In Freud ’s defense, he can hardly be accused of being unconcerned with
finding evidence to support his theory. Indeed, he referred to many parts of
his theory as “discoveries, ”the products of detailed examinations of clients ’
statements during various stages of psychoanalysis. However, Freud ’s heavy
reliance on case study data is the basis of another criticism. These data werealmost certainly biased. First, Freud’ s patients hardly represented typical
adults. Not only did they come from relatively wealthy and well-educatedEuropean families, but they also were suffering from psychological disordersat the time. It is a large leap to say that the minds of these clients function in
the same way as the mind of the average psychologically healthy adult. Sec-
ond, all the information we have about these clients was filtered throughFreud. It is possible that Freud recognized and recorded only the statements
and behaviors that supported his theory and ignored or failed to notice those
that did not. Third, it is possible that (consciously or unconsciously) Freudcaused his patients to say the things he wanted to hear. Psychotherapy clients
can be highly vulnerable to accepting whatever a person in a position of au-
thority tells them and may be highly motivated to please that person. It is in-teresting to note that when interpreting Dora ’s dream, Freud wrote that the
dream confirmed what he already knew.
A final group of criticisms concerns disagreements with the points of em-
phasis and tone of Freud ’s theory. Many of Freud ’s early followers eventually
broke away from the group and developed their own theories because they
felt Freud ignored or de-emphasized important influences on personality.
Some were concerned about Freud’ s failure to recognize how experiences be-
yond the first few years of life could affect personality. Others disagreed with
Freud ’s emphasis on an instinctual basis for personality at the expense of im-
portant social and cultural influences. Still others took issue with Freud ’s ten-
dency to concentrate on psychological disorders rather than on daily
functioning and positive aspects of personality. As discussed in Chapter 5,many subsequent psychoanalytic thinkers developed theories that corrected
some of these limitations and omissions.
SUMMARY
1. The first comprehensive theory of personality was developed by Sigmund
Freud about 100 years ago. After working with hypnosis to help patients
suffering from hysteria, Freud came to understand the power of uncon-
scious influences on behavior. According to his theory, human personal-
ity can be divided into conscious, preconscious, and unconscious parts. In
addition, personality can be divided into the id, ego, and superego. Psy-
chological activity is powered by psychic energy, called libido. Intrapsy-chic conflict creates tension, and the goal of human behavior is to return
to a tensionless state.
2. Within Freud ’s theory, a healthy personality is one in which the ego con-
trols id impulses and superego demands. To this end, the ego often usesdefense mechanisms. These include repression, in which traumatic infor-
mation is pushed out of awareness. Other defense mechanisms includeSummary 65