Read p. 453-458 in your text on Freud.
Now that you have been introduced to some of Sigmund Freud's theory, tell me what part of his structure of the personality makes sense to you. Also if something sounds ridiculous, comment on it, too. Explain why it makes sense or why it does not.
Post response by Tuesday, March 3.
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Lauren Doucette
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the text on Freud, parts of his structure made sense to me while other parts truly had me puzzled. The part that made most sense to me was the ego and the superego. As stated in the book, ego is the partly conscious rational component of personality that regulates thoughts and behavior and is most in touch with the demand of the external world. Within this concept of the ego there is the reality principle which is the awareness of environmental demands and the capacity to accommodate them by postponing gratification until the appropriate time or circumstances exist. This makes the most sense to me because while growing up parents tell their children right from wrong and instill values, demands, and limitations into the minds of the young children. Having little cousins I am able to experience how they deal with this “ego”. At this stage of their lives they are learning things, and learning how to manipulate people to get what they want. However, when they start going to school and going out to their community they are going to learn different values from which their parents had taught them. This is the step in which the superego begins to form. The superego, also makes a lot of sense to me however, I feel as though the ego is a little clearer. Lastly, the only part of the structure that brings me confusion is the “id”. I understand what Freud is saying I just think it is unclear and not entirely true. In the end, Freud’s overall structure makes sense and makes me look back on my own life and try to remember myself in these stages.
Nathan Doucette
ReplyDeleteAfter reading from the book about the structures of personalities, I think that the superego makes the most sense, and that id makes the least. Just as the book says, the superego is basically a parent in your thoughts that helps you to determine right from wrong, good from bad, acceptable or unacceptable. So if you do something wrong, you will start to feel guilt perhaps because you know what you did was wrong and you feel bad about it. Ego is partly conscious and within it is the reality principle. It says how kids through experience, learn acceptable ways to satisfy desires and instincts. An example that I can relate to is sucking up to your parents so that they are more willing to give you what you want. And then for id, the only part that I think I understand is when it says how when you an infant, you seem almost immune to danger, logic, values, morality, and the demands of the external world. When I think of this I think of a little kid eating glue. To us now it would be discusting and we know that it is dangerous, but they dont know any better.
Alot of the structures of personality make sense to me, but the one that makes the most sense is the pleasure principle. It makes sense because everybody tries to please themselves by the actions that they do. Sometimes you might not realize it right away that what you did might have made you happy, but that is why the pleasure principle has to do with the unconscious. From the moment you're born, you always want someone to do something to make you feel good. Whether it would be that you want to be fed when you're a baby, or whether it be a teenager getting money from their parents to go buy something they want. Everything that a person does, is somehow driven by the pleasure principle and the fact that they just need to try to increase pleasure, reduce tension, and avoid pain.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading this first section on Freud, I found that a lot of his ideas make sense to me. The ego is the rational part of your personality, and the superego develops morals from outside sources, like parents and society. The environment has a lot of influence on how a person thinks and acts, so I think he is right on track with his thoughts on the superego. The pleasure principle also makes sense because humans have a tendency to work hard to get something if they really want it and think they can get pleasure from it. The only part of Freud's theory that didn't make complete sense to me was the id because I think we are always influenced by some form of outside source no matter what. However, I do see how the id could be present in babies because they don't have any knowledge of the outside world at all so it cannot influence their actions.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I thought Freud was a bit "psycho" himself before reading about him in more depth, but now I can honestly say that I can understand his very unique ideas. They may be a bit different, but when you think about it they are very true. The idea that seemed the weirdest to the class was how he thought that sex and the pleasure principle was a human's main concern in life. In reality everything does have to do with sex. As we spoke about in class and read in the textbook, we would not be here to talk about this if it weren't for sex. Everyone is driven by the pleasure principle, even as a baby, because everyone is extremely demanding and wants to get attentions all of the time.
ReplyDeleteThis idea leads me to understand the ego the best. Our ego fights back and forth with our superego to make decisions every day. The example in the text about not wanting to get out of bed to go for a run, but promising a friend is a perfect example of minor decisions we make everyday. Everyone can connect to the ego and superego, because of the times we remember thinking about what the morally correct decision was opposed to what we really wanted to do. The ego and superego seems very important, because our actions and decisions make up who we are.
