pleasure from it. Their favorite word is “no.” However, this does not prevent them from agreeing after a while, having come up with a reasonable excuse. Skin people are mostly secretive, rarely answer questions, and do not express emotions.

An internal sense of time and space allows them to successfully do several things at once. Leather workers are focused on success, including material success. Career, wealth, social status make up the system of value guidelines of a skin person. Only he knows the ambitions and desire to be a leader, because... he loves competition. It could be sports, competition in business or love.

Logic and logical thinking are also a distinctive feature of leather workers. In their speech you can often hear the phrases: “This is not logical! Where is the logic here? It would be logical to assume”, etc.

A child with the skin vector is very active, often disobedient. Caught in some kind of prank, he will be cunning and dodge. The right approach to education will allow a leather worker to become a successful businessman or engineer in the future.

Skin children who were constantly beaten and humiliated in childhood receive psychological trauma, adapting to this pain, and the body begins to release endorphins to drown it out. Gradually, the child gets used to this kind of effect, and then becomes dependent on it, receiving specific pleasure from it. This is how masochism arises. If such a person in adulthood does not receive the usual endorphins through physical pain in sexual life, then the desire to experience pain through social frustrations and failures appears. This is how a life scenario for failure develops, a person turns into an eternal loser.

Desired internal state: a feeling of being busy, the skinner is always in motion, in development, in changes and new information.

Role in society: breadwinner, organizer, middle manager, coordinator, defender.

3. Olfactory vector.

general characteristics

the color of greatest comfort is purple
geometry of greatest comfort - zigzag
place in the quartel – inner part of the ENERGY quartile, introvert
type of thinking – intuitive; strategic
people with the olfactory vector are less than 1%.

Key challenge: identifying potential hazards before they become real. Survive at all costs. Species role: shaman, sorcerer , adviser to the leader, strategic intelligence officer, eminence gray. Possible disadvantages: excessive suspicion, distrust of others.

Representatives of psychoanalysis

Personality psychoanalysis quickly became a popular field. Many psychologists began to develop this direction, expanding and transforming it.

Sigmund Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis.

Carl Gustav Jung was for some time a student and admirer of Freud's work. The main reason for the discord between scientists was the divergence of views on the action of sexual impulses. Jung argued that their role was unimportant, as his teacher said.

After a quarrel with Freud, Jung began to develop analytical psychoanalysis. He believed that the unconscious is shaped by the memory of ancestors and the influence of society. Unlike Freud, he minimized the role of repressed stimuli. In the process of creating the theory of analytical psychoanalysis, he distinguished the personal unconscious and the collective. The latter presupposes extensive knowledge about the traditions, values and creeds of the people.

Jungian psychoanalysis complements Freud's psychoanalysis and expands its boundaries to the study of society.

Alfred Adler, while studying neuroses, highlighted the idea that shortcomings become the cause of development and anxiety for a person. A person, realizing his shortcomings, feels his inferiority. This creates in him a constant feeling of anxiety about his skills, abilities and capabilities. At the same time, the urgent need to overcome them allows us to develop through the search for new solutions. From this arise social interests and aspirations.
Eric Berne studied the human self. He determined that the Self can be in three states. In the “parent” state there is a defining tendency towards necessary actions. The word “must” becomes the leading and index word.
In the “child” state, desires are the main thing. This is a state of carefree, good mood and positive outlook on life.
The “adult” regulates the two previous states in a timely manner and depending on the situation.

For a person, all states are characteristic as a given. It is quite normal to have an “adult”, a “child” and a “parent” within us. The situation becomes problematic if one of the conditions occurs at the wrong time. For example, in a situation that requires taking responsibility, a “child” may become involved with reluctance to do so.

Eric Fromm is considered the founder of neo-Fredism, which developed in America. He believed that psychoanalysis lacked a humanistic tendency. In his opinion, a person is influenced by trends in economics, politics, religion

Therefore, within the framework of neo-Freudianism, attention is first paid to understanding what environment the client lives in and what his interests depend on

An important postulate in the teachings of Eric Fromm is the idea of creating a healthy society. The scientist believed that through such a society a person would be able to gain useful connections with nature and the people around him.

Karen Horney, within the framework of psychoanalysis, has developed the basic strategies that a person uses in behavior. In her opinion, they help resolve the conflict between human desires and the boundaries of what is permitted. Focus on society. This is a strategy for human interaction. It is used by people with a compliant personality type. This is how people are inclined to communicate and are ready to compromise.
Anti-society orientation. Strategy of a hostile personality type. For them, the outside world looks like an arena where there is a struggle for the best place. They themselves are also determined to gain better positions.
Refusal to interact with society. This strategy is important for an isolated personality type. In their understanding, avoiding problems is one of the options that helps get rid of any disturbing stimuli.

