Sigmund Freud by Gabby Gartner

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian physiologist, medical doctor, and psychologist. He is the father of psychoanalysis and was an influential thinker of the early twentieth century (Thornton, n.d.).

Freud popularized the concept of the unconscious mind and therefore an analogy was created of an iceberg to illustrate his ideals of the three layers of the mind. The tip of the iceberg is the conscious mind, which is the thoughts that take up our focus and attention. The middle layer of the iceberg consists of the preconscious, everything retrieved by memory. The bottom layer of the iceberg is the unconscious mind, which consists of primitive wishes and impulses.

Freud also developed the psyche, a structural model of the mind that consists of three parts; the id, ego, and superego. “The id operates on an unconscious level according to the pleasure principle” (McLeod, 2013, para. 17). The id is composed of two kinds of biological instincts, the Eros and Thanatos.  Eros is the life instinct, helping us to survive. Thanatos is expressed as aggression and violence and is viewed as a set of destructive forces. “The ego is developed from the id during infancy” (McLeod, 2013, para. 20). The ego sets a goal to satisfy the needs of the id in a socially acceptable way. The ego follows a reality principle and operates in the conscious and unconscious minds. The superego motivates us to behave in socially accepted manners and responsibilities and is developed during early childhood. Inner conflict is inevitable between the id and superego, the ego is than the mediator and deploys various defense mechanisms.

According to Freud there are six primary defense mechanisms. (1) Repression which is the ego keeps disturbing and threatening thoughts away from the conscious. (2) Denial blocks external events from our awareness and sometimes we refuse to experience the external event. (3) Projection is where one individual attributes their unwanted or unacceptable thoughts, feelings and motives unto another individual. (4) Displacement is where people satisfy an impulse, usually aggression, on a substitute object. (5) Regression is a moment back in psychological time where one was faced with stress. (6) Sublimation is applied when it’s a socially acceptable way to satisfy an impulse, usually aggression, with a substitute object (McLeod, 2009, para. 9).

References

McLeod, S. (2009). Defense mechanisms. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html

McLeod, S. (2013). Sigmund freud. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from  http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html

Thornton, S. P. (n.d).  Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved February 24, 2017 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/