The Psychanalitical Approach of Personality

• Author: Neaga Susanu
• Position: Senior Lecturer, PhD, Faculty of Comunication and International Relationas, Specialization Psychology, 'Danubius' University of Gala?i, Romania
• Pages: 341-349

ISSN: 2067 – 9211 New Trends in Psychology

341

The Psychanalitical Approach of Personality

Neaga Susanu1

Abstract: Sigmund Freud considers that personality comprises three major subsystems that interact and

control human behavior: the self, the self, the superhuman. S. Freud detected a series of consistent themes

that were nothing but expressions of unconscious fears or desires, themes similar to those seen in the analysis

of dreams or childhood memories. Sigmund F reud, as he is well known, placed great importance on

becoming the personality of the first years of his life. Mostl y, he spoke about the fact that the first five years

of life are those responsible for establishing the psycho-behavioral base and for constituting the individual

unconscious. Freud, at the time, did not enjoy a special collaboration with those in his professional guild. This

was also due to the fact that, due to its histrionic structure, it d id not accept any opinions from colleagues or

disciples. On the other hand, it has restructured its conception of personality, but as some specialists show,

also within the same dogmatism.

Keywords: personality; psychoanalytic; psychic processes; dynamics; development; stages; characteristic

traits

Introduction

Founder of psychoanalytic theory, Sigmund Freud is one of the leading figures of the last century.

Whatever its decline as a scientific theory, the psychoanalytic view of personality remains the most

comprehensive and influential personality theory of all time. Its impact has exceeded the limits of

psychology, influencing the social sciences, humanities, art and society in general. Even if in

contemporary psychology the psychoanalytic theory no longer has the same central role that it had 40

or 50 years ago, many of its ideas have been included in the fundamental current of psychological

thinking. Even parents who have done nothing but raise their child by following the advice given by

psychiatrist Benjamin Spock in his famous work Baby and Child Care are much closer to a Freudian

psychologist than he thinks. S. Freud started his activity as a neurologist, treating patients with

different “nervous” disorders through conventional medical procedures, since they were not always

helpful, he also used the technique of hypnosis, but later abandoned this direction, in finally, he

developed the method of free association, in which the patient is told to express all the ideas that come

to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing they may be.

1 Senior Lecturer, PhD, Faculty of Comunication and International Relationas, Specialization Psychology, “Danubius”

University of Galați, Romania, Addres: 3 Galați Boulevard, 800654 Galați, Romania, Tel.: +40.372.361.102, Fax:

+40.372.361.290, Corresponding autor: neli_susanu@univ-danubius.ro.