Freud believed the previous model of personality had limitations and in addition developed the structural model for helping to understand human personality. This divides personality into three categories; the id, the ego and the superego. The id part of personality is selfish and is concerned with pleasure for immediate effect without any other considerations. Freud believed this is the only personality at birth to around 2 years old and may explain why babies act in the way they do, grabbing things for example. This part of personality has no regard for morals or for what is acceptable in society and is buried in the unconscious (Jones 1963). This may explain why Tony Montana gets in the car with his bosses wife and immediately try’s to kiss her. The ego is developed from two years on and takes the whole situation in to consideration but still aims to satisfy the id. This personality structure moves freely between the conscious and unconscious but most of the time keeps id impulses in the unconscious as they could be potentially threatening to the individual (Schultz & Schultz 2001).The superego is developed from around the age of 5 and could be described as a person’s moral compass. This personality structure again moves between the conscious and unconscious, its aim is to prevent us doing things which are wrong in the eyes of society. The superego also acts to the standards to which the ego determines right and wrong. The super ego can fail to develop in some individuals if a child is raised poorly (Mischel & Plomin 1999). Our character in question is raised by his mother only, and is not close to her at all, when he goes to visit her she disowns him and may have shown little emotional attachment when he was growing up, “Son? I wish I had one...you where a bum then and your a bum now”–Tony’s Mother. In most individuals who are brought up in a healthy environment the ego acts to balance the id and superego control over personality. In the case of Tony Montana it is apparent that his superego is underdeveloped, this explains why he kills and robs with no guilty feelings, “I kill a communist for fun, but for a green card, i gonna carve him up real nice”. However occasionally he does show he has some sort of morals, when he prevents the killing of a women and children for example. His ego is present as it allows him to satisfy id impulses but in a manner which will prevent him being caught. Examples of this are when he kills the communist party member in the prison camp, he waits until there is a riot so it is harder for him to be shown as the culprit. However the ego tends to come and go, for example when he attempts to kiss his bosses wife and when he shoots a gang member in the middle of the street in front of numerous witnesses. The fact that both Tony’s ego and superego come and go could show that there are limitations to Freud’s structural model and perhaps there are other factors at play.
In order to keep unwanted desires hidden or in the unconscious Freud believed the ego used techniques called defence mechanisms. I will now look at some of these defence mechanisms and look at how these could be applied to our character Tony Montana. Repression is an involuntary removal of something from the conscious which brings pain to an individual. In the case of Tony Montana an example of repression could be when an immigrant official asks him where his mother is and he replies “she’s dead”, this may because he has a negative relationship with his mother. This could also be an example of denial which involves an individual denying the existence of something which is threatening. Another example of this is when Tony’s sister has been shot and is clearly dead, Tony says to her “its ok...I’ll be back”. Another mechanism is sublimation which turns aggressive id impulses to socially acceptable actions. For example playing sports such as football allows you to be rewarded for aggressive actions for example a hard tackle. (Burger 2008) However in the case of Tony Montana it would appear this mechanism is non existent or underdeveloped as he continues to act aggressively in socially unacceptable ways hitting women for example. The next mechanism is Displacement which involves shifting id impulses to a less threatening or different object. For example Tony’s hate for his mother may be channelled into aggressive acts which he does to other individuals killing etc. This could be due to the absence of the superego. Rationalization is another mechanism. This acts to change behaviour to make it more acceptable and less threatening. Tony is over protective of his sister and doesn’t want her to be with any guys, this could be rationalization of the fact that Tony has unconscious feelings, perhaps sexual towards his sister.
A final theory of personality which Freud developed is stages of development. Freud believed personality is shaped by experiences and therefore every one is individual with there own unique personality. He viewed development during early childhood as specifically important in shaping our future adult behaviour. Children try to satisfy id impulses and parents try to suppress these with society norms. Freud’s theory included 5 stages of psychosexual development which we go through from birth to early adulthood. The first stage is the oral stage and occurs around birth to two years. This is when personality is dominated by the id and can be seen as selfish. During the oral stage the main source of pleasure is the mouth and if babies experiences a traumatic event or to much praise the may have an oral fixation as an adult. In the movie Tony is constantly seen smoking cigars, snorting cocaine and drinking hard liquor and you may come to the conclusion that he has an oral fixation. The second part of the oral stage happens when babies are teething and people fixated at this stage can develop aggressive, hostile personalities which Tony certainly possesses. The next stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage and this occurs around the time of toilet training. Parents try to control when their children decide to defecate which can be distressing because this act brings pleasure. Children who defecate when there parents disapprove can develop anal aggressive personalities “To Freud, this was the basis for many forms of hostile and sadistic behaviour in adult life, including cruelty, destructiveness, and anger tantrums. Such a person is likely to be disorderly and to view other people as objects to be possessed” (Schultz & Schultz 2001. P.61-62) This is an accurate description of Tony whom displays tantrums on numerous occasions and views his wife as a material asset he gains by killing her then husband. The next stage of development is the phallic stage and occurs around the age of 5. The genitals become the main pleasure area and boys develop love for their mother and fear for there father. Freud believed that because boys wish to replace their father they develop a fear that their father will castrate them. In Tony’s case it seems that the father is absent and this may explain why he has no conscious as he did not develop a fear of his father (Freud 1929). It also could explain why he has a negative relationship with his mother. After this stage there Freud believed there where no major change until puberty. Following this stage known as latency the genital stage of psychosexual behaviour begins around the age of puberty to early adulthood. If an individual had left no major fixation at other points in their development they would go on to develop what as seen as normal adult behaviour. In the case of Tony it would seem that some of his libidinal energy has been left at the oral and anal stages. This may explain his constant use of cigars, cocaine, and whisky, as well as his destructive and violent behaviour. At the phallic stage he may not have developed a fear of his father, due to his absences and this may explain Tony’s lack of conscience. A criticism of this theory is that it try’s to place people into one category for example people with an oral fixation will constantly put things to their mouth. In reality however people often display affects of more than one of the stages, such as our character Tony Montana.
In conclusion Freud’s psychoanalytic approach is still useful even today. It allows basic Insights into why individuals act in the way they do. Using Freud’s approach you would be able to predict the absence of the father in the character of Tony Montana and perhaps even the negative relationship he has with his mother. We can also explain why Tony acts in the violent and destructive manner that he does and maybe even begin to believe that it’s not his fault. However this approach does have limitations and our character has demonstrated this. With regards to the structural model both Tony’s ego and superego come and come with such random frequency it is hard to believe such a rigid model. In addition to this Tony displays fixation and affects of a number of the stages of development and again this brings suspicions that other factors may be at play.
Bibliography:
Burger, J. M. (2008). Personality (7th ed.). Belmont: Thomas Learning.
Freud, S. (1929). Introductory lectures on Psycho-analysis(2nd ed.) London: Tinling
Jones, E. (1963). The Life and Works of Sigmund Freud. New York: Anchor books
Liebert, R. M. & Langenbach, L. L. (2007). Personality: Strategies & issues (8th ed.). California: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Mischel, W. & Plomin R. (1999). Introduction to Personality (6th ed.). Florida: Harcourt Publishers.
Schultz, D. P. & Schultz, S. E. (2001). Theories of Personality (7th ed.). Berkshire: Thomas Learning.
