According to psychoanalytic theory the personality is developed through a number of stages that are identified by certain psychological conflict. There are a number of ways that psychologist approach psychoanalytic theory. Freud’s theory argued that behavior in humans is influenced by the id, ego and superego. Freud believed that the personality which develops during childhood is the result of five psychosexual stages. These stages put the child in conflict with their inner drives and expectations and by mastering these conflicts one will develop a mature personality.
• According to Freud the id is the most primitive and is characterized by unconscious need for the instantaneous fulfillment of one’s desires. …show more content…
He theorized that people were driven by the life and death force and that the mind consisted of three parts; the id, ego and superego. These must be balanced in order to shape a balanced mind. Alfred Adler thought that psychosis was caused by having an inferiority complex. He believed that such a person would spend their lives trying to overcome their feelings of inferiority. This would result in the person ceasing to develop emotionally beyond the age when their inferiority developed. Carl Jung believed that the human psyche was of a spiritual nature. He felt that dreams were a way to unlock a person’s inner psyche. He believed that in order for a person to become whole they must assimilate the conscious and unconscious mind in a process called …show more content…
Freud identifies these memories as archetypes or tendencies to behave in certain ways in certain situations. Jung on the other hand views the archetype as a situation that has recurred throughout history. Adler focused on looking at the whole person rather than just pieces of the personality. Like Freud, Adler also focused on sex and the repression of self in in regards to power dynamics. Unlike Freud he did not interpret conflicts, such as the Oedipal and Electra complexes to be a result of sexuality, but rather a fight for power in the relationship between a child and its mother. He focused more on birth order, believing that your birth position effected how you were treated and therefore determines how you react to the world as an