Text of the book “Developmental and developmental psychology. Tutorial"

2.4 Psychoanalytic approach
The psychoanalytic approach
to child development originates in the works of S. Freud (1856–1939). Freud believes that mental development is determined by biological, unconscious, primarily sexual and aggressive, drives and represents the individual’s adaptation to the external social world, alien to him, but necessary. The psychoanalytic approach developed by S. Freud can be considered:

• genetic

, since adult behavior is explained by stages of mental development, childhood trauma, conflicts and experiences;

• energy

, since mental processes are considered from the point of view of the presence in them of mental energy (libido), which can move from one state to another, from one part of the body to another, but its quantity remains unchanged. The source of mental energy, and therefore of drives, is an irritation that comes from inside the body and represents a neurophysiological state of excitation. The goal of a person’s drives is satisfaction, that is, the elimination of irritation, the reduction of tension caused by an unpleasant accumulation of energy [Freud, 1991];

Table 2.3

Evaluation of the Behavioral Approach

• dynamic

, since the behavior of an individual is formed under the influence of the complex, often conflicting interaction of all his mental forces (conflicts between various instances of the mental organization of the individual:
Id, Ego, Super-Ego
).

Human personality, according to Z. Freud, consists of three structural components: It, Ego and Super-Ego. It (Id)

- a container of innate instinctive drives and desires repressed from consciousness, unacceptable from the point of view of social norms.
These basic biological needs and desires are unconscious and obey the principle of pleasure, that is, they require satisfaction and immediate release of internal tension. I (Ego)
is a practical, rational, partially conscious component of the personality that arises as the child matures biologically.
The ego
obeys the principle of reality, trying to take into account and obey the demands of the external world, resolve conflicts between the drives of
the id, the super-ego
and the obstacles of the real world, postpone the satisfaction of the impulsive desires
of the id
, and direct them in a socially acceptable direction.
The Super-I (Superego)
is an instance of personality, representing conscience and ego-ideal, critic and censor, monitoring compliance with the norms and values accepted in a given society, and therefore constantly in conflict with
It.
The super-ego is formed in the preschool years as a result of introjection (translation into the internal plane) of the regulatory and regulatory influences of parents, when children begin to assimilate moral norms, social standards of human behavior, values and attitudes.

Rice. 2.2.

Freud's division of mental personality

Source

: [Freud, 1989, p. 349].

Based on the memories of adults - his patients suffering from certain types of neuroses, studies of their unconscious motives, drives and desires, Freud developed a psychosexual theory

.
According to Z. Freud, a personality in its development goes through several psychosexual stages. They represent a biologically determined sequence, the order of which is unchanged and is inherent in all people, regardless of culture. The criterion for periodization is the zone of concentration of sexual energy (libido), which determines the main channel for discharging internal tension and the dominant way of satisfying primary needs. Freud believed that a person is born with a certain amount of libido, which, thanks to the maturation process, moves from one part of the body to another in a strictly defined sequence. Those parts of the body in which it is concentrated are called erogenous zones and determine the name of the stages of psychosexual development
: oral, anal, phallic, genital.
Development proceeds from autoeroticism, when libido is directed towards one’s own self
, to the allocation of external objects to which this biological energy is directed [Freud, 1991].

Social experience, primarily the experience of communication between a child and his parents, according to S. Freud, also plays an important role in mental development, since the process of maturation of the body gives rise to uncontrollable sexual and aggressive energy, which society must curb. Each stage of personality development is characterized by its own type of conflict between the form of sexual desire inherent in this age and the prohibitions of society, between biological impulses and social expectations. Development is precisely determined by how well a person resolves these conflicts.

Due to the frustration of a need corresponding to a particular stage of mental development, or, conversely, its excessive satisfaction, fixation

(delay, stop) at this stage. The child, and subsequently the adult, remains focused on the problems and pleasures characteristic of this stage of development, which determines his character, style of relationships with other people, way of coping with anxiety and can become a prerequisite for the development of neurotic symptoms. In everyday life, a person may not exhibit the traits characteristic of a particular fixation, but when frustrated, he regresses to the stage at which libidinal fixation was observed. The magnitude of regression is determined by the strength of fixation in childhood and the severity of frustration at a later age [Crane, 2002]. If the fixation was strong in childhood, even relatively mild frustration is enough to cause regression. On the other hand, severe frustration may cause regression to an earlier stage, even if the fixation was not particularly strong.

Let us briefly describe each stage of psychosexual development [Blum, 1996; Crane, 2002; Freud, 1989; 1991].

Oral stage

lasts from birth to 1–1.5 years.
The area where libido is concentrated is the mouth, i.e. the child receives pleasure through sucking, chewing, biting. The first object of the oral component of sexual desire, according to Freud [1989], is the mother's breast, which satisfies the baby's need for food. However, in the act of sucking, the erotic component, which received satisfaction during breastfeeding, becomes independent, abandoning the foreign object and replacing it with some organ of its own body. Oral attraction becomes autoerotic
.
Thus, initially the baby's attention is directed to his inner world and focused on his own body. The infant is at the mercy of instincts and is partly capable of satisfying them on his own. Freud called this condition primary narcissism
; it is also characterized by the fact that during approximately the first 6 months of life, the world of infants is “objectless”; they have no idea of the independent existence of other people or objects.

In the second half of the first year of life, the 2nd phase of the oral stage begins, associated with teething, when the emphasis shifts from sucking to chewing and biting. The first restrictions appear (the mother does not allow biting the breast), which, along with delays in fulfilling the child’s wishes, gradual weaning from the breast, lead to differentiation, separation of the object, to the formation of ideas about other people and especially about the mother as a necessary, but separate being, and in general - to the development of the I authority.

When fixated at the oral stage, a person is constantly preoccupied with questions related to food, or he may acquire the habit of thumb sucking, nail biting, pencil chewing, overeating, smoking, or becoming addicted to drinking. Fixation in the first phase leads to the formation of an oral-passive personality type

, which is characterized by such qualities as gullibility, immaturity, passivity, optimism, excessive dependence, insatiability.
These people usually expect and demand a “motherly” attitude from others and constantly seek approval and support. If libido fixation occurs in the second phase, an oral-aggressive (oral-sadistic)
type is formed, which leads to the formation of such adult personality traits as a love of argument, sarcasm, a cynical attitude towards everyone around, causticity, aggressiveness in interpersonal relationships, the desire to dominate , use others.

Sometimes people only exhibit oral traits when they feel frustrated. For example, a little boy who suddenly feels deprived of his parents' attention after the birth of his sister may regress to oral behaviors and begin sucking his thumb again, which he had previously stopped doing. Or a teenage girl, having lost the love of her romantic partner, becomes depressed and finds solace in food.

Anal stage

lasts from 1.5 to 3 years.
The erogenous zone shifts to the anus, satisfaction is associated with the act of defecation. At this stage, parents begin to teach the child to use the potty and to be neat, placing many demands and prohibitions on him, primarily regarding the refusal of what gives the child instinctive pleasure (holding and releasing feces). As a result, the final authority begins to form in the child’s personality - the Super-Ego
as an internal censorship that embodies social norms, demands and ideals.
The method of toilet training a child determines the formation of a compromise between the desire for pleasure and the demands of the environment, his future forms of self-control and self-regulation. If parents show excessive severity and rigidity, try to achieve neatness skills as early as possible, without providing emotional support and punishing the child for every mistake, or, conversely, make too few demands when toilet training, then the child experiences protest reactions and fixes them. . In the future, this can lead to the development of two types of character: anal-pushing and anal-retaining. The anal-thrusting
personality type is characterized by wastefulness, sloppiness, impulsiveness, and a tendency toward rebellion and disorder.
For an anal-retentive person
- an excessive need for cleanliness and order, stubbornness, stinginess and greed. It seems that they behave in such a way that even though they had to give in to the demands of adults to give up their feces, they manage to keep all other valuables, such as money, to themselves.

Phallic stage

, lasting from 3 to 6 years, is characterized by the fact that the erogenous zone, and therefore the child’s sensual pleasures, are concentrated on the genitals. He enjoys genital stimulation: the child examines, explores, plays with his genitals, is interested in issues related to the appearance of children, etc.

Further development, as Z. Freud believes [1989], has two goals: firstly, to abandon autoeroticism, replacing the object of one’s own body with a foreign one, and secondly, to unite the various objects of individual drives, replacing them with one object that represents whole, similar to one's own body. Autoeroticism disappears, libido is now directed to another person, primarily to the parent of the opposite sex. It is at this stage that boys develop the Oedipus complex

, expressed in sexual attraction directed towards the mother, and in the desire to eliminate the father, a rival.
Hence the fear of supposed cruel punishment from the father (fear of castration) and ambivalent feelings towards him (love - hatred). A similar motivational-affective complex in girls is called the Electra complex
.
The resolution of these complexes occurs through their suppression and through identification with the parent of the same sex. As a result, the final formation of the Super-I instance occurs.
In other words, the child accepts parental prohibitions as coming from himself, thereby forming a supervisory authority in his psyche that prevents the manifestation of dangerous desires and impulses.
Thus, according to Freud, all three personal levels are formed in a person by the end of the phallic stage, i.e. by 5–6 years. The relationship between the id, ego
and
superego
established at this time determines the basis of the individual’s personality.

Particularly strong childhood experiences associated with the Oedipus or Electra complex lead to fixation, which can have different manifestations, but, as a rule, is especially strongly felt in two main areas - rivalry and love [Crane, 2002]. For example, according to Freud, an adult man may feel guilty about his competitive tendencies, believing that being more successful than others is bad, or he may feel sexually constrained by women who remind him of his mother and evoke deep and tender feelings. Girls may also have a vague memory that their first competition with another woman for a man's love ended in defeat, and therefore they may feel uncertain about their future successes (Crane, 2002).

Latent stage

(6–12 years) got its name due to the fact that during this period there is a temporary attenuation of interest in sexual life;
sexual and aggressive fantasies and desires are firmly held in the unconscious, falling under the control of the ego
. Mental energy, being divorced from sexual goals, is directed to the assimilation of new social values, universal cultural experience, to specific, socially acceptable activities: sports, communication with friends, study, knowledge.

Genital stage

(12–18 years) is the period of integration of all erogenous zones, the achievement of puberty, normal adult sexual behavior, the establishment of trusting and intimate relationships with persons of the opposite sex.
Puberty contributes to the awakening of the sexual impulses of the phallic stage. The main initial task of this period is “liberation from parents”, overcoming dependence on them, since sexual energy, desires and fantasies hidden in the unconscious, primarily the Oedipus (Electra) complex, with new force, already inherent in an adult, come to the surface, threaten to destroy the teenager’s defense mechanisms and break into the conscious part of the psyche. Gradually, the partner of the opposite sex becomes the object of libido energy. Normally, in adolescence, mature sexuality is formed, a marriage partner is chosen, a family is created, and a balance is found between work and love. Genital character
is the ideal type of personality; it is a mature and responsible person in social and sexual relationships.

