The psychoanalytic approach on personality states that human behavior is determined by irrational forces, and the unconscious as well as instinctual and biological drives. When talking about the Psychoanalytic approach one should automatically think of the name Sigmund Freud. Freud was the first to develop a system of psychotherapy called psychoanalysis. He was an Austrian neurologist who used hypnosis to treat his patients. Freud discovered the unconscious through the observation of his hysteria patients. After awhile he felt that hypnosis wasn’t doing enough so he used a technique he called “free association”, and he continued to write about the development of his theories. Freud’s “theories of the dynamic unconscious, personality development, personality structure, psychopathology, the methodology of psychoanalytic investigation, and methods of treatment” (Otto Kernberg) have had great impact on psychology. Other scholars also made contributions to the psychoanalytic approach to personality theory; these people were called the Neo Freudians. These different perspectives were created by scholars such as; Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, and Karen Horney. Neo-Freudians agreed that childhood experiences influenced adult personality and the unconscious being a main cause of behavior. However, they did not agree that the adult personality was fully developed through experiences of a child at age 5 and 6.
A Deeper Look into Freudian Theory
Freud’s theory holds that human personalities can be divided up into three sections. This is his topographic model where there is a conscious, Preconscious, and unconscious part of the mind. The conscious part of your mind holds the immediate thoughts going through your brain. These thoughts are constantly on changing and it is fairly easy to recall a memory that is at the surface of your mind. The preconscious mind holds most of the memories that you can