Explain Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality development

Sigmund Freud practiced as a psychiatrist in Vienna in the late nineteenth century. He mainly treated neurotic middle-aged women and his observations and case studies of these women led Freud to propose a system of character knowledge. The main basic principle of his study suggested that adult personality is the result of an interaction amid innate drives (such as the desire for pleasure) and former(a) experience. Freud proposed that individual personality differences can be traced back to the way the other(a) conflicts between desire and experience were handled. These conflicts remain with the adult and exert force per unit area through unconsciously motivated behaviour.Freuds scheme proposed that the mind can be divided into three main adjourns. These are the id, ego and superego. The id contains innate internal and aggressive instincts and departs alongside the pleasure principle, which searches for immediate satisfaction. The ego is the conscious, sharp-witted mind and works on the reality principle. Last is the superego. This is the conscience and knows between right and wrong. These can be related to personality s to each one person may be dominated by a part of the mind. For exemplification, wad who are dominated by their Id are said to be erotic and seek pleasure.Freud also defined stages of psychosexual development. These stages are oral, anal retentive, phallic, latency and genital. If a child experiences severe problems or excessive pleasure at any(prenominal) stage during development, this can control to fixation which can then lead to differences in personality. Regression can also occur if adults experience stressful situations. Freud believed that both fixation and regression play important roles in ascertain adult personality.A good example of this can be seen in children that become fixated on the anal stage. They feel that they can control their natural functions and enjoy retaining faeces. Fixation on retaining faeces can l ead to an anal retentive personality type. This type is characterised as being clean, orderly and obstinate. egotism defence is also a process involved in the development of personality. There are a variety of defence mechanisms used as protection by the ego. Denial is a very good example of this. This is refusing to accept the existence of a threatening event e.g. some patients twinge from a life-threatening illness may deny that the illness is bear upon their lives. Freud saw these defences as unhealthy and believed that they affecting personality development.Much of Freuds work was supported by other research evidence whereas others conflicted with his work. Evidence funding Freuds theory of fixation was published by Rosenwald (1972). He found that people who scored high for anal retentiveness were reluctant to put their hands into a brown substance resembling excrement. This suggests that anal retentives do have anxieties about faeces.Freuds theory can also be used to explain inconsistency (part of me wants to, notwithstanding the other part doesnt). it also largely omitted social influences and promoted a deterministic, biologic view.Also criticisms of Freuds theory include that Freud conducted his study on middle-classes white Viennese women and so is hard to generalise for other cultures.