Psy 250 - Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality

Psychoanalytic

Psychoanalytic

Cecilia Martinez

PSY/250 , Faye Flanagan

University of Phoenix

Taking a moment to actually analyze yourself objectively is not a easy thing to do. I have always wondered why I do what I do and how come I feel the way I do. I can dish out great advice all day but I can't follow it to save my life. Earlier this week we spoke about the three dimensions of the mind. The id, the ego and super ego; however often our ego is much louder than our super-ego despite its "super" name.

Let's compare the psychoanalytic approach to personality. Freud hypothesized on frustration-aggression. Sigmund Freud states that "aggression is always a consequences of frustration" (Burger, 2008). Basically us as humans use aggression as our outlet to frustration. If you can imagine a bottle of soda. The soda inside can represent frustration and as you shake it up or add more frustration eventaully the bottle will explode and the explosion represents aggression. Once the aggression has been released we are generally calm until we feel overly frustrated again. I agree with this approach because I see it daily. Whether its someone hitting their key board or simply crumbling up a piece of paper they started writing. Its all substantiated on a daily basis. Now I feel a little skeptical on the therory that we need to letting of a little steam before doing something crazy. I believe that yes we should let off steam however I don't believe that if you don't let off the stress that someone will do something crazy. Some people leave it bottled up and the affects are presented in things such as depression or drinking and doing drugs. Though any one of these things is harmful to the human body they are not destructive to anyone else but the actual person who is doing the drugs or expierencing the depression.

Freud believes things such as being self destructive or being an enabler in the relationship or habits such as smoking are all related to phases that all humans go through while growing up.

For example in the oral phase; this phase spans until the child is 18 months. Children during this phase explore with their mouth its how they satisy their curiousity. Freud says that traumatic expierences during this time such as weening to early or feeding problems can lead to oral fixation. That kid may become a what is labeled as an oral personality. They may develop habits such as eating their finger nails to the bud, smoking or drinking habits (Burger, 2008). At 18 months the child will transition to the anal phase this is the children usually begin potty training. This is also the period where both little girls and boys will start to notice this part of their body. Potty training is not easy and the parent can become frustrated and the child as well if he or she feels as they are dissapointing the parent. Freud said that if potty training is not down correct the child may act either act one of two ways. One is anal retentive or anal expulsive. The child who is anal retentive will often refuse the toilet. An anal retentive child as an adult is usually a "neat freak" and sometimes will be considered as not a "people person" (anti-social). The anal expulsive child will have lots of accidents proving that her or she can use the bathroom anywhere they please. What the child is doing is obecting to using the toilet. As an adult the will be unorganized and selfish or iconsiderate to others.

Talking about the different stages just goes to prove Freud theory on how personality traits are formed. Yes, it may be true that some are inherited but we know that we have substaintiating evidence that proves Sigumnd Freud's veiw on personality. How do we cope with our own personalities and those of others? We build defense mechanism such as Repression where we a the mind tries to push a traumatic expierence to the unconsious level. A child being abused as a kid may repress