So, according to Z. Freud, the mental development of an individual is associated with the processes of transformation of sexual energy and its movement from one erogenous zone to another. At the same time, early experiences, traumatic experiences in childhood, and fixation of libido create patterns of behavior that persist throughout life and predetermine a person’s personal development and the formation of certain neurotic symptoms. Freud discovered not only the importance of childhood for further personality development, but also the important role of social experience, mainly in the form of interactions in the parent-child dyad. However, S. Freud's point of view on the development of children was also subjected to sharp criticism. First, the theory exaggerated the influence of sexual experiences on development. Secondly, Freud did not study children directly, but based his theory on the memories of his adult patients. Third, he conducted all of his observations in an unsystematic and uncontrolled manner (he never took verbatim notes from the patient's reports; furthermore, the original notes are missing; he did not carefully check the patients' reports of their childhood experiences). Fourth, Freud's rejection of free will and his predominant focus on past experience at the expense of an analysis of a person's hopes and goals for the future was criticized. Fifth, being based on the problems of adults with repressed sexuality, the theory did not work within cultures other than 19th century Victorian society. [Burke, 2006; Schultz, Schultz, 2002].

Many scientists studied development theory in the context of the psychoanalytic tradition (A. Adler, K. Jung, A. Freud, M. Klein, M. Mahler, etc.). But the most significant contribution to it was the epigenetic theory

E. Erikson (1902–1994). Erikson consistently insisted that his ideas were a further development of Freud's concept of the psychosexual development of the child. He drew on Freud's structural model of personality and agreed with him that early experiences are of utmost importance. Erikson recognized the biological and sexual determinants of human development, believing that the stages of personality development are the result of biological maturation, unfold in a constant sequence, and are universal across all cultures.

However, E. Erikson's concept is very different from classical psychoanalysis. Firstly, E. Erikson, unlike Z. Freud, does not focus on the id

, but on the development of
the I
(
Ego
) of the individual, therefore he is considered a representative of
ego psychology
[Kjell, Ziegler, 2000].
According to E. Erikson, the Ego
acts not only as an intermediary between the impulses
of the It
and the demands
of the Superego
.
At each stage, the ego
learns attitudes and skills that contribute to the formation of an active, active member of society.
Second, Erikson does not recognize sexuality as a primary determinant of development. E. Erikson's model of personality development is psychosocial
, not psychosexual.
He believes that the social aspect of development is more important, or at least no less important, than the biological and physical aspects [Erikson, 2000]. Thirdly, if Freud emphasizes the importance of the influence of parents on the development of the child’s personality, then E. Erikson emphasizes the historical conditions, characteristics of culture and society in which ego
.
Fourthly, E. Erikson considers the development of personality throughout the entire life course, from birth to death. Fifth, Freud and Erikson have different views on the nature and resolution of psychosexual conflicts. If S. Freud focuses on how early childhood trauma influences psychopathology in adulthood, then E. Erikson is primarily interested in a person’s ability to overcome life’s collisions of a psychosocial nature, his advantages, and strong qualities that are revealed in different periods of development. In addition, the central problem of development, according to E. Erikson, is the search for one’s own identity. And finally, sixthly, E. Erickson, in addition to the traditional clinical practice for psychoanalysts, used special research methods. He conducted ethnographic field research
comparing the characteristics of child rearing in Indian tribes and urban families in the United States.
E. Erikson used the psychohistorical method
- comparing the biographies of famous people (such as B. Shaw, M. Luther, M. Gandhi) with historical events and living conditions. E. Erickson points out that development must be considered in connection with the characteristics of the culture in which it occurs, explaining this position by analyzing the life of two Indian tribes - the Sioux and the Yurok. For example, E. Erickson [2000] finds that among the Yurok Indian tribe living on the northwest coast of the United States, the birth and raising of a child is accompanied by many oral prohibitions. During childbirth, the mother must keep her mouth closed. The father and mother do not eat either venison or salmon until the newborn's umbilical cord has healed. During the first ten days after birth, the baby is not breastfed, but given nut soup. At about six months of age, infants are abruptly weaned and, if necessary, for “mother forgetting” to occur, the mother leaves the child for several days. Subsequently, the child is taught not to grab food hastily, never take food without asking, eat slowly and never ask for more. From our cultural perspective, this practice may seem cruel. But the Yurok are a tribe of salmon fishermen. They live in conditions where salmon fill the river only once a year, a circumstance that requires significant self-restraint in order to survive. Therefore, children are raised taking into account those characteristics that are valued and in demand in the society surrounding the child [Erikson, 2000].

