Many psychologists have come up with different theories that try to explain origins of personality. Personality is a combination of traits that define someone’s character. An individual’s personality consists of patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, and he also developed the first complete theory of personality. Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory he believed an individuals thoughts and behaviors came from the tension created by unconscious motives and childhood conflicts.
Sigmund Freud believed that most mental processes are unconscious. He suggested that humans have three levels of awareness the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. Each level consisted of an individuals thoughts, memories, fears, and needs, at different levels of consciousness. The conscious mind is all of the thoughts, fears, memories, and selfish needs that we are aware of at any time. Secondly, the preconscious mind contains all of the information outside of a person’s attention but is easily available if needed. This level of awareness deals with memories. Lastly, the unconscious is an area of the mind that consists of feelings, thoughts, wishes, and memories. This level is not accessible at all.
According to Freud, personalities had three components the id, the ego, and the superego. The first component was the id. This part of personality consisted of instinctive energy present from birth, and remained at the unconscious level. The psychological energy came from two main instincts the Eros (life instinct, love, and sex) and the destructive instinct (death instinct, aggression, self-destructive actions, hatred)(Dynamic Approach). The id acted under the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle was the most important human motive and it