Hunkele 1!

Lauren Hunkele
AP Psychology
Mrs. Amy LaMarre
17 December 2014
Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic theory basically states that personality is shaped by early childhood
memories, and much of what people do is brought about by unconscious desires, especially for
pleasure (Boteler and Cotting, 6). It was proposed by Freud in the 1890s, considered the father of
modern psychology. Freud believed that the mind was divided into three parts: the Id (instincts),
the Ego (mediator and sense of reality), and the Superego (morals). He used an iceberg metaphor
to show that the Id was completely underwater (below the level of consciousness), the Ego was
partly above and partly below, and the Superego was mostly underwater but not entirely. Freud
was criticized by many because of his focus on sexual urges. He developed the stages of
psychosexual development, which show how humans pleasure points change through
development. He believed the Id had to be fed by libidinal urges that are suppressed by the
Superego. The Ego gets in between to keep the first two parts from fighting. When libidinal
tension in psychosexual development builds up because urges are not met, fixation occurs, which
can cause disorders based on the psychosexual stages (Psychoanalytic Theory). Freud also
theorized that people can use defense mechanisms to suppress negative memories or blame them
on other people. He used therapies such as word association to access those memories.
Freud was not the only psychologist who studied psychoanalysis, however. His student,
Karen Horney, agreed that personalities are shaped by childhood memories, but she did not

Hunkele 2!
believe that sexual drive played such an important role in cognition. She believed that everyone
has basic anxiety, or something negative that shifts peoples thinking in childhood. She made
psychoanalysis to cover the female perspective more adequately than Freud did. Erik Erikson
also studied psychoanalysis and created eight stages of development with a crisis in each.
Disruption of the positive developmental process at any point can shift the rest of the process,
which still ties in the idea of personality being formed by experiences. Alfred Adler also
disagreed with Freud about sex drive as the main driving force and instead theorized the
inferiority complex. Adler stated that people feel inferior to others and spend their lives
building themselves up and trying to feel content with themselves. The final main psychoanalytic
psychologist was Carl Jung. He added a concept to Freuds vision of the Id, Ego, and Superego
called the Collective Unconscious. The Collective Unconscious consists of ideas known and
generally accepted by people, such as stereotypes. He believed that people want to be different
and set apart from others, and he monitored this by measuring personal qualities (Boteler and
Cotting, 158).
Psychoanalytic theory was and remains controversial primarily because of Freuds focus
on sex and also because it focuses on the nurture part of nature versus nurture argument
(Boteler and Cotting, 158). Psychologists who argue that personality is based on genes do not
agree with psychoanalysis. However, disorders like Dissociative Identity Disorder and phobias
that usually flare up after scarring experiences support the argument that experiences shape
personality, which in turn supports psychoanalytic theory.

Hunkele 3!
Works Cited
Boteler, Mary E., and Donna J. Cotting. "A Comparison of Approaches to the Psychoanalytic
Theory." Psychology. N.p.: Center for Learning, 1998. 158. Print.
Boteler, Mary E., and Donna J. Cotting. "Ways to View Behavior." Psychology. N.p.: Center for
Learning, 1998. 6. Print.
"Psychoanalytic Theory." Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.