In the book “Childhood and Society,” E. Erikson presented a model of personality development throughout the entire life cycle, consisting of eight stages of psychosocial development (“eight human ages”) [Ibid]. Psychosocial development, according to E. Erikson, is subject to the epigenetic principle

, according to which all organs and systems of a living being develop at certain periods of time and in a genetically specified sequence.
The emergence of each subsequent stage is determined by the development of the previous one (“epi” translated from Greek means “after”, “above”). Each stage is characterized by a specific development task or crisis
- a problem in social development that is presented to the individual by society (the challenge of society to the developing personality) and which must be resolved in order for the person to move to the next stage.
A crisis
, according to E. Erikson, is a turning point, a special moment in human life, “a moment of choice between progress and regression, integration and delay” [Obukhova, 2001, p.
97]. Thus, development tasks formulated as dilemmas can take on both positive and negative meanings, both of which represent extremes and are therefore undesirable. Successful resolution of the crisis involves achieving a balanced proportion between the poles in favor of the positive component. This leads to the formation of psychosocial strength,
or
virtue
, which is built into
the ego
and contributes to the healthy development of the personality in the future.
If a crisis is not resolved satisfactorily, then a negative component is built into the ego
. An unresolved task is transferred to the next stages, where it is much more difficult to cope with it, although, according to E. Erikson, it is still possible [Erikson, 2000].

Healthy personality development largely comes down to the formation and development of ego identity

, which is a sense of integrity, uniqueness and individuality of one’s own personality, continuity and stability of one’s own
Self
.

E. Erikson recognizes the interaction of bodily, psychological and social processes and forces. He agrees with Freud that each new stage of development is characterized by a movement of libido from one zone to another. But for him, it was not the zone of concentration of sexual energy itself that was important, but its mode of activity

(“organ mode”), its ability to interact in one way or another with the outside world.
When society, through its institutions, gives a special meaning to this mode, then it is “severed” from the organ and transformed into a “modality of behavior”, which characterizes the key way in which the Ego
establishes relationships and contacts the outside world. Thus, through the modes of organs, the connection between psychosexual and psychosocial development is realized.

E. Erikson considers ritualization

– repeating forms of behavior that interact between people, which at each stage are distinguished by their specificity and correspond to one or another social institution (family, school, etc.) or social principles (law and order).
Ritual develops as an interaction between a child and an adult, as a mutual way of understanding each other, presupposing an emotional experience of the actions being carried out and ensuring a stable perception of the world around us, reducing its uncertainty. The situation in which the ritual arises is initially characterized by tension caused by the child’s misunderstanding. To overcome it, the adult creates a stable system of behavior that transfers the child from a situation of uncertainty to a stable, repeating situation of ritual (for example, the situation of going to bed, potty training, the situation of relations between a teacher and a student, etc.). Ritualization, like a psychosocial crisis, contains positive and negative components. The negative pole is ritualism
, in contrast to ritualization, this is a stereotypical, only formal interaction, which is characterized by soulless automatism.

According to E. Erikson, society determines the specific tasks and content of development of each stage of the life cycle. The solution to the problem of age depends both on the already achieved level of development of the individual and on the general spiritual atmosphere of the society in which he lives.

Let us take a closer look at the stages of psychosocial development identified by E. Erikson [2000].

The first stage -
oral-sensory
- lasts from birth to 1 year and corresponds, as the name suggests, to the oral stage according to Z. Freud.
The zone of concentration of libido is the mouth, the mode of the organ is incorporation (absorption)
.
At this stage, “the baby lives and loves through the mouth, while its mother lives and loves through the breast” [Erikson, 2000]. The baby is able not only to “absorb” (suck, swallow) suitable objects through the mouth, but is able to “absorb” with his eyes everything that falls into his visual field, as well as through tactile sensations. In the 2nd phase of this stage, the mode of biting
, which is also not limited only to the mouth, but includes the ability to reach out with hands, grab objects, and actively absorb information through vision and hearing.
Gradually, these modes turn into modalities of behavior
: to receive,
that is, to perceive and accept
what is given, and
to take and hold
. With the help of these modalities, the child establishes his first relationships with the outside world; there is a mutual regulation of the child's way of accepting (taking) what he needs and the mother's (culture) ways of giving it to him.

The main psychosocial crisis of this stage is basic trust versus basic mistrust

. The child's experience of communication with his mother is a decisive factor in establishing a balance between feelings of security and anxiety. The degree of trust and self-confidence, according to E. Erikson, depends not so much on the amount of food or love for the baby, but on the quality of the mother’s relationship with the child. The combination of sensitive care for the child with confidence in the correctness of one’s actions, as well as consistent and predictable treatment of the child creates faith in himself and in the world around him, which forms the basis of a sense of identity. In this process, according to E. Erikson, cultural support and the mother’s confidence in her actions are important, that she acts correctly within the framework of the life style that exists in her culture.

E. Erickson believes that the first sign of trust in the mother appears when the baby is ready to allow her to leave without experiencing excessive anxiety or indignation. The problem of trust and mistrust becomes especially relevant when the child is teething and is capable of causing pain to the nursing mother.

As a result of achieving a balance between basic trust and basic mistrust, the first “virtue” appears, a positive quality of the Ego - hope

.
Hope, according to Erikson, is a strong belief in the fulfillment of one's desires, despite frustrations, anger and disappointments. Religion is a social institution that supports parents’ sense of confidence, and therefore children’s hope. Therefore, the main ritual of this stage is mutual recognition
(numinous ritual, that is, a ritual that evokes reverence, serving to develop and strengthen faith).

