Freud’s Concepts Surrounding Personality Development

Personality development as it is relevant to Sigmund Freud’s theories revolves around the conglomeration of ego, super-ego and id. These three things are combined to represent the psyche of all humans. However, many people find this a simplistic approach when diagnosing treatment that benefits them in regards to personality development. Broken up the ego, super-ego and id perform very diverse functions. The ego is responsible for how we organize ourselves and realistically judge ourselves in regards to the real world. The id is all about what we know as an innate ability – what we sometimes consider our instinctual behavior.

The super-ego is probably the most important in regards to personality development because it is centered on our critical analysis of any given circumstance and our moral bindings in regards to decision making. All of these working in unison give us the traits that spring forth from our personality development. Freud believed that these specific groups were not triggered by parts of our brain – rather, they were actually specific to the mind of the individual. This may seem confusing. Consider this; the mind is a physical thing that resides in our heads. Our mind can be considered our (for lack of a better term) spirit.

These concepts may not have great scientific significance but are worth considering when thinking about personality development. How the mind work in specific circumstances is a mystery. Parts of the brain may lie dormant while some people are undertaking a certain task – however in other people they may become active. Freud’s theory in regard to the ego, id and super-ego do give us something to work with and does form the basis of many modern psychoanalysis treatments. It is hard to say how this model will change over the course of the future; we can consider Freud’s theories the first step in realizing how we act and why.

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