Psychoanalytic Personality Assessment
Lainie Goodell
PSY/250
March 6, 2011
Dr. Deborah Watson

Psychoanalytic Personality Assessment Personalities are often very hard to figure out. Each person has a unique and sometimes complex personality and sometimes they do not mix with others. Different psychologists have different theories as to why people are the way they are. One theory is the psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalytic theory digs into a person’s mind to find out where their problems stem from. The theories stem from childhood and then dig deep into who each person is as an adult. The following reflects on the theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Alfred Adler; they all have similarities, yet are completely different.
I always felt my sister needed more attention than I did at the time because she was much younger. However, that could also be because I was older and I was more understanding of what was going on around me.
Stages of Freud’s Theory Several stages of theory exist through the psychosexual stages of development. The first stage is called the oral stage which starts when someone is born. This stage is weaning and the theory is believed that the baby is preoccupied with sucking and accepting things, such as food, in the mouth. Frustration is prevalent in this stage because the baby does not know how to speak up for him or herself without crying. The anal phase is second. The anal stage comes with potty training and is believed that the child becomes obsessed with his or her private parts. According to Stevenson (1996), “This represents a classic conflict between the id, which derives pleasure from expulsion of bodily wastes, and the ego and superego, which represent the practical and societal pressures to control the bodily functions” (para. 4). The phallic stage begins sexual development. Freud believes that the child becomes more interested in his genitalia and the genitalia of others and that is when conflict, such as the desire to possess the opposite sex, begins (Stevenson, 1996). The latency period is a stage in which the sexual drive is basically undeveloped. According to Stevenson (1996), “During the latency period,