the unconscious mind

• Freud proposed the psychodynamic approach, which suggests human behaviour is determined by different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind
• Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious: a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour and personality
• The unconscious also contains threatening and disturbing memories which have been repressed. These can be accessed through dreams or by slips of the tongue
• There are three parts which make up the unconscious mind: the id, the ego and the superego
• the id is the primitive part of our personality that is made up of selfish, aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification
• the id operates on the pleasure principle
• Only the id is present at birth
• The ego works on the reality principle
• the ego develops around 2 years old
• the ego is a mediator between the id and the superego and reduces conflict between the id and the superego by employing defence mechanisms
• there are 3 defence mechanisms: repression, denial and displacement
• Repression - forcing distressing memories or unwanted thoughts out of the conscious mind
• Denial - refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• Displacement - transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
• The superego is the moralistic part of our personality which represents the ideal self: how we ought to be
• the superego is formed at the end of the phallic stage around the age of 5
• the superego is based on the morality principle
• the superego suppresses desires of the id that are considered wrong and punishes wrongdoing through guilt