Question

Explain your own personality as a function of Freud’s structural and topographical model.

Answer 1

According to the Freud's structural model my personality is divided into Id, Ego, and Super Ego. These are hypothetical mental frames of my mind according to Freud. The id frame of my personality works on pleasure principle, that constantly seeks gratification of bodily needs and avoiding any sort of pain. Ego is the gate keeper of the id. It thinks in realistic way to satisfy the needs of id, rationalizing the ways of id. Super ego is the moral aspect of the personality. It works on moral aspect, distinguishes right from wrong using guilt and defense mechanism and seeks to conform to the social norms. Thus, id is unconscious part of the personality, ego and superego are conscious part of personality. Ego always strives to find the mid path between the id and superego, and tries to satisfy the needs of id by doing so. But, sometimes the conflicts arises when ego fails to find a realistic way to satisfy the needs of id, and this imbalance may result in stress and tension in life.

The topographical model of Freud divides my personality into unconscious, preconscious, and conscious. Most part of my experiences, emotions, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, impulses are underlying in the unconscious state to which I am not aware, as they are not available to the aware conscious aspect of my mind. These underlying concepts of unconscious is what drives my behavior and thus it impacts my personality. The conscious which is my aware part is smaller than unconscious, according to Freud its like the tip of the iceberg. The subconscious is accessible when needed, but is not actively aware as conscious. The childhood memories, traumas are sometimes stored away from the conscious into this subconscious, which can be accessed when prompted.