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3 parts of the personality according to Freud

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On his website Changing Minds (http://changingminds.org), Clinical Psychologist Don Bannister has described Freud's position on the human personality as

"...a battlefield. He is a dark-cellar in which a well-bred spinster lady (the superego) and a sex-crazed monkey (the id) are forever engaged in mortal combat, the struggle being refereed by a rather nervous bank clerk (the ego)."

With this in mind, discuss the relationship between the three components of Freudâ??s "psychic apparatus," what he considers the structural model of the psyche â?" id, ego, and superego. Use the text to substantiate your response.

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Solution Summary

The following solution discusses Freud's view of how the 3 components of human personality interact.

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An individual's feelings, thoughts and behaviors derive from the interaction of the the id, ego, and superego, creating conflict which creates anxiety, which leads to Defense Mechanisms. According to Freud the primary goals of the Id are to obtain pleasure and avoid pain. The Id does not perceive reality and seeks to satisfy its needs through primal forces such as hunger and the protecting of oneself. The Id gets the energy for its actions from the libido.
The two major instincts of the Id are:
Eros: the life instinct that motivates people to focus on pleasure seeking tendencies.
Thanatos: the death instinct that motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy.

The Ego acts ...

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