Question

Answer the following question:  
Discuss Sigmund Freud’s view about the structure of personality.

Answer 1

The structure of personality:

Freud suggested that personality consists largely of three parts the id, the ego, and the superego. The id consists of all our primitive, innate urges. These include various bodily needs, sexual, desires, and aggressive impulses. According to Freud, the id is totally unconscious and operative in accordance with what he termed the pleasure principle. It demands immediate, total gratification and in . not capable of considering the potential costs of seeking this goal.

The second structure of personality is the ego. The ego’s task is to hold the id in check until conditions allow for the satisfaction of its impulses. Thus, the ego operates in accordance with the reality principle. It takes into account external conditions and the consequences of various activities and directs behavior so as to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The ego is partly conscious but not entirely; thus, some of its actions – for example, its eternal struggle with the id – are outside our conscious knowledge or understanding.

The final aspect of personality described by Freud is the Superego. It too seeks to control the satisfaction of id impulses, but, in contrast to the ego, it is concerned with morality – with whether various ways that could potentially satisfy id impulses are right or wrong. The superego permits us to gratify such impulses only when it is morally correct to do so – not simply when it is safe or feasible, as required by ego. So, for example, it would be the superego, not the ego, that would prevent a stockbroker from altering a computer program and thereby transferring funds from his clients’ accounts into his own account, even though he knew he could get away with this action.

Freud feels that this constant struggle among id, ego, and superego plays a key role in personality and in many psychological disorders. Moreover, he suggested that the struggle was often visible in everyday behavior in what has come to be known as Freudian Slips errors in the speech that in fact betray unconscious thoughts or impulses.