Psychology's most famous figure is also one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of

the 20th century. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist born in 1856, is often referred to as the
"father of modern psychology."

Freud revolutionized how we think about and treat mental health conditions. Freud founded
psychoanalysis as a way of listening to patients and better understanding how their minds work.
Psychoanalysis continues to have an enormous influence on modern psychology and psychiatry.

Sigmund Freud's theories and work helped shape current views of dreams, childhood,
personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Freud's work also laid the foundation for many
other theorists to formulate ideas, while others developed new theories in opposition to his ideas.

Sigmund Freud Biography

To understand Freud's legacy, it is important to begin with a look at his life. His experiences
informed many of his theories, so learning more about his life and the times in which he lived
can lead to a deeper understanding of where his theories came from.

Freud was born in 1856 in a town called Freiberg in Moravia—in what is now known as the
Czech Republic. He was the oldest of eight children. His family moved to Vienna several years
after he was born, and he lived most of his life there.

Freud earned a medical degree and began practicing as a doctor in Vienna. He was appointed
Lecturer on Nervous Diseases at the University of Vienna in 1885.

After spending time in Paris and attending lectures given by the French neurologist Jean-Martin
Charcot, Freud became more interested in theories explaining the human mind (which would
later relate to his work in psychoanalysis).

Freud eventually withdrew from academia after the Viennese medical community rejected the
types of ideas he brought back from Paris (specifically on what was then called hysteria). Freud
went on to publish influential works in neurology, including "On Aphasia: A Critical Study," in
which he coined the term agnosia, meaning the inability to interpret sensations.

In later years, Freud and his colleague Josef Breuer published "Preliminary Report" and "Studies
on Hysteria." When their friendship ended, Freud continued to publish his own works on
psychoanalysis.

Freud and his family left Vienna due to discrimination against Jewish people. He moved to
England in 1938 and died in 1939.1

Sigmund Freud Quotations

Sigmund Freud’s Theories

Freud's theories were enormously influential but subject to considerable criticism both now and
during his life. However, his ideas have become interwoven into the fabric of our culture, with
terms such as "Freudian slip," "repression," and "denial" appearing regularly in everyday
language.

Freud's theories include:

 Unconscious mind: This is one of his most enduring ideas, which is that the mind is a
reservoir of thoughts, memories, and emotions that lie outside the awareness of the
conscious mind.2
 Personality: Freud proposed that personality is made up of three key elements: the id, the
ego, and the superego. The ego is the conscious state, the id is the unconscious, and the
superego is the moral or ethical framework that regulates how the ego operates.3 Conflicts
and interactions between these parts makeup one's personality.
 Life and death instincts: Freud claimed that two classes of instincts, life and death,
dictated human behavior. Life instincts include sexual procreation, survival, and pleasure;
death instincts include aggression, self-harm, and destruction.4
 Psychosexual development: Freud's theory of psychosexual development posits that
there are five stages of growth in which people's personalities and sexual selves evolve.
These phases are the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent stage, and genital stage. 5
 Mechanisms of defense: Freud suggested that people use defense mechanisms to avoid
anxiety. These mechanisms include displacement, repression, sublimation, regression,
and many more.6

Mature vs. Primitive Defense Mechanisms

Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

Freud's ideas had such a strong impact on psychology that an entire school of thought emerged
from his work: psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has had a lasting impact on both the study of
psychology and the practice of psychotherapy.

Psychoanalysis sought to bring unconscious information into conscious awareness in order to

induce catharsis. Catharsis is an emotional release that may bring about relief from
psychological distress.

Research has found that psychoanalysis can be an effective treatment for a number of mental
health conditions. The self-examination that is involved in the therapy process can help people
achieve long-term growth and improvement.7

What Is Psychoanalytic Therapy?

