... the genital stage (12 yrs - death) The personality consists of the id or, 'pleasure principle', the ego, the 'reality principle' and the superego, 'morality principal'. According to Freud, these three elements are often in conflict. Our biological instincts (id) such as the need for food, elimination and sexual gratification are always in conflict with the restraints of reality (ego) and norms and laws of society (superego). In this theory there are three levels of consciousness, the conscious state, the preconscious and the unconscious. The conscious state is the art of the mind that contains our current thinking, this is the part of the mind that psychodynamic counselling/psychotherapy seeks to make the ultimate destination of our thoughts and feelings which have been repressed in the unconscious. The preconscious state are thoughts that are out of consciousness because we are either currently preoccupied with something else or we have deliberately chosen ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now