Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Freud: Psychoanalysis © The McGraw−Hill^61
Companies, 2009
but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts
with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating” (as
cited in Solms & Turnbull, 2002, p. 3). In other words, he became hostile, impulsive,
and not at all concerned with social norms and appropriateness. In Freudian lingo, his
ego no longer could inhibit basic drives and instincts and he became very id-driven.
According to Solms, the underlying theme in the frontal lobe-injured patients
is their inability to stay “reality-bound” (ego) and their propensity to interpret events
much more through “wishes” (id); that is, they create the reality they wanted or
wished for. All of this, according to Solms, provides support for Freud’s ideas con-
cerning the pleasure principle of the id and the reality principle of the ego.
Repression, Inhibition, and Defense Mechanisms
Another core component of Freud’s theory involved the defense mechanisms, espe-
cially repression. The unconscious actively (dynamically) keeps ideas, feelings, and
unpleasant or threatening impulses out of consciousness. The area of defense mech-
anisms remains an active area of study for personality researchers. Some of this re-
search has focused on the use of projection and identification in childhood and ado-
lescence (Cramer, 2007), whereas other work has investigated who is more likely to
be a target of projection (Govorun, Fuegen, & Payne, 2006).
From the neuropsychological perspective, Solms (2004) reports cases that
explore the areas of the brain that may be implicated in the use and perseverance of
defense mechanisms. Specifically, Solms (2004) describes cases demonstrating re-
pression of unpalatable information when damage occurs to the right hemisphere
and, if this damaged region becomes artificially stimulated, the repression goes away;
that is, awareness returns. Additionally, these patients frequently rationalize away un-
welcome facts by fabricating stories. In other words, they employ Freudian wish-
fulfilling defense mechanisms. For instance, one patient, when asked about the scar
on his head, confabulated a story about its being a result of dental surgery or a coro-
nary bypass, both of which he had had years before. Furthermore, when the doctor
asked this patient who he was, the patient would variously respond that he (the doctor)
was either a colleague, a drinking partner, or a teammate from college. All of these
interpretations were more wish than reality.
A study by Howard Shevrin and colleagues (Shevrin, Ghannam, & Libet, 2002)
examined the neurophysiological underpinnings of repression. More specifically, they
addressed the question of whether people with repressive personality styles actually
require longer periods of stimulation for a brief stimulus to be consciously perceived.
Prior research had established that people in general vary from 200 ms to 800 ms in
how long a stimulus needs to be present before being consciously perceived. The
study by Shevrin et al. included six clinical participants between the ages of 51 and
70, all of whom years prior had undergone surgical treatment for motoric problems
(mainly parkinsonism). During these surgeries, a procedure had been performed in
which electrodes stimulated parts of the motor cortex, and the length of time it took
for the stimulus to be consciously perceived was recorded. The results of this proce-
dure showed that these six participants also ranged from 200 ms to 800 ms in how
long they took to consciously perceive the stimulus. For this, four psychological tests
were administered at the patients’ homes and then scored on their degree of repres-
sive tendencies. These tests were the Rorschach Inkblot Test, the Early Memories Test,
Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 55