Sigmund Freud's Patients

Freud based his ideas on case studies of his own patients and those of his colleagues. These
patients helped shape his theories and many have become well known. Some of these individuals
included:

 Anna O. (aka Bertha Pappenheim)

 Dora (Ida Bauer)
 Little Hans (Herbert Graf)
 Rat Man (Ernst Lanzer)
 Sabina Spielrein
 Wolf Man (Sergei Pankejeff)

Anna O. was never actually a patient of Freud's. She was a patient of Freud's colleague Josef
Breuer. The two men often corresponded about Anna O's symptoms, eventually publishing the
book Studies on Hysteria on her case. It was through their work and correspondence that the
technique known as talk therapy emerged.8

Major Works by Freud

Freud's writings detail many of his major theories and ideas. His personal favorite was The
Interpretation of Dreams. Of it, he wrote: "[It] contains...the most valuable of all the discoveries
it has been my good fortune to make. Insight such as this falls to one's lot but once in a
lifetime."9

Some of Freud's major books include:

 "Civilization and Its Discontents"

 "The Future of an Illusion"
 "The Interpretation of Dreams"
 "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life"
 "Totem and Taboo"

Freud's Perspectives

Outside of the field of psychology, Freud wrote and theorized about a broad range of subjects.
He also wrote about and developed theories related to topics including sex, dreams, religion,
women, and culture.

Views on Women

Both during his life and after, Freud was criticized for his views of women, femininity, and
female sexuality. One of his most famous critics was the psychologist Karen Horney, who
rejected his view that women suffered from "penis envy."

Penis envy, according to Freud, was a phenomenon that women experienced upon witnessing a
naked male body because they felt they themselves must be "castrated boys" and wished for their
own penis.10
Horney instead argued that men experience "womb envy" and are left with feelings of inferiority
because they are unable to bear children.11

Views on Religion

Freud was born and raised Jewish but described himself as an atheist in adulthood. "The whole
thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to
humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above
this view of life," he wrote of religion.12

He continued to have a keen interest in the topics of religion and spirituality and wrote a number
of books focused on the subject.

Psychologists Influenced by Freud

In addition to his grand and far-reaching theories of human psychology, Freud also left his mark
on a number of individuals who went on to become some of psychology's greatest thinkers.
Some of the eminent psychologists who were influenced by Sigmund Freud include:

 Alfred Adler
 Anna Freud
 Carl Jung
 Erik Erikson
 Ernst Jones
 Melanie Klein
 Otto Rank

While Freud's work is often dismissed today as non-scientific, there is no question that he had a
tremendous influence not only on psychology but on the larger culture as well.

Many of Freud's ideas have become so steeped in the public psyche that we oftentimes forget
that they have their origins in his psychoanalytic tradition.

Freud's Contributions to Psychology

Freud's theories are highly controversial today. For instance, he has been criticized for his lack of
knowledge about women and for sexist notions in his theories about sexual development,
hysteria, and penis envy.10

People are skeptical about the legitimacy of Freud's theories because they lack the scientific
evidence that psychological theories have today. 13 Think about how challenging it is to study
unconscious processes like dreams and repressed memories with the scientific method.

However, it remains true that Freud had a significant and lasting influence on the field of
psychology. He provided a foundation for many concepts that psychologists used and continue to
use to make new discoveries.
Psychoanalysis

Perhaps Freud's most important contribution to the field of psychology was the development of
talk therapy as an approach to treating mental health problems.

In addition to serving as the basis for psychoanalysis, talk therapy is now part of many
psychotherapeutic interventions designed to help people overcome psychological distress and
behavioral problems.

The Unconscious

Prior to the works of Freud, many people believed that behavior was inexplicable. He developed
the idea of the unconscious as being the hidden motivation behind what we do. For instance, his
work on dream interpretation suggested that our real feelings and desires lie underneath the
surface of conscious life.

Childhood Influence

Freud believed that childhood experiences impact adulthood—specifically, traumatic

experiences that we have as children can manifest as maladaptive personality traits and mental
health issues when we're adults.

While childhood experiences aren't the only contributing factors to mental health during
adulthood, Freud laid the foundation for a person's childhood to be taken into consideration
during therapy and when diagnosing.

