The primary concepts and theories regarding this school of thought are metaphorical in nature and therefore can be difficult for individuals studying to grasp. One of the principal ways of understanding how the psychodynamic school views the way human consciousness works is known as the iceberg metaphor. Freud promotes the idea that in the same way that an iceberg holds most of its mass under the surface so too does the human mind. Freud separates human consciousness into three component parts: the conscious mind, the pre-conscious mind & the unconscious mind (Wilderdom, 2003). On the conscious level of the brain is the individuals interpretation of their surroundings, also on this level are all the emotions and thoughts that the individual is actively aware off. The preconscious level is the accumulated understanding of the world by the individual garnered over the course of their life, everything on this level is under the surface but is recallable. The unconscious min
d is totally inaccessible to the individual and forms the largest part of the mind. According to Freud it contains mostly the negative aspects of a person such as their immoral urges and fears.
Freud also theorized that during childhood humans go through a process called the Psychosexual stages of development. There are 5 clear phases an individual goes through ranging from birth to puberty. These stages are known as the Oral (0-2 Months), Anal (-3 Years), Phallic (3-5 Years), Latency (5-Puberty) and the Genital stages (Puberty onwards). These processes primarily describe where in the body the libido seeks pleasure from. If either overindulgence or neglect of an individuals needs occurs in one of these stages and a person does not progress onto the subsequent period. Freud argues that this results in a fixation. Freud says that for a person to become a fully well-rounded individual they must not develop a fixation as this can cause negative personality traits to develop.