The second stage -
muscular-anal
- lasts from 1 to 3 years.
The area of libido concentration is anal. The main modes of this stage are retention
and
release
, which relate not only to the anal zone.
The child at this stage learns to reach and hold, throw and push, bring objects closer to him and hold objects at a distance. Breaking away from the organ, these modes create such modalities of behavior as releasing
and
holding
. Children open up new opportunities to act independently, to explore the world independently, to control their bodies, to make a choice between conflicting impulses: to hold on or to discard; submit or stand your ground. According to E. Erikson, this entire stage becomes a battle for autonomy.

The main psychosocial conflict is autonomy versus shame and doubt.

. Reasonable permission, external control that convinces the child of his own strengths and capabilities, and support for the child’s ability to independently make choices within the limits of what is permitted contribute to the development of the child’s autonomy. In a situation of overprotection or, conversely, lack of support, the child develops a feeling of shame in front of others, doubts about his ability to manage himself and control the world around him. Shame comes from a feeling of self-exposure, from the feeling that one is exposed to “everyone,” that one’s own shortcomings are visible to everyone. Shame develops both from the child’s first impressions, when he first gets on his feet and feels small and helpless in the adult world, and from educational methods that consist of shaming, ridiculing the child, and demanding what lies beyond his capabilities. Doubt, according to E. Erikson, is associated with the feeling that a person has a “front” and a “back.” The child cannot see the back of his body, while others “can magically dominate” this area, “fighting” into it, mainly in a potty training situation, calling the functions of the intestines “bad” and its products “disgusting.” From here a basic feeling of doubt is formed about everything that a person left behind, and irrational fears of hidden pursuers threatening from somewhere behind arise.

The resolution of the conflict at this stage - autonomy or shame and doubt - depends on the relationship between “love and hate, cooperation and self-will, freedom of expression and its suppression. From the sense of self-control, as the freedom to manage oneself without loss of self-respect, comes a strong feeling of goodwill, readiness for action and pride in one’s achievements; from the feeling of loss of freedom to manage oneself and the feeling of someone else’s supercontrol comes a stable tendency towards doubt and shame” [Erikson, 2000, p. 242].

If a child resolves the crisis of this stage in a positive way, with the predominance of autonomy over shame and doubt, he develops this quality of Ego

, as
will
, i.e. “an indomitable determination to exercise free choice, as well as to restrain oneself” [Crane, 2002, p. 368].

The main ritualization developed at this stage is critical

, expressed in the distinction between good and evil, good and bad, permitted and prohibited, and based on
the court
as a special social institution based on the principle of law and order, justice and legality.

Personality theories h. Freud, K. Jung, E. Berne

Freud: According to Freud, there are no interruptions or inconsistencies in mental life: every mental event is caused by a conscious or unconscious intention and is determined by previous events

Although Freud also dealt with the mechanisms of thinking, he paid more attention to the subconscious, the unconscious, which predetermine the connection between the past and the present. Most of the psyche is unconscious

It contains the main determinants of personality development, sources of mental energy, motivations, instincts. The preconscious is the part of the unconscious that can become conscious. Instincts are “the original cause of all activity.” A special role among them is played by the sexual instinct and the instinct of aggression. These two fundamental instincts (supporting life and calling for death) predetermine the main contradictions in personality development and the diversity of human behavior. Instincts are channels through which energy flows - libido. This energy is mobile and quantitatively measurable. Cathexis is the process of distributing activity and energy across various areas of activity. Detection of psychic energy and determination of the main directions of its transformation is the main problem in understanding personality. Personality structure – Id (It), Ego, Superego. The id contains everything inherited, all innate instincts. Other elements of personality structure develop from the id. But the Id itself is formless, chaotic, its functioning does not obey logical laws. The id is like a blind king whose power is unlimited, but who must rely on others to use it. The ego is the psyche that contacts external reality. Like the bark of a tree, the Ego protects the Id, but to do this it takes energy from it. The main task of the Ego is self-preservation. The ego strives for pleasure and tries to avoid displeasure. The ego controls the impulses of the id, so that the individual can be less spontaneous, but more adapted to the environment, more realistic. The id responds to needs, the ego to opportunities. Superego is a repository of moral norms, prohibitions, permissions; this is the internal censor of a person’s activity - his conscience, introspection, ideals. The superego of the parents seems to be embodied in the superego of the child; it is filled with the same content and becomes the bearer of traditions and values from generation to generation. The ego and superego remain largely unconscious to the individual.

Jung: C. Jung paid great attention to the unconscious and its dynamics, but his idea of the unconscious was radically different from Freud's. Jung viewed the psyche as a complementary interaction of conscious and unconscious components with a continuous exchange of energy between them. For him, the unconscious was not a psychobiological dump of rejected instinctive tendencies, repressed memories and subconscious prohibitions

considered personality structure as consisting of three components:

1) consciousness - EGO - I;

2) individual unconscious - “IT”

3) “collective unconscious”, consisting of mental prototypes or “archetypes”. The collective unconscious - in contrast to the individual (personal unconscious) - is identical in all people and therefore forms the universal basis of the mental life of each person, being by its nature superpersonal. The collective unconscious is the deepest level of the psyche.

Berne:

The personality structure, according to Berne, is characterized by the presence of three “I” states, or “ego states”: “Parent”, “Child”, “Adult”.