Literary Theory

Literary scholars and students alike often analyze texts through a Freudian lens. Freud's theories
created an opportunity to understand fictional characters and their authors based on what's
written or what a reader can interpret from the text on topics such as dreams, sexuality, and
personality.14

Freud's Unconcious, Preconscious, and Conscious Minds

Famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that behavior and personality were derived from
the constant and unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that operate at three
different levels of awareness: the preconscious, conscious, and unconscious minds.1 He believed
that each of these parts of the mind plays an important role in influencing behavior.
Verywell / Joshua Seong

About Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalytic theory. While his ideas were considered
shocking at the time and create debate and controversy even now, his work had a profound
influence on a number of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature,
and even art.

The term psychoanalysis is used to refer to many aspects of Freud’s work and research,
including Freudian therapy and the research methodology he used to develop his theories. Freud
relied heavily upon his observations and case studies of his patients when he formed his theory
of personality development.

How Psychoanalysis Influenced Psychology

Freud's Three Levels of the Mind

Freud delineated the mind in distinct levels, each with their own roles and functions. 1 The three
levels of the mind are:

 The preconscious consists of anything that could potentially be brought into the
conscious mind.
 The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of
which we are aware at any given moment. This is the aspect of our mental processing that
we can think and talk about rationally. This also includes our memory, which is not
always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily and brought into awareness.
 The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are
outside of our conscious awareness. The unconscious contains contents that are
unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict.

Freud likened the three levels of mind to an iceberg. The top of the iceberg that you can see
above the water represents the conscious mind. The part of the iceberg that is submerged below
the water, but is still visible, is the preconscious. The bulk of the iceberg that lies unseen beneath
the waterline represents the unconscious mind, often also referred to simply as the unconscious.

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This video has been medically reviewed by Rachel Goldman, PhD, FTOS.

How the Unconscious Mind Affects Behavior

While the information in the unconscious mind is outside of awareness, it continues to have an
influence on a person's behavior. Some of the ways the unconscious can affect behavior include:2

 Negative thoughts
 Self-defeating thoughts and behaviors
 Feelings of anger
 Compulsive behaviors
 Childhood behavioral problems
 Difficulties in interpersonal relationships
 Distressing patterns in romantic relationships
 Attitudes about others
 Unhealthy habits
 Distressing dreams
 First impressions of other people
 Prejudice and stereotypes

The Freudian Slip

Another example of the unconscious mind can be seen in what are known as slips of the tongue.
Many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a Freudian slip at some point or
another. These misstatements are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or
feelings.

Freud believed that while the unconscious mind is largely inaccessible, the contents can
sometimes bubble up unexpectedly, such as in dreams or slips of the tongue.

An example of a Freudian slip is a man who accidentally uses a former girlfriend's name when
referring to a current girlfriend. While most of us might believe this to be a simple error, Freud
believed that the slip showed the sudden intrusion of the unconscious mind into the conscious
mind, often due to unresolved or repressed feelings.

Accessing the Unconscious Mind

According to Freud, thoughts and emotions outside of our awareness continue to exert an
influence on our behaviors, even though we are unaware (unconscious) of these underlying
influences.

The unconscious mind can include repressed feelings, hidden memories, habits, thoughts,
desires, and reactions. Memories and emotions that are too painful, embarrassing, shameful, or
distressing to consciously face are stored in the enormous reservoir that makes up the
unconscious mind.

To identify the roots of a psychological distress, Freud employed techniques like dream
analysis and free association (the sharing of seemingly random thoughts) to bring true feelings to
light.
The Role of the Preconscious Mind

The contents of the conscious mind include all of the things that you are actively aware of. The
closely related preconscious mind contains all of the things that you could potentially pull into
conscious awareness. The preconscious also acts as something of a guard, controlling the
information that is allowed to enter into conscious awareness.

Preconscious memories are not the same things as memories that are readily accessed, such as
remembering your way home. They are unrepressed memories that we extract for a specific
purpose at a specific time.

The Takeaway

Although many of Freud's ideas have fallen out of favor, the importance of the unconscious has
become perhaps one of his most important and enduring contributions to
psychology. Psychoanalytic therapy, which explores how the unconscious mind influences
behaviors and thoughts, has become an important tool in the treatment of mental illness and
psychological distress.3

Freud's Stages of Human Development

The 5 Psychosexual Stages of Development by Age

According to the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, children go through a series of

psychosexual stages that lead to the development of the adult personality. Freud's stages of
human development, which consisted of five psychosexual stages of development, described
how personality developed over the course of childhood.

While Freud's theory of personality development is well-known in psychology, it has always

been quite controversial, both during Freud's time and in modern psychology.

One important thing to note is that contemporary psychoanalytic theories of personality

development have incorporated and emphasized ideas about internalized relationships and
interactions and the complex ways in which we maintain our sense of self into the models that
began with Freud.

Test Your Knowledge

At the end of this article, take a fast and free pop quiz to see how much you know about Freud's
psychosexual stages of development.

Overview of Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development

Illustration by Joshua Seong, Verywell

Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which the
pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. An erogenous
zone is characterized as an area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation.

During the five psychosexual stages, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages,
the erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure.

Psychosexual energy, or the libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior.

Psychoanalytic theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of five. Early
experiences play a large role in personality development and continue to influence behavior later
in life.

Each stage of development is marked by conflicts that can help build growth or stifle
development, depending upon how they are resolved. If these psychosexual stages are completed
successfully, a healthy personality is the result.

If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixations can occur. A fixation is a
persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual
will remain "stuck" in this stage. A person who is fixated at the oral stage, for example, may be
over-dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through smoking, drinking, or eating.

Sigmund Freud's Life, Theories, and Influence

The Oral Stage

Age Range: Birth to 1 Year

Erogenous Zone: Mouth

During the oral stage, the infant's primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the
rooting and sucking reflex is especially important. The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant
derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as tasting and sucking.

Because the infant is entirely dependent upon caretakers (who are responsible for feeding the
child), the child also develops a sense of trust and comfort through this oral stimulation.

The primary conflict at this stage is the weaning process--the child must become less dependent
upon caretakers. If fixation occurs at this stage, Freud believed the individual would have issues
with dependency or aggression. Oral fixation can result in problems with drinking, eating,
smoking, or nail-biting.

Trust vs. Mistrust: Psychosocial Stage 1

The Anal Stage

Age Range: 1 to 3 years

Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control

During the anal stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling
bladder and bowel movements. The major conflict at this stage is toilet training—the child has to
learn to control their bodily needs. Developing this control leads to a sense of accomplishment
and independence.

According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which parents approach
toilet training. Parents who utilize praise and rewards for using the toilet at the appropriate time
encourage positive outcomes and help children feel capable and productive.

Freud believed that positive experiences during the toilet training stage serve as the basis for
people to become competent, productive, and creative adults.

However, not all parents provide the support and encouragement that children need during this
stage. Some parents punish, ridicule, or shame a child for accidents.

According to Freud, inappropriate parental responses can result in negative outcomes. If parents
take an approach that is too lenient, Freud suggested that an anal-expulsive personality could
develop in which the individual has a messy, wasteful, or destructive personality.

If parents are too strict or begin toilet training too early, Freud believed that an anal-retentive
personality develops in which the individual is stringent, orderly, rigid, and obsessive.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

The Phallic Stage

Age Range: 3 to 6 Years

Erogenous Zone: Genitals

Freud suggested that during the phallic stage, the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals.
At this age, children also begin to discover the differences between males and females.

Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s affection. The
Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to
replace the father. However, the child also fears that he will be punished by the father for these
feelings, a fear Freud termed castration anxiety.

The term Electra complex has been used to describe a similar set of feelings experienced by
young girls. Freud, however, believed that girls instead experience penis envy.
Eventually, the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent as a means of vicariously
possessing the other parent. For girls, however, Freud believed that penis envy was never fully
resolved and that all women remain somewhat fixated on this stage.

Psychologists such as Karen Horney disputed this theory, calling it both inaccurate and
demeaning to women. Instead, Horney proposed that men experience feelings of inferiority
because they cannot give birth to children, a concept she referred to as womb envy.

Initiative vs. Guilt: Developing a Sense of Purpose

The Latent Period

Age Range: 6 to Puberty

Erogenous Zone: Sexual Feelings Are Inactive

During this stage, the superego continues to develop while the id's energies are suppressed.
Children develop social skills, values, and relationships with peers and adults outside of the
family.

The development of the ego and superego contributes to this period of calm. The stage begins
around the time that children enter school and become more concerned with peer relationships,
hobbies, and other interests.

The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is repressed or dormant.
This energy is still present, but it is sublimated into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and
social interactions. This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills
and self-confidence.

As with the other psychosexual stages, Freud believed that it was possible for children to become
fixated or "stuck" in this phase. Fixation at this stage can result in immaturity and an inability to
form fulfilling relationships as an adult.

Industry vs. Inferiority During Child Development

The Genital Stage

Age Range: Puberty to Death

Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual Interests

The onset of puberty causes the libido to become active once again. During the final stage of
psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex.
This stage begins during puberty but last throughout the rest of a person's life.
Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the welfare of others
grows during this stage. The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the various life
areas.

If the other stages have been completed successfully, the individual should now be well-
balanced, warm, and caring.

Unlike many of the earlier stages of development, Freud believed that the ego and superego were
fully formed and functioning at this point. Younger children are ruled by the id, which demands
immediate satisfaction of the most basic needs and wants.

Teens in the genital stage of development are able to balance their most basic urges against the
need to conform to the demands of reality and social norms.

Identity vs. Role Confusion in Psychosocial Development

Evaluating Freud's Stages of Human Development

Freud's theory is still considered controversial today, but imagine how audacious it seemed
during the late 1800s and early 1900s. There have been a number of observations and criticisms
of Freud's psychosexual theory on a number of grounds, including scientific and feminist
critiques.

Criticisms of the Psychosexual Stages of Development

 The theory is focused almost entirely on male development with little mention of female
psychosexual development.
 His theories are difficult to test scientifically. Concepts such as the libido are impossible
to measure, and therefore cannot be tested. The research that has been conducted tends to
discredit Freud's theory.
 Future predictions are too vague. How can we know that a current behavior was caused
specifically by a childhood experience? The length of time between the cause and the
effect is too long to assume that there is a relationship between the two variables.
 Freud's theory is based on case studies and not empirical research. Also, Freud based his
theory on the recollections of his adult patients, not on actual observation and study of
children.

Ignores Homosexuality

Another criticism of the psychosexual stages is that the theory focuses primarily on heterosexual
development, and largely ignores homosexual development.

So how exactly did Freud explain the development of sexual preferences?

Freud's theory suggested that heterosexual preferences represent the "normal" outcome of
development and suggested that homosexual preferences represented a deviation from this
process.1 Freud's own viewpoints on homosexuality varied, at times expressing biological
explanations and at other times social or psychological explanations for sexual preferences.

Unlike many thinkers of his time, Freud was unconvinced that homosexuality represented a
pathology. He also believed that attempts to alter a person's sexuality were usually futile and
often harmful.

In a famous 1935 letter to a mother who had written him to ask that he treat her homosexual son,
Freud wrote that while he believed homosexuality was not advantageous, it was certainly not a
vice or something to be ashamed of. Freud wrote, "...it cannot be classified as an illness; we
consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual
development."

While Freud's theory implied that homosexuality was a deviation from normal psychosexual
development, many contemporary psychologists believe that sexual orientation is largely
influenced by biological factors.

