In my opinion, Freuds most significant and interesting contribution was his structural model of the id, ego and superego. The model identifies three parts to the psyche as being the person’s natural instinct (Id), the critical and moralizing self (Superego) and the coordinator of both that keeps us in balance (Ego). Probably most controversial from this is his model is how it applies to child development. Freud spoke of same sex (Oedpius Complex) and opposite sex struggles changing with development of the child’s id, ego and superego. These struggles were sexual in nature and quite graphic especially his depiction of wanting to kill the same sex parent through decapitation, dismemberment, etc. Today, while his basic, simplistic principles of id, ego and superego and the conscious/ subconscious/unconscious still hold value in psychoanalysis, many of his other concepts range from excessively primitive to ludicrous.
What is Freud’s most interesting and controversial theory?
