Question- Explain Freud theme of personality development. or Describe personality types on the basis of constitution of the body.

Answer-

Freud theme of Personality Development : In his books Freud has very emphasized the role of unconscious process in human behaviour. According to Freud, almost the entire mental life is directed from the unconscious forces. The conscious level is a very small part of the unconscious mind. The unconscious is the reservoir of the unfulfilled motives. It stores repressed unfulfilled infantile sexual desires. According to Freud the repressed desires do not disappear but go to the unconscious of the man and there await suitable chances for manifestation. Of these almost all the desire are sexual. It is the sexual desires which are the causes of much of these sexual desires with the name libido as the motivation force in human life.

The Id :Thus, according to Freud, man's unconscious is the store house of instinctive impulses, frustrated desire and repressed feelings. It is not in the contact of the environment. Freud calls it Id. In the Id, there are the directing forces of the man. Earlier, Freud conceived it to be directed by the pleasure principle alone, but later on he accepted the existence of death instinct as well. Thus, in the Id there are impulses connected both with life and are directed towards the environment. Thus, they very much influence the conscious life of a man. In the Id, most of these desires are sexual.

The Ego : In the beginning Freud conceived Id as unconscious and the ego as conscious and explained their conflict in terms of the conflict of the unconscious and conscious. Later on, he modified his concept of the polarity of the conscious and the unconscious. Earlier he thought that the conscious level is the level of the ego and on this level the unwanted desire are repressed and sent to the unconscious. But later on, Freud found that many of his patients who were analysed, themselves did not know their resistances consciously. They were presenting some sort of resistances, while remembering their past experience. This showed that the resistance and repression is unconscious. Thus, Freud concluded that resistance and repression are unconscious. According to this modified view ego is partly conscious and partly unconscious. In the conscious aspect it is in the contact of the environment. This contact with the environment is though the muscles. The ego is also concerned with the inner mind of the man. This is the internal unconscious. The concept of this unconscious is proved through conscious pleasure and pain. According to Freud, there is a constant conflict between this conscious or the ego with this unconscious level. The ego mediates between both these world because it is partly conscious and partly unconscious. In his famous book "The Ego and Id", Freud wrote, "The ego tries to mediate demands of the world and the Id, to make the Id comply with the world’s demand and by means of it always in search of pleasure." Id searches for pleasure blindly according to pleasure principle. But the Id must work through the Ego and the Ego follows the reality principle. In the beginning, Ego is weak and undeveloped. Hence it has to face many difficulties to fulfil Id’s desires. It runs after the objects which are not found in the environment. When the ego has to achieve his favourite object. it keeps its image in it and identifies itself with the object. Thus, by adopting the characteristics of the coveted object, the Ego gradually develops. When successfully developed the Ego is systematic and well organised and adjusted to the environment. The Id is always primitive and unorganised.

The Super Ego : Super Ego is called conscience to the ordinary sense. It is also known as Ego ideal. In the analysis of the behaviour of his patients, Freud sometimes found much sense of guilt. Hence he had to postulate a Super Ego beside the Id and Ego.

Like the conscience, this Super Ego tries to oppress Ego by several rules and taboos. It tries to direct Ego regarding what it has to do and what is has not to do. These directions are not based on practical needs, they are categorical imperatives.

There is another significant difference between the Super Ego and the Ego. The Super Ego develops only in the human beings while the Ego is found in some form in all the developed animals. This is because man has to pass through a very long period of infancy and his sexual power takes much time to arrive at its object in the adult sexual life. According to Freud, the Ego develops in the life of the individual whereas the sources of the Super Ego can be traced from the primitive man. Thus, man gets the Super Ego not only in his own life, but through traditions as well. Yet most of the part of the Super Ego develops a new in every child. Freud has traced its origin to the frustrated sexual desires in the child. According to Freud, in the child there is a real sex impulse which searches a person of different sex. According to this view the boy loves the mother and the girl loves the father. Not only this but the boy finds rival in the father while the girl finds a rival in the mother. Thus, the mind of the child is field of terrible conflict which creates mental complexes. It is through these conflicts that the Super Ego develops.

Regarding the nature of Ego, Adler and Jung differ from Freud in certain aspects. For example, whereas for Freud the Ego follows the reality principle, according to Adler it does not do so. Jung has taken the libido of Freud in a very wide sense and identified it with physical energy. Of these, Freud’s hypothesis has proved to be most helpful in the explanation of human behaviour, especially those of the abnormal persons.

Contribution to Education :

1. Psycho-analysis revolutionized the theory and practice of education. Freud discovered unconscious motivation which plays an important role in the process of learning.
2. Psycho-analysis laid down great importance to the process of catharsis. Children should get opportunities to express their emotions and motives freely in the class and the outside the class.
3. The findings of psycho-analysis gave impetus to the movements of early childhood education.
4. The greatest contribution of psycho-analysis is that it has thrown light on the causes of maladjustment in children.
5. Psycho-analysis laid emphasis on freedom of emotions in the process of education.

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