Keep in Mind

While few people are strong proponents of Freud's theory of psychosexual development today,
his work made important contributions to our understanding of human development. Perhaps his
most important and enduring contribution was the idea that unconscious influences could have a
powerful impact on human behavior.

Freud's theory also stressed the importance of early experiences in development. While experts
continue to debate the relative contributions of early versus later experiences, developmental
experts recognize that the events of early life play a critical role in the developmental process
and can have lasting effects throughout life.

Id, Ego, and Superego: Freud's Elements of Personality

According to Sigmund Freud, human personality is complex and has more than a single
component. In his famous psychoanalytic theory, Freud states that personality is composed of
three elements known as the id, the ego, and the superego. These elements work together to
create complex human behaviors.1

Boag S. Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects. Front Psychol. 2014;5:666.
doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666

"The id is considered the basis of sexual and aggressive energy and is largely held in the
unconscious, emerging as illogical or wishful thinking," explains Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD,
associate professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky. "The superego is one’s
conscience and is established via identification with parental figures or social groups at large.
The ego is tasked with balancing reality with the demands of desire (id) and morality
(superego)."
Each component adds its own unique contribution to personality, and the three interact in ways
that have a powerful influence on an individual. Each element of personality emerges at different
points in life.

According to Freud's theory, certain aspects of your personality are more primal and might
pressure you to act upon your most basic urges. Other parts of your personality work to
counteract these urges and strive to make you conform to the demands of reality.

Here's a closer look at each of these key parts of the personality, how they work individually, and
how they interact.
Verywell

The Id

 According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary
component of personality.1
 The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
 This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes instinctive and primitive
behaviors.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires,
wants, and needs.1 If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state of anxiety or
tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate attempt to eat
or drink.

The id is very important early in life because it ensures that an infant's needs are met. If the
infant is hungry or uncomfortable, they will cry until the demands of the id are satisfied. Young
infants are ruled entirely by the id; there is no reasoning with them when these needs demand
satisfaction.

Examples of the Id

Imagine trying to convince a baby to wait until lunchtime to eat their meal. The id requires
immediate satisfaction, and because the other components of personality are not yet present, the
infant will cry until these needs are fulfilled.

However, immediately fulfilling these needs is not always realistic or even possible. If we were
ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find ourselves grabbing the things that we want
out of other people's hands to satisfy our cravings.

This behavior would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable. According to Freud, the id
tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle through the use of primary process
thinking, which involves forming a mental image of the desired object to satisfy the need.1

Although people eventually learn to control the id, this part of personality remains the same
infantile, primal force throughout life. It is the development of the ego and the superego that
allows people to control the id's basic instincts and act in ways that are both realistic and socially
acceptable.

The Ego

 According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id
can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world.2
 The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
 The ego is the personality component responsible for dealing with reality.3
Everyone has an ego. The term ego is sometimes used to describe your cohesive awareness of
your personality, but personality and ego are not the same. The ego represents just one
component of your full personality.

The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in realistic
and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action
before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses.

In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification—the
ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place. 1

The term ego is often used informally to suggest that someone has an inflated sense of self.
However, the ego in personality has a positive effect. It is the part of your personality that keeps
you grounded in reality and prevents the id and superego from pulling you too far toward your
most basic urges or moralistic virtues. Having a strong ego means having a strong sense of self-
awareness.

Freud compared the id to a horse and the ego to the horse's rider. The horse provides power and
motion, while the rider provides direction and guidance. Without its rider, the horse would
wander wherever it wished and do whatever it pleased. The rider gives the horse directions and
commands to get it where it wants it to go.

The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through secondary process thinking,
in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created
by the id's primary process.4

Examples of the Ego

Imagine that you are stuck in a long meeting at work. You find yourself growing increasingly
hungry as the meeting drags on. While the id might compel you to jump up from your seat and
rush to the break room for a snack, the ego guides you to sit quietly and wait for the meeting to
end.

Instead of acting upon the primal urges of the id, you spend the rest of the meeting imagining
yourself eating a cheeseburger. Once the meeting is finally over, you can seek out the object you
were imagining and satisfy the demands of the id realistically and appropriately.

