Question

How does Freud explain the structure of personality?

Answer 1

According to Freud’s theory, there are three primary structural elements of personality which are id, ego, and superego. They reside in the unconscious as forces and they can be inferred from the ways people behave.

(1) Id :- It is the source of a person’s instinctual energy. It deals with the immediate gratification of primitive needs, sexual desires, and aggressive impulses. It works on the pleasure principle, which assumes that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain. Freud considered much of a person’s instinctual energy to be sexual, and the rest as aggressive. Id does not care for moral values, society, or other individuals.
(2) Ego :- It grows out of id, and seeks to satisfy an individual’s instinctual needs in accordance with reality. It works by the reality principle and often directs the id towards more appropriate ways of behaving. The ego is patient, reasonable, and works by the reality principle.
(3) Superego :- The best way to characterize the superego is to think of it as the moral branch of mental functioning. The superego tells the id and the ego whether gratification in a particular instance is ethical. It helps control the id by internalizing the parental authority through the process of socialization.

Thus, in terms of individual functioning, Freud thought of the unconscious as being composed of three competing forces. In some people, the id is stronger than the superego; in others, it is the superego. The relative strength of the id, ego, and superego determines each person’s stability. Freud also assumed that id is energized by two instinctual forces, called life instinct and death instinct. He paid less attention to the death instinct and focused more on the life (or sexual) instinct. The instinctual life force that energizes the id is called libido. It works on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification.