Personality it seems is an enigmatic phenomenon, which because of its many discordant facets is possibly a less accessible concept to comprehend than for example, intelligence which has a more scientifically measurable/methodological aspect. There are many definitions of personality, but the most helpful for this essay is that of which defines personality as “the distinctive and characteristic patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour that define an individuals personal style, and influence their actions with the environment” (Atkinson et al 1992)

Over the centuries personality has been a source of great interest to many philosophers including Plato who philosophied life as conflicting forces, and Freud whose theory was based on instinctual needs being met or denied. More contemporary theorists include H.J.Eysenck (1916) and G. Allport (1897-1967) whose works focus more on the healthy mind as opposed to Freud, Charot and Breur whose theories developed from within a neurological environment and focused on the psychologically unba

According to Cf. Popper, K., in his book The Logic of Scientific Discovery (???)

Freud used the term unconscious to represent a state of mind from within which some of the contents are not accessible to logical reasoning or expression without much conscious effort and some are never brought into the level of consciousness The unconscious mind is associative rather than logical and has no sense of time and meaning. Freud believed the unconscious mind housed concepts, thoughts and emotions which were threatening and painful to the conscious mind and therefore were kept at a level where they would not cause conflict or create anxiety. He suggested that unresolved conflict, which occurred in early childhood as a result of unmet needs lay in the unconscious mind until a time when an associative trigger raised anxiety symptoms. It is at that time, through psychotherapy and hypnotherapy it becomes possible to ‘tap into’ the unconscious and bring its contents via the pre-conscious into conscious awareness. In Freud’s psychodynamic theory the unconscious plays a most powerful, dynamic role in behaviour and houses the most powerful driving energy – the id.

In 1923 Freud, who was influenced by Plato, offered a deeper insight into the way in which the mind attempts to process inner conflicts and create harmony and peace of mind. He also added that this should not to be considered a permanent state, but that conflicting drives continue to present at differing stages of development. He developed a model of the mind known as the topographical model: a complex concept of interrelated levels of consciousness, which incorporates three conflicting subsystems of human personality which he called the id, ego and superego (Laura’s bk p717). Further, this tripartite model operates on different levels of consciousness. We will focus on this often confusing idea in more depth further in the essay, but it would be useful here to start with some definitions of the unfamiliar terminology Freud uses.

Some topics in this essay:
According Freud’s, Genital Stage, Fromm Horney, Discuss Freud, Repression- Forcing, Discovery Scientific, Charot Breur, Regression- Engaging, Freudian Fallacy, Phallic Stage, unconscious mind, defence mechanisms, stages development, sex parent, personality development, id ego, ego superego, conscious mind, id ego superego, stage development, model mind, suggested unresolved conflict, stages psycho-sexual development, unconscious mind associative, opposite sex parent,