The Superego

The last component of personality to develop is the superego.

 According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age 5.

 The superego holds the internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from our
parents and society (our sense of right and wrong).1
 The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.
The superego has two parts:

1. The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and
society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments,
or feelings of guilt and remorse.5
2. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviors that the ego aspires to.5

The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behavior. It suppresses all the id's unacceptable
urges and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than on realistic
principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

Examples of the Superego

For example, if you give in to the urges of the id, the superego is what will cause you to feel a
sense of guilt or even shame about your actions. The superego may help you feel good about
your behavior when you suppress your most primal urges.

Other examples of the superego include:

 A woman feels an urge to steal office supplies from work. However, her superego
counteracts this urge by focusing on the fact that such behaviors are wrong.
 A man realizes that the cashier at the store forgot to charge him for one of the items he
had in his cart. He returns to the store to pay for the item because his internalized sense of
right and wrong urges him to do so.
 A student forgets to study for a history test and feels an urge to cheat off of a student
sitting nearby. Even though he feels like his chances of getting caught are low, he knows
that cheating is wrong, so he suppresses the urge.

The Interaction of the Id, Ego, and Superego

When talking about the id, the ego, and the superego, it is important to remember that these are
not three separate entities with clearly defined boundaries. These aspects are dynamic and always
interacting to influence an individual's overall personality and behavior.

With many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the id, ego, and
superego. "A central theme of Freud’s work is that id, ego, and superego are always in conflict
and the specific nature of these discrepancies determines one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
(or personality)," says Sauer-Zavala.

Freud further assumed that it takes a lot of mental energy to keep the id’s desires in the
unconscious; however, unconscious thoughts must go somewhere and are likely to be expressed
in another form that may not be under one’s control (e.g., as symptom, dream, joke, slip of the
tongue, or behavior).
— SHANNON SAUER-ZAVALA, PHD
Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego's ability to function despite these dueling
forces.6 A person who has good ego strength can effectively manage these pressures, while a
person with too much or too little ego strength can be unyielding or disruptive.

What Happens If There Is an Imbalance?

According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id, the ego, and the
superego.7 If the ego is able to adequately moderate between the demands of reality, the id, and
the superego, a healthy and well-adjusted personality emerges. Freud believed that an imbalance
between these elements would lead to a maladaptive personality.

"Freud believed that mental health difficulties (anxiety, depression) arise when 'the ego has lost
the capacity to allocate the [id] in some way' (Freud, 1920), adds Sauer-Zavala. "Freud noted
that, in many cases, the symptoms experienced are as bad or worse than the conflict they were
designed to replace. Though the symptom is a substitute for the instinctual impulse, it has been
so reduced, displaced, and distorted that it looks more like a compulsion or even an illness than a
gratification of the id’s desire."

For example, an individual with an overly dominant id might become impulsive, uncontrollable,
or even criminal. Such an individual acts upon their most basic urges with no concern for
whether their behavior is appropriate, acceptable, or legal.

On the other hand, an overly dominant superego might lead to a personality that is extremely
moralistic and judgmental. A person ruled by the superego might not be able to accept anything
or anyone that they perceive to be "bad" or "immoral."

Final Thoughts

Freud's theory provides one conceptualization of how personality is structured and how the
elements of personality function. In Freud's view, a balance in the dynamic interaction of the id,
ego, and superego is necessary for a healthy personality.

"Freud’s accounts of the nature of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors have largely fallen out
of favor," admits Sauer-Zavala. "People began to question whether differences in people’s
personalities could accurately be reduced to sexual and aggressive impulses. In fact, there is
limited research support for Freud’s theories."

While the ego has a tough job to do, it does not have to act alone. Anxiety also plays a role in
helping the ego mediate between the demands of the basic urges, moral values, and the real
world. When you experience different types of anxiety, defense mechanisms may kick in to help
defend the ego and reduce the anxiety you are feeling.