Psychoanalysis: Connection of Our Past Childhood Experiences to the Present

The definition of personality or self is a concept that has generated many theories. How does one truly describe or measure personality? Psychoanalysis is one of the methods used to investigate the mind by using therapy as a technique to bring to surface dormant or unconscious thoughts, urges, and feelings that ultimately lead to our behavior and shape our personalities. Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler both had their own theories on personality with similarities and differences in their approach. Freud’s deterministic view cements personality as a predetermined concept based on childhood experiences while Adler’s take on personality steers away from being rigidly fixed by childhood but more of a multifaceted idea working in harmony with society. The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, explained our behavior by the violent internal conflict of cognitive systems we are not aware of governing our desires, drives, and motivations. We are a product of conflicting features, the Id, Ego, and Superego manifested in the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious psyche. Freud explains the dynamic warfare between all three mechanisms, how they communicate, and if one is stronger than the others.

The Id is biological, present at birth, with a pure desire for pleasure as it works in accordance with the pleasure principle, also defined as (Porte, M 2005, pp. 776), International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, “...the id (das Es) is the mental agency, in Freud's ‘second topography’, that answers to the instincts and to the greater part of the unconscious processes.” The intangible drives of the Id are the energy source that fuels our behavior. The Superego is our moral reproach, our conscience, a set of internalized rules set by parents and society, it keeps us decent and appropriate by prohibiting the instant gratification the Id desperately seeks.

The Ego is the center or personality process, it is our self identity. The Ego is the origin of our consciousness, it does the decision making and attempts to compromise between the Id and Superego by either satisfying or suppressing our desires. As individuals we desire to develop our Ego to the best of our potential but it is important to recognize the existence of the unconscious element in the mind as a whole in comparison to the conscious, therefore, one must question our acts as personal or truly our own (Lay, W 1995, pp.13). The unconscious holds all of our deepest hidden thoughts and desires which influence our behavior by making conscious decisions to what will bring us least pain and most pleasure. We develop defense mechanisms in order to keep the Id’s simple pleasures and desires from surfacing to the ego. It becomes an automatic process that we use to cope with anxiety causing or uncomfortable situations. Freud described ten types of mechanisms. Repression is the basic mechanism that regulates all three along with sublimation, displacement, projection, rationalization, and regression. I discovered I employ some of these mechanisms when confronted with uneasy situations. This has taught me to be more aware of how I absorb and react to things.

Another factor that is part of our personality development is the psychosexual stages. Freud believed that a problem at a certain stage in infancy, will shape our adult personality. The stages were oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. At the oral stage an infant is driven by pleasurable gratification of the mouth by sucking, chewing. An infant can become fixated if they are overly gratified or under gratified and are likely to manifest such fixations as adults in the form of dependency or domination. At the anal stage, pleasure is received by bowel movements and potty traininng is way to delay this instant gratification. If the training was too harsh or too easy for a child, as an adult anal retentive or complusilve tendencies will develop. The phallic stage is when genital pleasure is discovered and the Superego begins to develop which also brings forth the Oedipus Complex, as the child falls in love with mother, they feel their father is in the way and hate father to the point where they want to kill him. This provokes castration anxiety in the child which leads them to repress the mental representation from the ego. If the Oedipus complex was not resolved, psychological problems will emerge later in life. I don’t agree with Freud on this because he assumes children have a mother and a father and rules out the idea of a single parent household and labels these systematic differences as the person being undeniably psychologically damaged. This is followed by the latency stage where sexual urges remain dormant or repressed and the child focuses on developing their interests and hobbies. Lastly, genital stage begins at puberty all through adulthood and symbolizes sexual maturity.

Freud strongly believed sexuality was a crucial part of human development and we are charged by a sex and life drive (eros) and also aggression or death (thanatos) drive. Dreams are wish fulfillments of either of these forces. Eros brings forth our sense for social cooperation, survival, and procreation. Thanatos explains aggression, self damaging risky behavior, and anger towards others. This is a concept of duality as one needs the other to keep balance according to Freud. Again, our behavior and life consists of dealing with these conflicts by maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. I find Freud’s theories to be cynical as he describes humans as sexual renegades and not good rational pure beings. We ultimately pay a price to be civilized and develop neurosis due to these constant internal battles.

Adler similar to Freud was interested in early childhood experiences and believed in reflecting in the past. According to (Piotrowski, N. A. 2010 pp. 29), Psychology and Mental Health book, “Adler…...children’s inferiority complexes, arguing that Freud’s notions of infantile sexuality should be treated more as metaphorical than as factual.” He was convinced people were motivated by future expectations rather than past experiences. An individual’s behavior was determined by their goals or prototype of striving towards significance, superiority, or success. Our adult behavior is linked to feelings of inferiority and how we respond to it determines our personality. Inferiority feelings are the source for humans striving for superiority. This vision of the “ideal self” also determines our lifestyle.

Inferiority starts at infancy by depending on parents or caregivers. There are organic inferiorities like an illness or biologically inherited. Spoiling or pampering by caretaker can also create inferiority as you don’t learn to develop how to deal or cope with life on your own terms. On the other side of the spectrum, neglect also creates a complex as the person remains unsure or unable to compensate for a feeling of inadequacy, deficiency. Compensating and overcompensating are ways to deal with such a complex. The superiority complex is the way to compensate for a weakness that sometimes we are not aware it stems from a place of inferiority. Adler’s origin of neurosis comes from deficiency. I wonder if you get good at something is it because you felt inadequate, to begin with?

Adler also talked about lifestyles as being the key to behavior. Adler thought the style of life tended to be consistent, reflected in multiple ways throughout an individual's life. Maladjusted lifestyles abandon social rules and create negative thought patterns with high anxiety. This brings forth private logic which is about adapting to everyone and constantly making sense of the world around us. If private logic does not make sense, there is trouble as certain psychological disorders may be present. Just as much as our complexes shape us life experiences continue to shape our lifestyle too and are influenced by social interactions. Each human being has the capacity for learning to live in harmony with society.