S. FREUD: HOW TO DRESS ME, MYSELF, AND I

FASHION PSYCHOLOGY 101

Take a look at your closet. What is it like? Is it a chaotic mess filled with multiple personalities? Or is it a small organized capsule collection featuring only the basics? 

According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, balance is key in all genres of personal taste. Surprisingly, being too chaotic and instinctual with your choices is just as bad as being too organized and predictable.  

Freud theorized that personality contains 3 main elements: id, ego, and super ego.

1.) ID: impulsive, uncontrollable, and primitive. 

Like a baby, it is the unconscious element we are born with that is extremely impulsive. It has a simplistic desire to satisfy our primal instincts, without any regard to its effects on others. This is the part of you that picks clothes based on primitive needs, such as warmth, desire, pleasure, etc. 

An overly dominant id, can lead to impulsive fashion choices, uncontrollable shopping habits, and disorganized sensibility of any type of order, or logic.

2.) Ego: calculated, conservative, narrow-minded.

 Very much like a control center, the ego is the element of rationality. It is able to control one's impulses and manage it's choices with calculations and directions. 

An overly dominant ego, can cause you to be conservative, narrow-minded and predictable. Your choices follow the fashion book and your style can lack spontaneity and understanding.

3.) Super Ego: moralistic, and judgmental

The Super ego behaves as the moral compass, and suppresses all unacceptable behaviors and pushes idealistic standards. It acts to civilize our behaviors and distinguish right from wrong.

An overly dominant Super ego looks to perfect and abolish all unacceptable choices.

Each element of personality is negative, without its equal counterpart to balance them out. Be aware of our natural impulses to forget to be diverse, and embrace contrast. 

 It is easy to fall into one category of mind set, but fashion excellence is achieved though embracing all aspects of our personality.

Always remember to style with a healthy dash of spontaneity, a structure of calculation, and a sprinkle of morality. 

xo,

Maya