“Parent” is an “ego state” with internalized rational norms of obligations, demands and prohibitions. “Parent” is information received in childhood from parents and other authority figures: rules of conduct, social norms, prohibitions, norms of how one can or should behave in a given situation. There are two main parental influences on a person: direct, which is carried out under the motto: “Do as I do!” and indirect, which is implemented under the motto: “Do not as I do, but as I tell you to do!” A “parent” can be controlling (prohibitions, sanctions) and caring (advice, support, guardianship). “Parent” is characterized by directive statements such as: “It is possible”; "Must"; "Never"; “So, remember”; “What nonsense”; “Poor thing”...

Consciousness and "Ego"

The next part is conscious. The “I” or “Ego” is formed between 12 and 36 months of a child’s life. This is the part of the personality that is guided by reality. The ego has a specific task: to correlate its behavior with the environment in such a way as to satisfy the needs of the “Id”, without violating the requirements of society. The part called the “Super-I”, or “Super-Ego”, begins to function later than everyone else - between 3 and 6 years. It contains elements of personality such as conscience and ideals. The superego vigilantly ensures that social norms are respected.

All psychosexual stages of development occur in these components of the psyche. The opposition of the functions “It” and “Super-I” becomes the cause of neuroses and conflicts. In response to them, the “Ego” creates a number of defense mechanisms: rationalization, repression, regression, sublimation and others. However, at an early age there is a danger for a child to “get stuck” at a certain stage of personality development (as Freud said, “fixation” occurs at this stage). After all, the “Ego” is still quite weak. It is not capable of resolving all the existing conflicts that the “It” and the “Super-Ego” endlessly create for it. Then personal development follows the wrong trajectory.

Personality structure according to Jung

Analytical psychology - it sets out the structure of personality according to Jung - this is the Ego, Personal unconscious, Collective unconscious.

The ego is the center of consciousness, a part of the soul, including feelings, sensations, memories, thoughts, and everything that allows a person to feel his integrity and be aware of his identity.

The personal unconscious is a personality structure that includes repressed (suppressed) memories, feelings, and experiences from consciousness.

Also, according to Jung, a person’s complexes are stored in the personal unconscious, which can seize control over the personality and control its behavior.

The collective unconscious is where ancient, hidden memories inherited from our ancestors are stored. Because of this, the collective unconscious is universal, unlike the personal unconscious, which is individual.

Jung's main concept - which is why he actually disagreed with Freud - is precisely the collective unconscious, which lies in the structure of a person's personality and is presented in the form of archetypes (prototypes).

Archetypes, according to Jung, are universal, human patterns of perception that have a significant emotional element. For example, the archetypes of Mother, Energy, God, the archetype of Hero, Sage, Child, etc.

The main archetypes in the personality structure according to Jung

The main, main archetypes in the personality structure according to Jung are the Persona (Mask), Shadow, Anima and Animus, Self.

Persona (or Mask) is a person’s social role, his public personality, a mask that he unconsciously puts on in connection with the prevailing attitudes in society.

If the Ego is identified with the Persona, then the person ceases to be himself, playing someone else’s role all his life.

The Shadow is the opposite personality archetype to the Persona. The shadow is irrational, usually immoral, and contains impulses rejected in society (sometimes sexual, aggressive). Therefore, the energy of the Shadow is usually suppressed by the defense mechanisms of the psyche.

Often, people with a normal EGO direct this energy in the right, controlled direction. For example, in creative activities.

Both “Persona” and “Shadow” can manifest themselves in the personal unconscious and even in the Ego, for example, in the form of rejected thoughts or acceptable behavior in society.

Anima and Animus are an archetype associated with human bisexuality by nature. It reflects the feminine psychological principle in a man (Anima) and the masculine principle in a woman (Animus), i.e. in modern society one can notice masculine manifestations in women and feminine manifestations in men (this does not mean sexual orientation, although in case of serious violations there may be incorrect gender identification).

The Self is the most important archetype in the personality structure - the center of the EGO (I). Essentially, this is an ideal that people unconsciously strive for, but rarely achieves.

Self - “God within us” - this archetype strives for integrity and unity (something similar can be seen in the religions of the East, this is a kind of perfection, typically represented in the images of Christ, Buddha...).

Through individuation, usually by mid-life (often when a midlife crisis sets in), a clear sense of Self can occur. It’s something like this...like a feeling of something distant, incomprehensible and unfamiliar and at the same time close, dear, well known...

Foundation concept

Conflicts arise between the conscious and unconscious parts of a person, resulting in neuroses and mental disorders that interfere with normal human life. This became the main idea of Freud's concept of the unconscious. Painful and shameful experiences are repressed into the superego and manifest themselves in the form of unpleasant symptoms somewhere on the border between somatic and mental manifestations.

Accordingly, in order to balance these conflicts, it is necessary to establish a balance between the Ego and the Super-Ego, which is what psychoanalysts do. During the patient's long story about his thoughts and feelings, with the help of a specialist, he gradually comes to the true cause of his neurotic behavior. “According to grandfather Freud,” such a reason, of course, is suppressed sexual desires. According to modern psychoanalysts, there can be a large number of reasons, and for each person they are individual.

Basic principles of psychoanalysis

Freud's psychoanalysis views the human psyche as a complex and multi-stage process.