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ReplyDeleteUpon reading about Freud's Dynamic Personality Theory, I find that I can make sense of all of it. I believe that this theory could very well be the truth. If you deeply think about your own personality and thought patterns as well as others, his theory can start to make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteFreud breaks down the human personality into three components, Ego, Superego, and Id. A great way to teach about these components is to look at them as pieces of an iceberg. The Ego is the small portion above the water, the Superego is just beneath the water, and the Id is the large portion under the water.
Freud explained that the Ego is our current and continuous thoughts that are being used at the moments we think of them. The ego abides to the reality principle which postpones gratification until the appropriate time or circumstance exist in the external world. For example, if Regis where starving while on the air, he wouldn't just pull out a sandwich and start chowing down because no matter how hungry his
subconcious thoughts tell him he is, his ego tells him he would look silly and foolish eating while on TV. Similarly, Freud would say that a child has a very unexperienced ego so they are immune to logic, values, morality, danger, and the demands of the external world. I think we should all be able to relate to this idea. Lets use a child putting their hand on
a hot stove for example. The child has uncontrollable urges of curiosity but cannot control them and touches the stove because his mind is immune to danger. Our older, trained minds know that this is hazardous and we would
not touch it. What tells us not to? Freud would call it the Superego.
The Superego consists of readily available unconcious thoughts. It contains information that we aren't currently thinking about but is
easily recalled. Freud would tell us that this is what is formed in childhood by the governing rules of our parents and the world. It is our
parent's voice in the back of our head telling us what's right and wrong because it evaluates our actions as acceptable or unnaceptable and gives us feelings of guilt or remorse when we know we're doing something wrong. The reason I believe this is true is because we all seem to have this thought bank in our minds that stores tons of information that we don't have to be constantly thinking about to remember but it stores them for us. They are categorized as unconcious thoughts because they are used when we aren't directly thinking about them. The Superego unleashes subconcious thoughts at us and makes us feel certain ways. For example, if someone was attacked by pack of dogs or whatever and they see that animal later in life,
if it left a substantial amount of fear in them from that experience they should feel frightened by the dog without necesarily thinking of that experience because the Superego is evaulating the current situation and
projecting the proper emotion to the body. The child mind is very suseptible to positive and negative influences and is built upon by various
experiences.
Freud would also argue that there is an even deeper unconcoius area of thoughts he calls the Id. He said it is the origional source of psychological energy which eveolve later on into the Ego and Superego. He said that the Id was formed of two distinct thought patterns the Eros and the Thanatos. The Eros is known as the life instinct which consists of basic "biological urges that perpetuate the existance of the individual and the the species." The Id is immediately present right at birth and eventually trains the Ego and Superego. But the Id right from the beginning
gives us strong basic biological urges such as hunger, thirst, sensuality, and the most important sexuality. Indications of the Id are present in early childhood such as blinking and breathing for example. Some would argue that all these impulses are based on the release of endorphins and hormones but I believe that there is a subconcious thought process that
must take place in order for that to happen. And the Thanatos is basically destructive influences, urges and thoughts that also motivate us.
I find this whole theory to be extremely insightful and enjoyable to ponder about. I also find it to be 100% valid. The part of his theory that I find most interesting is our conflicting thought patterns and how they shape our personality and actions. Everything that occurs to us in childhood stays with us whether it be morals/values or experiences. These
thoughts control our personality but also create internal conflict. The conflict is basically a war between your Ego and your Id and your Superego is the referee. The conflict between the pleasure principle, governed by
the Id and the reality principle governed by the Ego creates a very plausible situation which I salute Freud for considering.
