Personality Psych Analysis of Tony Soprano
Psychodynamic Theory
Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality makes the argument that human behavior is resultant of the interrelations amongst three constituent parts of the mind including the id, ego, and superego (Petocz, 1999). This theory of personality lays substantial significance of the manner in which conflict, more often than not unconscious, amongst the areas of the mind end up shaping an individual’s behavior and personality. The Id deals with instantaneous satisfaction of basic physical needs and desires and it functions completely unconsciously. The Superego takes into account social rules and morals, and is largely referred to as a person’s conscience. The Superego develops as a child progressively learns what is deemed to be right or wrong. Lastly, the ego, unlike the instinctive Id and the ethical superego, the Ego is the sensible, realistic part of an individual’s personality (Caducci, 2015). It is what is deemed to be the “self” and its main function is to ensure that there is poise in between the demands of the Id and Superego in the real-world setting of reality. In accordance to Freud, there is an incessant conflict amongst the Id, Ego, and Superego and that the personality and behavior of an adult are entrenched in the outcomes of these intrinsic struggles all the way through childhood (Ellis, Abrams and Abrams, 2009).
Furthermore, in accordance to Freud’s beliefs, the nature of the conflict that exists amongst id, ego and superego transform in the course of time as an individual grows and develops from a child to an adult. In particular, he asserted that these conflicts advance through a sequence of five basic phases with every one of them having a dissimilar emphasis. These stages comprised of the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital phases. As a whole, this notion was referred to as the psychosexual theory of development (Ellis, Abrams and Abrams, 2009). Throughout these five phases, the child faces various conflicts between their biological endeavors, which is the Id, and their social and moral conscience, which is the superego. This is largely for the reason that their biological self-satisfaction desires lay emphasis on dissimilar parts of the body. The capability of the child to come up with a resolution of these internal conflicts is a determination of his or her capacity to cope and function as an adult. The inability to come up with a resolution in any of these five stages can give rise to an individual becoming hooked in that particular stage, which results in unhealthy personality traits (Elliott, 2015).
As aforementioned, one of the key aspects of the theory is the conflict amongst three constituent parts. In the HBO TV Series, The Sopranos, the main character and personality of Tony Soprano can be largely elucidated using Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality. The struggle between the ID, ego and superego correlates to Tony’s struggle between the villain and the family man within his psyche. Tony faces a tough time in balancing the needs of his actual family, his wife Carmela, daughter Meadow and son Anthony Soparano Jr. and mother Livia, which are in conflict with the needs of his Mafia family. More often than not, Tony demonstrates behavior traits representative of a vicious sociopath, but at the same time struggles with depressive disorders and is also susceptible to panic attacks. Tony incessantly tries to make certain that his children do not lead the similar kind of life that he leads. He tried to shadow his children from his mob activities.
Freud’s theory outlines...
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