According to Fancher (1973, p 104), Freud’s final theory of mind is a practical view of how early experiences in life influence the behavior in later stages. Most of the character fostered in adults is depended on the experiences at childhood.
Freud believed that that personality has three parts, which are id, ego, and superego. The id is the primal part mostly at birth. It is essentially an illogical personality. The sense of reasoning at this stage is obsolete. It signifies the pleasure principle. Fancher (1973, p 134) asserts that the id signifies the urgent demand for the satisfaction of needs such as hunger and thirst that would exist within an organism.
Freud asserts that the id could be satisfied by an alternative source, but this does not satisfy the entire organism and the existing need becomes more pronounced in the organism. This necessitates urgent satisfaction of the existing need within the organism using the right source. On the other hand, the ego develops when the child interacts with the environment around him. This is the rational part of personality endowed with the reality principle (Fancher, 1973). The superego develops at the phallic stage and is a characteristic of conflict to the id. The key interrelations within these personalities are that the ego can resist anxiety from conflict.
Francher (1973, p 200) notes that both the ego and superego conflict with the id in their operations. Furthermore, Freud noted that both anxiety and self-defense mechanisms evoke different feelings in the system. For instance, realistic anxiety leads to fear among individuals, while moral anxiety could lead to the feeling of shame among individuals. When the anxiety becomes enormous among individuals the ego acts faster and defends itself adequately. Thus, Fancher (1973, p 142) asserts that the behavior changes with age. One of the key examples that could be used to illustrate this system is the children’s cry for food.
The child could be given a drink, which satisfies the id but does not satisfy its entire needs hence leading to persistent cries due to pronounced feeling of hunger. Caper (1999, p 19) affirms that psychopathological symptoms are synonymous to dreams, in that dreams also result from mental hallucinations. Initiation of dreams is from brain waves, which travel in sudden impulses. These signals move from the eye neurons to the mid brain into the higher brains (Fancher, 1973) hence leading to the formation of varied images. However, when one is awake, the orientation response directs the attention of the brain to enable human beings to respond to environmental changes, like loud music. On the other hand, psychopathology applies the study of these similar transmissions, which effect responses to the environment.
For ones with a brain disorder, such transmissions happen while they are awake. This means that the mentally impaired dream for the entire lifetime. The coordination between the eye neurons, the mid brain, and the higher brain correlate by way of impulses that result in the absenteeism of their mind. That is why most of the mentally impaired find difficulties in paying attention, just like a normal person dreaming. Caper (1999, p 62) asserts that both dreams and symptoms of psychopathology involve the inversion of the personality that is seen. This implies that the person that is observed in dreams and symptoms of psychopathology is not always in the normal form, as the original personality, due to inversions.
Thus, this gives a false view of the personality that is observed in both situations. More so, both dreams and symptoms of psychopathology involve a series of formations that lead to exaggerations of ideas and situations. Caper (1999, p103) affirms that the different situations that individuals encounter in dreams and psychotherapy are always unrealistic in the true world because of their exaggerations. This occurs due to an individual’s daily experiences, which transform themselves significantly into a series of unrealistic ideas.
