Two theories of personality from freud and yung: who i am

According to the American Psychological Association, personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. This essay will be examining my personality as well as comparing to two personality theorists. I will be viewing the way I act, feel, and converse. This will lead to the explanation of the two theorists in which I will show how their theory links with my personality and behavior. Upon reviewing the theories of personality, the two theorists that really resonated with my personality were Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. As for Freud, I will be looking at his theory on the unconscious mind and his defense mechanisms and as for Jung, I will be covering his theory on ego, personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. I will then analyze how these two theories describe my personality and then show their strengths and weaknesses as it relates to my personality.

Who Is Racquel?

This essay started off as a nightmare because it forced me to ask myself “ Who is Racquel?”. It made me take a harder look at my behavior and antics. I even had to go as far as to get my friends and family to tell me about the stuff I do that they have observed. Through this I was able to narrow down that I am hardworking, always smiling, even when angry, very protective, outspoken, free-spirited, animated, friendly, and playful. I have a habit of shaking my legs, good memory, quick learning, and I have moods where I like to be alone and then when I don’t mind the company.

Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic Theory on Personality

Sigmund Freud made a lot of contributions to Psychology during his years alive which delved in psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic approach to psychology. We will be covering his Psychoanalytic theory in which he believes that human behavior is based on elements outside of consciousness. This just meant that events that happen during childhood end up shaping who we are and creates our personalities. His personality theory looks at three levels, the conscious (ID), preconscious (EGO), and unconscious (SUPEREGO). The ID is your instincts part of your personality. It consists of innate personalities. It is made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires. Freud saw it as a pleasure that needs immediate fulfillment in a person. The EGO is your real part of your personality. According to Freud, the EGO is manifested from the ID to ensure that the impulses of the ID can be expressed in a manner that is acceptable in the real world. The EGO is the part that can function in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind. The superego is the part that looks at the morals and values of the society in which persons learn from their parents at a young age. Freud stated that is developed during the phallic stage which is between 3-5 years old. The superego’s responsibility is to control the ID impulses to ensure that it doesn’t act on actions that society has to forbid. He also viewed defense mechanisms such as regression, denial, projection, displacement, repression, and simulation. From this, I can see that my ego is my dominant personality as I have control over my impulses and desires. I grew up in a very large household and everyone basically had to help with the care of the house. Morals, values, and beliefs were drill in me from young and they still are present. Sometimes if a situation occurs now in my adult years like conflict, I find that I may find myself weighing if it is right or wrong to retaliate and then just find myself walking away. My defense mechanism is more between repression and denial. Even when I am angry or sad, I find that I still smile and would look for a positive to the situation I am in because I don’t want to change my demeanor.

Carl Jung Personality Theory

Carl Jung put forward and expand the collective unconscious, the concepts of the extraverted, and the introverted personality and archetypes. He believed that you should take into consideration present circumstances and a persons’ desire towards their own future. Jung’s theory looked at the ego, personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. The ego was a person’s belief of themselves. This is like the view of their physical and mental makeup, memories, and sense of identity. The personal unconscious looks at all information that is present within an individual’s mind, but not readily available to conscious recall. This information is considered repressed or forgotten. Jung believed that this was a collection of thoughts, memories, feelings, and attitudes that focus on a single concept. The more parts attached to it the more it would influence and individual. The collective unconscious which is sometimes called an objective psyche is the idea that a piece of the deepest unconscious mind is genetic and is not created by personal experience. Jung looked at the different types of concepts like extraverted and introverted. An introvert is a person who likes to be alone and only enjoys the company of a few close people. An extrovert is a person who is very outward with themselves and enjoys being surrounded by people. He linked these types of personalities to feeling, intuitive, thinking, and sensing. Archetypes are images and thoughts which have universal meanings across cultures which may show up in dreams, literature, art, or religion. (Jung, 1947). The archetypes are anima, animus, mother, demon, persona, shadow, trickster, self, and hero. The few of his archetypes that fit my personality are mother, persona, shadow, anima, and hero. Mothers want to protect people from harm and try to prevent any danger or risk from threatening other people’s happiness. I have always loved kids and have a strong sense of protecting others. With my three kids, I am a lioness and their happiness always comes before my own. Jung believed that we each have both male and female in each of us call the anima and the animus. This apart of my personality because I hate to know when people say that only a man can do it, so then I have to prove them wrong. The shadow is considered the dark side of one’s personality. Sometimes there is a part of me that can dredge up way in which to hurt people who are seeking to hurt me but then my ego kicks in. The persona is seen as our public forum. I have always had a public profile which is very extrovert, but I really like being by myself. I found that this occurred after I had kids, so it is a constant battle sometimes. The hero is the part that will do everything to avoid losing. I have a very competitive spirit and would often sit and draw many options out before executing. If I happen not to accomplish the task, I would find myself during my downtime going over the whole thing trying to figure out where I went wrong.

Comparisons between the Two Theorists

Even though I can relate some of my personality to some of Freud’s theories, some of what Carl Jung stated in his theory also resonated with me as well. Carl Jung didn’t share all of Freud’s beliefs. He broadens Freud’s theory to include the way the natives thought, mythology, and art. They both had different views when it came to the unconscious mind. Freud believed the unconscious mind was at the center of our repressed thoughts, childhood conflict memories, and drives of sex and aggression. While Jung believed the ego is the conscious, the personal unconscious includes memories and the collective unconscious holds our experiences and knowledge that we are innate with like love at first sight. They both agreed that you can learn a lot about a person through their dream but where Freud said that dreams are sexual in nature and Carl disagreed and stated that dreams are more symbolic. Their major disagreement was that Jung felt that Freud’s theory was based too much on a sexual nature and that it was more of psychic energy of life force.

Conclusion

The two scientists had different views, but I found that they best described the type of personality that I have. My personality is big and has developed through childhood, environmental, and social experiences. I think where one would have lacked in explaining some of my traits the other one was able to define it.