The document discusses psychoanalytical theories of personality, primarily based on the work of Sigmund Freud, who emphasized the role of unconscious psychological conflicts in behavior. It outlines Freud's structural model of the mind, psychosexual development stages, and various defense mechanisms that the ego employs to manage anxiety. Additionally, it addresses criticisms of Freud's theories, including their reliance on case studies and limited focus on female development.

1. Psychoanalytical
Theories
Personality Theories

2. Prepared By
Manu Melwin Joy
Research Scholar
School of Management Studies
CUSAT, Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com
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Please seek permission to reproduce the same in public
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3. SAMSAMANTHA
Thoughts
Feelings
Displaced
Anger
Unconsciou
s

4. • Psychoanalytic theories explain human behaviour in terms of the interaction of
various components of personality.
• Sigmund Freud was the founder of this school.
• Freud drew on the physics of his day (thermodynamics) to coin the term psycho-
dynamics.
• Based on the idea of converting heat into mechanical energy, he proposed
psychic energy could be converted into behaviour.
• Freud's theory places central importance on dynamic, unconscious psychological
conflicts.
Psychoanalytical Theories

5. Structural model of personality
The founder of psychoanalytic theory was Sigmund Freud. The
term psychoanalysis is used to refer to many aspects of Freud’s work
and research, including Freudian therapy and the research
methodology he used to develop his theories. Freud relied heavily
upon his observations and case studies of his patients when he
formed his theory of personality development.

6. Structural model of personality
According to Freud the mind can be divided
into two main parts:
• The conscious mind includes everything
that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our
mental processing that we can think and talk
about rationally.
• The unconscious mind is a reservoir of
feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that
outside of our conscious awareness. Most of
the contents of the unconscious are
unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings
of pain, anxiety, or conflict.

8. Stages of Psychosexual Development
According to Sigmund Freud, personality is mostly established by
the age of five. Early experiences play a large role in personality
development and continue to influence behavior later in life. Freud's
theory of psychosexual development is one of the best known, but
also one of the most controversial. Freud believed that personality
develops through a series of childhood stages during which the
pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain
erogenous areas. This psychosexual energy, or libido, was described
as the driving force behind behavior.

9. Sigmund Freud defined
libido as the instinct energy
or force, contained in what
Freud called the id, the
largely unconscious
structure of the psyche.
Building on the work of Karl
Abraham, Freud developed
the idea of a series of
developmental phases in
which the libido fixates on
different erogenous zones

10. Structural model of personality

11. Defence Mechanisms
The term got its start in psychoanalytic therapy, but it has slowly worked its
way into everyday language. In Sigmund Freud's topographical model of
personality, the ego is the aspect of personality that deals with reality. While
doing this, the ego also has to cope with the conflicting demands of the id and
the superego. The id seeks to fulfil all wants, needs and impulses while the
superego tries to get the ego to act in an idealistic and moral manner. What
happens when the ego cannot deal with the demands of our desires, the
constraints of reality and our own moral standards?

12. Defence Mechanisms
According to Freud, anxiety is an unpleasant inner state that people seek to avoid.
Anxiety acts as a signal to the ego that things are not going right. Frued identified
three types of anxiety:
• Neurotic anxiety is the unconscious worry that we will lose control of the
id's urges, resulting in punishment for inappropriate behavior.
• Reality anxiety is fear of real-world events. The cause of this anxiety is
usually easily identified. For example, a person might fear receiving a dog bite
when they are near a menacing dog. The most common way of reducing this
anxiety is to avoid the threatening object.
• Moral anxiety involves a fear of violating our own moral principles.
In order to deal with this anxiety, Freud believed that defense mechanisms helped
shield the ego from the conflicts created by the id, superego and reality.

13. Defence Mechanisms
• Denial - Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that something
has occurred or is currently occurring. Drug addicts or alcoholics often deny
that they have a problem, while victims of traumatic events may deny that
the event ever occurred.
• Repression - Repression acts to keep information out of conscious
awareness. However, these memories don't just disappear; they continue to
influence our behavior. For example, a person who has repressed memories
of abuse suffered as a child may later have difficulty forming relationships.
• Suppression - Sometimes we do this consciously by forcing the unwanted
information out of our awareness, which is known as suppression. In most
cases, however, this removal of anxiety-provoking memories from our
awareness is believed to occur unconsciously.

15. Defence Mechanisms
• Displacement - Displacement involves taking out our frustrations, feelings
and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening. Displaced
aggression is a common example of this defense mechanism.
• Sublimation - Sublimation is a defence mechanism that allows us to act
out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviours into a more
acceptable form. For example, a person experiencing extreme anger might
take up kick-boxing as a means of venting frustration.
• Projection - Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our
own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.
For example, if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead
believe that he or she does not like you

17. Defence Mechanisms
• Intellectualization - Intellectualization works to reduce anxiety by
thinking about events in a cold, clinical way. For example, a person who has just
been diagnosed with a terminal illness might focus on learning everything
about the disease in order to avoid distress and remain distant from the reality
of the situation.
• Rationalization - Rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves
explaining an unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner,
avoiding the true reasons for the behavior. For example a student might blame
a poor exam score on the instructor rather than his or her lack of preparation.
• Regression - When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes
abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in
development. For example, an individual fixated at an earlier developmental
stage might cry or sulk upon hearing unpleasant news.

19. Criticisms
• The theory is focused almost entirely on male development with little
mention of female psychosexual development.
• His theories are difficult to test scientifically. Concepts such as
the libido are impossible to measure, and therefore cannot be tested.
• Future predictions are too vague. How can we know that a current
behavior was caused specifically by a childhood experience? The length of
time between the cause and the effect is too long to assume that there is
a relationship between the two variables.
• Freud's theory is based upon case studies and not empirical
research. Also, Freud based his theory on the recollections of his adult
patients, not on actual observation and study of children.

21. Other TA topics available on slideshare
1. Strokes - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/strokes-24081607.
2. Games People Play - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/psychological-
games-people-play.
3. Structural Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/the-ego-state-model.
4. What is TA? - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/what-ta-is
5. Cycles of Development - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/cycles-of-
developement-pamela-levin-transactional-analysis.
6. Stages of Cure - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stages-of-cure.
7. Transactions - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/transactions-33677298.
8. Time Structuring - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/time-structuring.
9. Life Position - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/life-position.
10. Autonomy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/autonomy-33690557.
11. Structural Pathology - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/structural-pathology.
12. Game Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/game-analysis-33725636.
13. Integrated Adult - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/integrated-adult.
14. Stroke Economy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stroke-economy-
33826702.