The Freudian Perspective

The Freudian perspective indicates that Steve's relationships with women are internally motivated. Steve is acting on his id's impulses, known as the pleasure principle, which is internal and unconscious. Steve would not be aware of why he interacts with women on only a sexual basis. The id, motivation for his behavior, is located in the unconscious. The ego is most involved in controlling this behavior because the ego is the only province of the mind in contact with the conscious and is in control of balancing the id's impulses. The Freudian psychic energy that motivates Steve's relationships with women is the sex drive, known as libido. Steve is fixated in the phallic stage of Freud's stages of psychosexual development. In this stage, the genital area becomes the leading erogenous zone. Steve is constantly seeking sexual pleasure and has difficulty in his relationships with women. This …show more content…
Repression is a component in other defense mechanisms. Repression is the act of placing unwanted thoughts, feelings, and impulses into the unconscious and blocking from the consciousness. An example of this is an individual who repressed memories of childhood abuse in order to reduce their conscious anxiety but becomes emotional and uncomfortable around adults who resembles their abuser but is not aware of the cause. Displacement is the transferring of feelings onto someone or something else that may be less threatening. After a stressful day at work, an individual takes their anger and frustrations from their boss and takes that out on their significant other. Part of displacement is the sublimation defense mechanism. This is when an individual takes unwanted impulse and uses the energy from these impulses into an acceptable form. An individual with high aggression may turn this energy into being accomplished at boxing, a form accepted by society that allows their aggression to be