Personality

• id: drives and instincts
• Eros: life instinct (sex drive), Thanatos: death instinct (self destruction), part of Id
• Pleasure Principle: if it feels good then do it, guides Id
• Superego: person’s conscious (guilt)
• Morals, values, and ethics are part of the superego
• superego is based on the Idealistic Principle
• ego: conscious self
• reality principle guides the ego
• Ego mediates between demands of Id and Superego
• ego = person’s outward personality as we know it
• ego utilizes unconscious defense mechanisms (don’t know you’re doing it)
• denial: refusing to accept reality, NOT LYING
• denial example: mom not seeing her kid doing drugs, divorce, thinking you can graduate but you can’t
• repression: burying traumatic memory
• repression example: car crash
• projection: accusing others of your flaws
• projection example: George being gay and saying teddy is
• regression: returning to childlike state
• regression example: crying to mom when upset, trying to combat midlife crisis
• Reaction Formation: acting the opposite of how you feel, overcompensation
• Reaction Formation example: bullying, overconfidence, happy after bad break up
• rationalization: creating a seemling logical "excuse" to justify something bad
• rationalization example: I'm hungry so I eat Feifei's special candy
• displacement: taking our anger/frustration on a person or object that's not the cause of the offense
• displacement example: "kick the dog"
• oral stage happens from 0-1 years old
• erogenous zones of oral: mouth, lips, tongue
• major task of oral stage: weaning -> into solid food
• oral fixation: smoking, overeating, biting nails, putting on chapstick to calm us like it once did
• oral fixation = regression, still entirely Id (child)
• anal stage happens from 2-3 years old
• erogenous zones of anal: anus
• major task of anal stage: toilet training
• fixation at anal stage: obsession with neatnesss, cleanliness, order, and control
• ego begins to develop at anal stage
• free association: psychoanalysis method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind (no matter how trivial or embarassing)
• sublimation: redirecting negative feelings into more acceptable channels
• sublimation example: letting anger off at gym
• born Id, superego and ego develop later
• phallic stage happens from 4-5 years old