20). Personality concepts

Sigmund Freud founded the psychoanalysis. Personality depends on the actions of 3 major forces: the id, the ego and the superego.

The id is our unconsious instincts. The ego is our consious self or intellect. The superego is the conditional reflexes of social rules and internalized values.

The ego is often under strain to withstand the pleasure forces from the id, pressure by the moral forces and the reality forces of the environment. The ego and the superego are the mere tips of the id.

It is what is underneath that really counts. For Freudists what is hidden is more important and real than what we feel and do.