Julie Do
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about Freud's theory at first I was confused and thought to myself that all of it didn't make any sense. But after rereading I realized that it did actually make sense. As I read his theories it made me think of how I was like as a kid and also how do other kids act and that really helped put it in perspective for me. The pleasure principle in the "id" part seem to make the most thing to me. I have noticed that it is true that humans do strive for pleasure in varies of ways and avoiding pain. Humans definitly want the good in life not the bad so why not go for the pleasure? And who wants to feel pain anyways? I also agreed with the "superego" idea it really is true if you observe a kid closely. For example we were taught to not say mean things to others. Sometimes some folks think about their values and morals and don't say it. But others who say it might later on feel bad. Last but not least there's the "ego" which was the one I found to make the most sense. Wether we realize it or not that is what we have been doing all our lives, without being taught how to. In order to get what we want we always kiss up and kiss up to the right parent. These are just some of the things that make up our personalities. But what our personality is what really lies within us, what we do, and say on a daily basis.
Humans are social and cooperative creatures. But not perfectly so - selfishness will never be eradicated because it is evolutionary advantageous. Thus, Freud's three divisions - id, ego, and superego - can be explained evolutionary terms.
ReplyDeleteGenes which propagate themselves best become prevalent in the population. Though this evolutionary law seems to favor "selfish genes", the evolutionarily optimum strategy involves some degree of social cooperation. After all, lifestyle of radical individualism would return us to apish existence - unselfishness is therefore selfish.
However, perfect social harmony between humans is impossible. As cooperation increases, cheating becomes more and more appealing. (In game theory, this is called "defection.") Thus, an equilibrium point of imperfect cooperation is reached. There is general harmony, but selfish tendencies often triumph.
(As an aside, the social insects do not have this conflict. Workers are sterile, and their genes are wrapped up in the queen. Unlimited cooperation is thus in the workers' interest. However, because humans are individually reproducing units, defection is profitable.)
Freud saw this conflict in the human mind. Both selfish urges (id) and non-selfish urges (superego, morality) are in constant tension. Evolution and game theory dictate that neither can be eliminated - therefore, the ego must mediate between the two.
In unintelligent animals, the balancing occurs between individuals. Some are hard-wired to defect while others are hard-wired to cooperate, and a populational an equilibrium is reached. But the complexity of the human mind enables the conflict to occur within individuals.
Our weighing of selfish and unselfish options is not perfectly rational. Evolution has cobbled together various shortcuts - like emotion and morality - to direct us to the right option for a certain set of circumstances. Over evolutionary history, these mechamisms have accumulated, forming a heuristical computer of unfathomable complexity. We will never understand how the human mind works. However, useful theories - like Freud's - can roughly make sense of the chaos.
Shirley Pouliot
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this when we talked about freud in class i thought he was crazy. He was obsessed with the thought of sex. After reading this i can much better understand were hes coming from. We all have the three stages which are id ego and superego. Id is what gives us are urges like hunger, thirst, sensuality and sexuality. ego is the rational part of your personality and it regulates are thoughts and behaviors and how we act upon them and our superego gives off unconsious thoughts and makes us think a certain way and contain information that we arent thinking about at the time but we can access them at anytime. This is true if you think about it because we all make decision based off what we know from our parents and how we grow up and there is stuff that we do unconsiously. Lastly even know freud is a little crazy in thinking that sexuality is the most important key in our lives he is right. Without this we wouldnt be here today. Everyone was born with these impulses and these urges and having these pleasures. In life when your younger you dont know about the dangers around you, but as you grow up you learn that you cant do things and you learn things that are right and wrong. Reading this part about Sigmund Freud shows these parts that i have never knew before. The id, ego, and superego are parts that we all contain. We all have are urges which is are id part, we all have the ego part were are continious thoughts that are being used as we think of them. Are superego are are unconsious thoughts that tell us right from wrong as you get older you just know that you dont do stuff like touch the stove when its hot because as we grow up we learn these things.
Many of Freud’s views on human nature and psychological theories are very controversial. They strike a deep cord in some people because of what they imply and that is why the controversy still survives. Despite this controversy I find many of Freud’s theories to be reasonable and I can see where he is coming from.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I find to make sense is his view of dreams and their meanings. I like the idea that dreams are compilations of unconscious thought that are being expressed in the conscious mind. Along with dreams other showings of the unconscious also make sense to me. Things like Freudian slips would be bound to happen if there was a whole unconscious part of your mind.