The fundamentals of psychoanalysis can be divided into several theoretical complexes: a three-component personality structure, a topographic model of personality. And also, Freud formulated the mechanisms of psychological defense. They are used unconsciously by a person in situations of painful impact on his psyche.

Three-component personality structure

IT or in Latin id. Instincts are expressed through it. IT is filled with lower needs and desires. Due to this structure, the personality constantly strives either for life and love - eros, or for death and aggression - thanatos.
Self or ego. This component forces the individual to act according to rules and laws. But the I is still focused on satisfying the desires of the IT component.
Super-ego or superego. The highest structure. It provides standards of morality and morality, and encourages beauty.

According to Freud, all structures are influenced by libido. It makes one strive for desires and attempts to satisfy them through one of the structures. In psychoanalysis, Freud associates libido with the manifestation of sexual desires.

Topographic model of personality

In this model, Freud presented consciousness as a complex formation. He suggested that a person has a focus of consciousness and its peripheral areas.

Consciousness contains everything with which a person interacts right now. These are both objects of attention and information necessary to perform the activity. Consciousness contains lobes of the Ego and the Super-Ego.
Preconscious. That which is repressed from consciousness due to uselessness, but can be restored if necessary.
Components that a person has not addressed for a long time, painful situations and memories are repressed into the unconscious. It is difficult to remove components from the unconscious without resistance. This is almost always an unpleasant process for the individual. The unconscious contains the IT and the Superego. Within the framework of psychoanalysis, work is carried out with the unconscious.

Levels of consciousness according to Freud

Freud divided the psyche into three levels - preconscious, conscious and unconscious. He is also the author of the division of personality into three components - “I”, “Super-I” and “It”. The preconscious level can perceive information with proper concentration. It refers to threshold perception. Memories fall into this category. People do not remember them every second, but with effort, these images will immediately appear in their imagination. Freud's theory of personality development assigns consciousness the role of “a sense organ for the perception of mental qualities.” But what interested him most was the unconscious. It is this that accommodates the natural needs of the body - primarily aggression and sexual energy.

Freud also divided human personality into three components. The "It" or "Id" is the most primitive of them. This part is located in the unconscious and exists on the principle of pleasure. It is here that the drives are contained - the instinct for life, called "Eros", and the instinct for death, "Thanatos". Personal development draws its energy from this part of the psyche.

Personality structure according to Perls

The Gestalt approach - the personality structure according to Perls - is three parts of the I-awareness of reality - external reality, internal reality and abstract reality.

External awareness of reality is what you can see, hear, feel physically, smell and taste in real time... not only you, but also those around you...

Inner awareness of reality is something that only you can feel and perceive with your senses, i.e. it's what's inside your body.

Abstract awareness of reality is knowledge, reflections, fantasies, dreams, illusions, memories of the past and planning for the future... - all this constitutes the human essence.

But for a person to be happy, all three parts of Self-awareness, the entire personality structure, must work evenly...

In many psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic schools of our time, as well as the authorities of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy listed above, the structure of a person’s personality (psyche) is used, and as a rule these are three parts of the Self - “Stereotypical Self”, “Rational Self” and “Emotional Self”.

The stereotypical self is similar to Freud's Super-Ego, Berne's Parent-Ego, and Perls' Abstract Self.

The rational self is similar to Freud's Ego, Eric Berne's Adult Self, and Fritz Perls' External Self.

The emotional self is reminiscent of Sigmund Freud's ID, Bern's Child Self, Frederic Perls's Inner Self.

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Eros

Eros is a sexual instinct, it is a manifestation of libido. A person, not being in the herd, cannot fully realize all his sexual aspirations. He unwittingly has to suppress them, limiting himself. In a favorable situation, sexual energy will be directed towards creation, creativity, science or political activity.

In other words, in any direction that requires a powerful investment of strength and manifestation of oneself. Sigmund Freud called this displacement of the sexual instinct into another sphere the term “sublimation.”

On the verge of internal explosion

Freud emphasized that there is an unstable balance between the three personality structures, since not only their content, but also the directions of their development are opposite to each other. The instincts contained in “It” strive for their own satisfaction, dictating to a person such desires that are practically impossible to fulfill in any society. The “super-ego,” which includes a person’s conscience, self-observation and ideals, warns him about the impossibility of realizing these desires and stands guard over compliance with the norms accepted in a given society. Thus, the “I” becomes, as it were, an arena for the struggle of contradictory tendencies that are dictated by the “It” and the “Super-Ego”. This state of internal conflict in which a person constantly finds himself makes him a potential neurotic. Therefore, Freud constantly emphasized that there is no clear line between normality and pathology, and the constant tension people experience makes them potential neurotics. The ability to maintain one’s mental health depends on psychological defense mechanisms that help a person, if not prevent (since this is actually impossible), then at least mitigate the conflict between the “It” and the “Super-Ego”.

Priority of the unconscious

According to Freud, the human personality is like an iceberg. On the surface there is a visible, conscious part, the state of the Ego, and under the water there is a block of unconscious drives and desires. And there is always a risk that this iceberg can completely engulf an individual.

This idea was a strong blow to the accepted concept of man. After all, in fact, this meant that he had no power over his own personality, which was subject to the influence of something unconscious and unreflected.