Here are the answers to your questions: 1. Libido is Freud's term for the psychic energy or internal force that motivates our behavior. It is the psychological energy we use to obtain pleasure. 2. The 3 levels of the mind according to Freud are: - ID: The instincts. It operates based on the pleasure principle. - EGO: It negotiates between the demands of the ID and reality. It operates based on the reality principle. - SUPER-EGO: It represents internalized societal rules and parental values. It incorporates the do's and don'ts learned during early childhood. 3. The 3 levels of consciousness are: - Conscious: We are aware of

1. Freud was a Austrian Jewish doctor.
Freud deeply admired Charles Darwin to the point that Freud came to reject Judaism and
religion in general.
Freud's parents became poor after his father, a previously successful wool merchant, had to
sell his business and move to Vienna. He kept that money for Sigmund Freud’s education. He
studied Medicine, but ended up dying of mouth cancer caused by heavy smoking. He treated
the pain with a very popular substance at that time and the only pain killer available: cocaine.
Although he did not believe in religion, his theories were influenced by the Jewish culture
he grew up in (sex guilt) and the historical time he lived in, like the Victorian era in which
sex should not even be mentioned, and Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (evolution
vs creation, eugenics).

2. According to Freud, we do things to seek pleasure.
In other words, behaviour is (unconsciously) motivated
by pleasure.
That motivation comes from the libido.
Libido is the internal, psychological energy we use to
obtain pleasure. That is, to act we need energy (like a car
needs fuel to run), the fuel we use to act is called libido

3. Our psychological structure (our mind) has got 3 levels:
• the ID (Instincts)
• the EGO (person = nEGOtiator)
• the SUPER-EGO (Society, conscience).
Your decisions are your own nEGOtiations between what
you really want to do (your instincts or ID) and what
society or your conscience say are OK to do (SUPER-EGO).
Your final decisions are made by the EGO (that is, you).

4. Our behaviour (that is, our actions) can be:
• Conscious (we are aware of why we are doing something)
• Pre-conscious (automatic, you really don’t think about it)
• Un-conscious (we don’t know why we are doing
something, but we are; the real reason is hidden (repressed
since childhood) and can be made conscious through
Psychoanalysis)

5. According to Freud, personality develops through 5 stages:
Oral Stage : 0 - 1 year
Sucking is the main source of pleasure. Infants interact with the world through their mouth. The mouth is vital for eating.
If the child does not suck enough, s/he may develop an oral fixation later in life, examples of which include thumb-sucking, smoking,
fingernail biting and overeating. If the child sucks too much s/he may develop into a pleasure seeking personality. Children are all ID.
Anal Stage: 1 - 3 years
Bladder and bowel relief cause pleasure. Retention causes pressure and discomfort.
Toilet training is a primary issue with children and parents. Too much pressure can result in an excessive need for order or cleanliness later in
life, while too little pressure from parents can lead to messy or destructive behaviour later in life.
Phallic Stage: 3 - 6 years
Touching the genitals causes pleasure. However, this is not acceptable (no!). In this phase, children develop an attraction for the opposite sex
parent. This is called Oedipal Complex in boys and Electra Complex, in girls. To cope with this conflict, the child acts like the same-sex
parent. This is how the Super-ego is appears.
Latent Stage: 6 - 11 years
During this stage, the child does not have any urges. The superego continues to develop (through socialization) while the id is supressed.
Genital Stage: From 11 years
Sex becomes the main source of pleasure. The onset of puberty causes the ID to become active once again. During this stage, people develop a
strong interest in the sex. If development has been successful to this point, the individual will become a well-balanced person.

6. 1. What is Libido?
2. What are the 3 levels of the mInD? Describe them.
3. Our behaviour (or actions) can be done at 3 different levels of
consciousness. Name and describe them.
4. What are the 5 stages of Freud’s Psycho-sexual theory? Describe
them.