By now, you, like most people, probably wonder what makes this Freud guy so famous and popular?! Why does his name pops out a great many times when you read psychology related stuffs? Well, that is because throughout his career he has made several “shocking” claims about human nature and human behaviors. But shocking as it is, his influence on psychology and modern day thought is so widespread that most of his theory has had an effect in our thinking.

Have you ever wonder if you dreams reveal your inner fears or desires? Have you ever said something like “I must have done that unconsciously”? Well that’s Freudian alright. These ideas, although not originally his, are clearly popularized by the man himself. Perhaps, you’ve heard of denial, libido, repression, or Freudian slips. Still Freudian. Now, what’s shocking about that? Hm…. Lets go deeper.

Freud’s Theory of Personality:

Freud separated the human personality into 3 parts: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious contains the thoughts you are currently aware of. Then, there are also the thoughts you could bring into your consciousness fairly easily if you wanted to. This makes up the preconscious. But the vast majority of our thoughts lie within the unconscious. These are the information to which we have no immediate access and this unconscious is responsible for much of our everyday behaviors. Both the conscious and preconscious is just the tip of the human mind.

Since Freud felt that the said model was limited, he, soon, introduced the structural model which divides human personality into the id, ego, and superego. The id is the selfish part that is concerned only with satisfying the personal desires. It thinks only in terms of what brings immediate personal satisfaction. This pleasure principle, salient among babies, doesn’t disappear in life. Instead, it is held in check by other parts that emerge later in life. The second player that develops in life is the ego. Also known as the reality principle, its job is to satisfy the id impulses but in a manner that is appropriate to society which means, it has to keep the impulses in the unconscious most of the time. The last part of personality structure is the superego. This represents society’s values and standards. The superego is commonly known as the “human conscience”.

The never ending “pull” of the id, ego, and superego creates tension in the mind. The eventual goal, then, of human mind is to reach a tensionless state or equilibrium. However, psychological tension is created whenever an instinct is activated and as we know, instinct activation is ceaseless.

Let us stop here for a while and digest everything. Freud has a looooot more to say about personality and human nature. Hey, Freudian psychology is as vast as a course itself so if you really want to learn and understand, you’ll have to nurture your patience.

Anyways, just remember this: According to Freud, our actions are very much driven by the unconscious and the id impulses!