The parts of the ID, the Eros and Thanatos, also make sense. These two energies along with the pleasure principle are all instinctual drives that help people survive. On a Darwinian basis these drives would be the things that would allow humans to adapt to their life better by using less energy and seeking beneficial situations. These would be things that would be good to have.
One thing that does not make sense is the concept of a superego. I don’t agree with the superego being an extremely well developed thing. The conscious is definitely important but I think that people poses a moral law in them innately and it isn’t all from the parents and society. Much of it is from the moral law they are born with.
Rebecca Remillard
ReplyDeleteBefore reading about Freud in the book, I had reservations about his ideas and theories. However, after reading the text, it is clear that although somewhat controversial, Freud's ideas are perfectly logical. We know that an infant wants what they want when they want it. The idea of the id makes sense dispite its biological urge of sexualtity Freud dicusses.
I also likes Freud's theories about unconscious motives. I understand how someone 'forgetting' to do something could actually be quite intentional, even if the person doesn't realize it. What Freud said about the reality principle was also interesting to me. I feel as if learning how to "postpone gratitfication until the appropriate time or circumstances", is not something intuitive like an ego or superego. If parents didn't help a child understand that, I don't believe they would learn it by themselves. You would just end up with a highly selfish and self centered child.
Although Freud's ideas about sexuality are still a bit puzzling to me, I'm not about to write him off just yet. All his other theories make perfect sense to me for the most part.
After reading about Sigmund Freud's theory, i found that his ideas were very logical and intelligent. I didn't think I would understand his theory but after reading the text I am able to see the points he was trying to convey and that it actually does make a lot of sense. I can see where he is coming from with his id theory because of the example he used with children crying to get the attention they need. The ego theory was again easy for me to understand because it is developed from the id. As the child grows, he or she learns that crying whenever they need something isn't always going to get them what they want. The ego is where they learn to manipulate their parents into getting them things. Lastly, the super ego was also easy for me to understand. After learning how their parents work and what they are capable of doing without getting in trouble, the childs superego kicks in.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading about Freud's theories on unconscious and conscious motives. The alarm clock example really caught my attention and i completely understand where Freud is coming from.
April Daugherty
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Freud’s theories I found that even though his ideas were controversial, they were also very logical. The one that I found easiest to understand was the superego. This parent like thoughts help you understand right from wrong. They aid in decision making. If you then proceed to do something that goes against that you start to feel shame and or self-doubt kind of like a guilty conscious. I also understood the pleasure principle because most people need to be motivated to do something so if they get some joy out of it or when they finish they have joy come to them they are more likely to want to do that even more. As the book says a baby will do anything such as kicking and screaming to get what they want because they want it and they want it now. People want to be satisfied and that makes total sense.
Sigmund Freud's theories are obviously logically sound or there wouldn't be little plastic dolls of him sitting above your white board. I had encountered his theories earlier in my academic career with a psychology project in the 8th grade. With this project I barely tapped the surface of what Freud was saying. However, I do believe his theories to make a lot of sense, from the id to the superego. I find the 'id' to be the most logical part of Freud's theories because of the fact that it is common knowledge that infants scream and cry when they need something. That is their way of communicating. However, by looking at the kind of instant gratification they come to expect and demand, we discover the id. The development of the ego is advantageous to a person. It allows them to grow and develop socially as well as mentally. If one went about expecting instant gratification for every need, want, or desire we would have an awful lot of problems on our hands. And finally, the development of the superego. Again, this makes sense. If you disobey your ego's attempts at rerouting your desire to fulfill a need to an appropriate time, there has got to be some sort of consequence. Otherwise the ego could not continue to exist. I did not find anything ridiculous about the facets of Freud's theories that we discussed or read about today.
ReplyDeleteEach part of Freud's personality theory makes sense to me. The three structures of the personality are logical and seem to apply to me, at least. The concept of the id is the easiest to understand because it is established that humans have primal instincts and inherently seek pleasure. Every human experiences those inexplicable overpowering urges that are then suppressed by the restrictions of the superego. The entire system strives for a balance between pure hedonism and total censure.
