The vast majority of thoughts driving our personality and the most important from a psychodynamic view point are fond in the unconscious. This is material to which you have no immediate access. You cannot bring unconscious material into the conscious except under extreme situations, for example; with the use of Freudian therapies. The unconscious drives our behaviour although we are unaware of it. The unconscious drives our behaviour without us knowing it and is said to consist of thoughts and desires that have been locked away in our minds by using defence mechanisms because we were unable to deal with the thoughts or they were inappropriate.
The Structural Model
Freud later discovered that the Topographic model was to narrow or limited in its explanation or description of human personality. He therefore added the structural model, which divides human personality into another 3 parts. These are call ego, superego and id.
The id is present from birth and described as the selfish part of you. Actions taken by the id are based on the pleasure principle. In other words the id is concerned only with what brings immediate satisfaction, regardless of any physical or social limitations. (When babies see something they want, they reach for it regardless of whether it belongs to someone else or that it maybe harmful to them.) The id doesn’t disappear when we become adults. Rather, it is held in place by our ego and superego. The id buried in our unconscious therefore our id impulses remain out of our awareness.
The ego gradually develops during the first 2 years of life. The actions of the ego are based on the reality principle. The ego serves to satisfy the id, but in a manner that takes into consideration the realities of the situation. Because id impulses are socially unacceptable and therefore threatening to us, the ego’s job is to keep the id impulses in our unconscious. Unlike the id, your ego moves freely among the preconscious, conscious and unconscious parts of your mind.
The superego gradually develops during the next three years of life form 2 to 5 years old. The superego represents societies and in particular the parents values and standards. The superego places more restrictions on what you can and can’t do. The superego, like the ego, moves freely throughout our conscious, preconscious and unconscious. Here is an example of how your superego controls our id impulses.
Id – John wanted to have sex with Jenna. Jenna didn’t want to, however he still intended to sleep with her.
Ego – It’s not right as she hasn’t consented and so a plan needs to be made for John to get away with it. E.g getting Jenna drunk or drugging her so she cannot react and is less likely to remember all of the facts.
Superego – It’s wrong to sleep with her as she hasn’t consented and this is known as rape and he will be punished
Free Association:
‘Method of investigation of the unconscious in which the client expresses thoughts exactly as they occur, even though they may seem irrelevant’.
How does free association work?
Clients are asked to say exactly what they are thinking as quickly as possible without thinking about it. This is so clients can temporarily bypass the ego as it is the ego’s job to block out id impulses (in line with the reality principle). This way, psychotherapists can tap into your id impulses and find out what is really driving your behaviour.
Problems with Free Association and Dream Analysis
How do we know the id, ego and superego and our conscious, unconscious and preconscious exist? They cannot be tested because they are subjective. Therefore, Freud’s theories are not scientific. People might not take this method of therapy seriously.
People can lie about what they are thinking or what they have dreamed about because they don’t want the psychotherapists to know what is going on in their mind.
Advantages of Free Association and Dream Analysis
You can relate to it. Experience feelings of the id, ego and superego for example ‘one half of me wants to do one thing and the other half wants to do something else’
