What is Sigmund Freud's view on personality dynamic? |

Sigmund Freud pioneered a theory of personality that is known as psychodynamics.  His view on this subject was that the personality is made up of three parts and that our behaviors are affected by the interactions or dynamics between the three.

To Freud, our personality is made up of the id, the ego, and the superego.  The id is our most instinctual part.  When we are born, all we have is an id.  The id...

Sigmund Freud pioneered a theory of personality that is known as psychodynamics.  His view on this subject was that the personality is made up of three parts and that our behaviors are affected by the interactions or dynamics between the three.

To Freud, our personality is made up of the id, the ego, and the superego.  The id is our most instinctual part.  When we are born, all we have is an id.  The id wants to get pleasure and to avoid pain.  It lacks any idea of morality or propriety.  This is where things like our sexual instincts and our desire to be aggressive come from.

The ego is the part of our personality that develops in order to mediate between our id and reality. The id wants what it wants and it wants it right away.  The id does not care whether we can get what we want in any reasonable way.  We need to develop an ego in order to do this.  Our ego tries to keep our id somewhat in check.  The ego still wants pleasure, but it wants to be reasonable and go about pursuing pleasure in a realistic way.  Freud said that the ego is sort of like a man riding a horse.  The horse is the id, which is stronger than the ego, which is the rider.  The ego has to try to harness the id and direct it where it (the ego) wants to go.

The superego is the part of our personality that is created by society.  As we grow up, we learn that there are rules and expectations that are placed upon us by our parents and other people.  We learn that we cannot simply seek pleasure because that is not always consistent with what society says we should do.  The superego develops in order to rein in the id even further.  It makes us feel that it is right for us to deny our id and to act in ways that are acceptable to our society.

Freud says that these three aspects of our personality are constantly interacting with one another, creating our personalities and influencing our behaviors.