ReplyDeleteRichard Votta
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about Sigmund Freud's theory, i found that his ideas are very intelligent. I did not think I would understand his theory because he seems like a crazy guy but after reading the text I am able to see the points he was trying to make and that it does make sense, he’s still crazy but it makes sense. I see what he is saying when he speaks of his id theory because for the example he used was a baby crying for attention because they can not talk and its so true. The ego theory is next and easy to understand. Freud explains that as they grow, crying does not get you everything anymore because you are not longer cute and they will no longer give in til you manipulate them. Freud can be crazy but once you read up on him and its explains, its easy to understand.
john tangherlini
ReplyDeleteafter reading about Sigmund and his theory i think the on ethat makes the most sense to me was his Dynamic theory of personality. I think that most of what its about is very true. The three levels deffinatley makee them selves very well there. how Freud explain that when you are conscious thats the feeling that you are feelings at that point in time while awake. while the preconscious contains information that is easily retainable/remembered. and the unconscious is most of the influence on the conscious and our actions. i will agree that peoples dreams would have to be the best way to study the unconscious because well what are we when we are sleeping in a state of unconsciousness,
After reading about Freud I do think the idea of the ID, Ego and Super Ego make sense because we obviously have wants and needs but if we didn't have something telling us that we couldn't have them right away then there would be kids in school just sleeping, more so then usual, in the middle of class, or walking out of class to go to the bathroom or get food. I also think that it makes sense that we have a way to get the things we need ourselves because otherwise we would just sit there hungry and starve to death, so I think that Freud's theory does make sense.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I had thought that Freud was a bit too obsessed with relating everything back to a sexual matter. After reading the text, however, I now believe that his theory on the id, ego, and superego. It’s a basic fact that most people want what’s best for themselves, but are also influenced by the pressure of what society says is ok and what is allowed. The concept of the id being all “me, me, me, now, now, now” makes sense. As we grew up, we thought the world revolved around us. But we came to realize there are other people too, and we need to focus on being a part of the big picture. The id is like the little kid inside all of us, demanding things and wanting everything. The superego standing for society is a great analogy. It is a contrast of what we want and what we are told is ok/ what we can have. The ego being a mediator between the two makes perfect sense to me. If the ego didn’t come to a happy medium between the two, there would be chaos. The ego is what picks out what’s right from wrong, and tones down the id. All in all, I believe Freud was right about this much.
ReplyDeleteA majority of Freuds work does not appeal to me. The idea of studying the unconscious seems very logical. 'Freudian slips' occur with all of us, and theres obviously some validity with relating that to the unconscious workings of the mind. I also agree with him on sex being the main focus in our lives, subconsciously atleast. Its very logical to think that programmed inside of us is the urge to have sex; thus keeping our species alive. Its also logical to think that the urge to keep our species alive would be more important that even keeping ourselves alive. But, Im wary about believing his theory about the id, ego, and super ego and the stages of psycho sexual development. Without any scientific backing or anyway to prove or disprove the idea of the id, ego, and super ego, I am very skeptical about it. Its just not the way i picture the subconcious working, so I really feel like theres no reason to believe it. The same goes for the stages of development. And, even if the stages of development were somehow proven to be accurate, there would be no way in helping your child develop 'better' because the optimum time to ween or potty train or whatever will be different for each child. So it doesnt really matter if he was correct or not about that.
ReplyDeleteMike
ReplyDeleteFreud had many different theories which are extremely difficult to grasp such as how just about everything has to relate to sex. While some of those ideas made sense I believe that some of his theories were just trying to make sense of the inexplicable such as the anal stage, as well as the oral stage, because how do we know that babies aren't putting things in their mouths just because they are teething. But his theories on the id and our need to fulfill our basic desires, as well as the ego and the superego are spot on because it is true that we do have an urge for many things but it is the ego that acts as that filter to seperate what is wanted and what is needed as well as right and wrong. But by far Freuds most genious theory was that pertaining to parapraxis. This theory is different because it doesnt only have to do with sex as alot of Freud's other ideas do it is a slip where while speaking of the conscience the unconscious thought becomes apparent it can extend to our word perception where we might read a word incorrectly because of what is truly at the back of our minds. These slips are semi-conscious, meaning that these thoughts are consciously repressed and then unconsciously released revealing desire or something that our mind is ficated on.