Theory of Personality


Enhanced diagram of Freud's Structure of the mind, via The Ego and The Id (1923)
Left to right: Freud, Sándor Ferenczi, Hann Sachs. Back row: Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon, Ernest Jones. circa 1922

Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis. Dreams, free association, transference, psychosexual developmental phases, libido, psychic topography and structure, and more.

His case studies were known for their radical candor.

Freud's opinions of the core of human motivations led the way to later innovators seeking to prove a point: ego psychologists like Erikson. As well as Jung, Adler, Horney, Sullivan, and Fromm, who broke ranks from the psychoanalytic community to form their own theories of personality. Object relational theorists will take the early years and biases toward objects into their own interpretations, a la Klein, Winnicott, Arlow, Kohut, Kernberg, Guntrip, and more.

Developmental theory

Narcissism

Psychosexual phases

Topographic model

Conscious (Cs.)
Preconscious (Pcs.)
Unconscious (Ucs.)
  • Cs.
  • Ucs.
  • Pcs.

Structural model

The Ego and the Id

  • Id
  • Ego
  • Super-ego

Terms