Freud and Psychodynamic Theory :: Papers

Freud and Psychodynamic Theory Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in the Moravian town of Freiberg, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today a part of Czechoslovakia. He was born into a family full of enough complexity and confusion to give him significant material for his ruminations on the individual mind and its connections with others. His mother, Amalia, an assertive, good-looking woman, was twenty years younger than her husband Jacob. She was his third wife; he was forty at Freud's birth. Freud's siblings were two half-brothers, grown-up, a constant reminder of the oddity of his position. His own confusions, hatreds, love and desires from this period appear to have had significant impact on his later work on development. Components Of Personality Id As the baby emerges from the womb into the reality of life, he wants only to eat, drink, urinate, defecate, be warm, and gain sexual pleasure. These urges are the demands of the id, the most primitive motivational force. In pursuit of these ends, the id demands immediate gratification: it is ruled by the pleasure principle, demanding satisfaction now, regardless of circumstances and possible undesirable effects. If a young child was ruled entirely by his id, he would steal and eat a piece of chocolate from a store regardless of the menacing owner watching above him or even his parents scolding beside him. The id will not stand for a delay in gratification. For some urges, such as urination, this is easily satisfied. However, if the urge is not immediately discharaged, the id will form a memory of the end of the motivation: the thirsty infant will form an image of the mother's breast. This act of wish-fulfillment satisfies the id's desire for the moment, though obviously it does not reduce the tension of the unfulfilled urge. Ego The eventual understanding that immediate gratification is usually impossible (and often unwise) comes with the formation of the ego, which is ruled by the reality principle. The ego acts as a go-between