Psychodynamic Theory

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The Ego and the Id The psychodynamic theory refers to an approach to psychology that studies the relationship between our feelings, personality, behavior, and emotions. It focuses on the way our behavior is affected by our conscious and unconscious, specifically our unconscious. Sigmund Freud outlined his ideas on the human psyche in his book The Ego and the Id (Freud, 2011). In his book, Freud attempts to explain the reasons for human behavior and personality through the conditions that transpire between three parts of the mind. Freud called them the ego, the id, and the super-ego. Some of these ideas had been previously outlined in other papers and some were new ideas to psychoanalysis. This paper seeks to summarize The Ego and the Id chapter by chapter, and give readers a look at the ideas of Sigmund Freud. Consciousness…show more content…
It will seek to control the id and ego, not taking into account what it takes to achieve that. Classes of Instincts Freud goes on to talk about two of the forces that are in action in the mind, the love instinct (Eros), and the death instinct. Even though they are opposing instincts, they may still change from one instinct to the other, with love turning to hate or hate turning to love. Freud states that Eros is not the motivation of the id, the id is just trying to avoid the conflict that comes with it. If Eros is chosen, it can sometimes leave room for the death instinct to do as it wants. Subordinate Relationships of the Ego In this chapter Freud paints a picture of the ego being the underdog to the stronger super-ego and the id. The ego is constantly bombarded from different directions. On one hand there is the id, which the ego tries to control and keep in check. Then there is the super-ego that is unrealistic in its demands for perfection (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2013, p. 32), not caring what happens to the ego. Last but not least is the outside

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