Psychodynamic Theories: Freud, Jung, and Adler

Psychodynamic Theories

• This is a brief review of basic theories from Freud, Jung, and Adler

Sigmund Freud

• Mankind has been trying reduce pain and enhance performance.
• Freud was the first doctor to use cocaine.
• Freud's theory is interesting because it includes sex and aggression plus language.
• Followers viewed Freud as a mythological being.
• Personality concepts underwent several revisions.

Freud's Major Contributions

Levels of the Mind

• Unconscious, conscious, and preconscious

Provinces of the Mind

• Id, Ego, Superego

Dynamics of Personality

• Drives like sex and aggression, also anxiety

Defence Mechanisms

• Repression, Reaction formation, Displacement, Fixation, Regression, Projection, Introjection, Sublimation

Stages of Development

• Stages of development include infancy, oral, anal, phallic, and latency.

Dynamics of Personality: Drives

• Personalities do something
• Actions are governed by internal drives; people are motivated to achieve pleasure and reduce tension and anxiety
• Drives are sex (Eros) and aggression (Thanatos)
• Sexual drives aim to reduce tension in different ways
• Flexibility of the sexual object disguises the Eros
• Sex can manifest as narcissism, love, sadism, and masochism
• Love and narcissism are interrelated
• Sadism is sexual pleasure through inflicting pain onto another
• Masochism includes pain and humiliation
• Aggression aims to return an individual to an inorganic state (death)
• The final aim of aggression is self-destruction
• Aggression is seen in behavior like teasing, gossip, sarcasm, and humiliation.
• Barriers are made to inhibit unconscious drive to inflict injury on another person.
• Life and death instincts constantly struggle.

Dynamics of Personality: Anxiety

Neurotic Anxiety

• Ego's dependence on the Id
• Apprehension about an unknown danger

Moral Anxiety

• Ego's dependence on the superego
• Conflict between realistic needs and the dictates of the superego

Realistic Anxiety

• Ego's dependence on reality
• Unpleasant, non-specific feeling involving danger
• Anxiety is an affective, unpleasant state with a physical sensation, warning against impending danger
• The source of the danger is not always clear
• The three types of anxiety are interconnected
• Anxiety can be positive, warning of danger and protecting the ego
• It is self-regulating because it precipitates repression

Defence Mechanisms

• Repression forces undesirable id impulses into the unconscious
• Reaction Formation occurs when a repressed impulse becomes conscious in an opposite form
• Displacement redirects unacceptable urges onto other people/objects
• Fixation means remaining at the current psychological stage
• Regression means reverting to an earlier stage of development
• Projection involves seeing unacceptable feelings/tendencies in others
• Introjection means incorporating positive qualities of another person into the ego
• Sublimation is the repression of eros by substituting a cultural or social aim

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Oral Stage

• Age: Birth to 1
• Characteristics: Mouth is primary erogenous zone; pleasure from sucking; dominated by id

Anal Stage

• Age: 1 to 3
• Characteristics: Toilet training interferes with gratification from defecation

Phallic Stage

• Age: 4 to 5
• Characteristics: Incestuous fantasies, Oedipus complex, anxiety, superego development

Latency Stage

• Age: 5 to puberty
• Characteristics: Period of sublimation of sex instinct

Genital Stage

• Age: Adolescence to Adulthood
• Characteristics: Development of sex-role identity and adult social relationships

Criticisms of Freud’s Theory

• Failed to consider the female perspective with normative expectations and upbringing
• Controversy over whether he was a scientist, lacking needed experimental investigation
• Psychodynamic theory has difficulty with empirical validation

Carl Jung

• Personality has conscious and unconscious elements, but its main focus is the unconscious
• Conscious images are sensed by the ego.
• Ego is the centre of consciousness but not the core of personality.
• The unconscious is the centre of personality, in which the ego holds a secondary position
• Personal unconscious houses repressed experiences, impulses, and events and is formed through individual experiences which makes each person unique
• Contents of the personal unconscious are complexes, which are emotionally toned
• It gives a universal understanding of concepts, influenced by the experiences of ancestors
• Archetypes are ancient images derived from the collective unconscious and help shape personality
• When a personal experience corresponds to a dormant ancient image, the archetype activates
• This expresses itself through dreams, fantasies, and delusions
• The main source of material for archetypes comes from dreams and hallucinations
• Few archetypes have evolved to a point where they can be conceptualized
• Persona is the role projected to society
• Overemphasizing the persona leads to dependence on society’s expectations
• Underestimating the persona can cause underestimating the expectations of society
• Shadow represents darkness and the qualities we prefer not to acknowledge and morally questionable tendencies
• Facing the shadow can bring vitality, creativity, and emotion
• Anima is the masculine and feminine side
• If the feminine side of men is formed from experiences with women, they project their general image of a woman onto their wife
• Animus is the masculine archetype, representing thinking and reasoning
• The great mother and wise old man are derivatives of the anima and animus
• The great mother represents fertility, nourishment, power, and destruction
• The wise old man represents wisdom and meaning
• The Hero represents overcoming prehuman unconsciousness, representing victory

Jung: The Self Archetype

• Represents the innate tendency toward growth, perfection, and completion
• Pulls together all other archetypes and unites them in self-realization

Critique of Jung’s Theory

• The theory was difficult to verify or falsify because the collective unconscious was difficult to test.
• The theory lacked parsimony.
• The theory is internally consistent
• There is practical utility to the theory among physicians.
• This was the only theory to organize personality in one theoretical framework.

Alfred Adler - Individual Psychology

• Theorists such as Maslow and Rogers were influenced by Adler
• The one dynamic force behind behaviour is striving for success or superiority
• Subjective perceptions shape behavior and personality
• Personality is unified and self-consistent
• Human activity is viewed from the viewpoint of social interest
• A self-consistent personality develops into a style of life
• The style of life is molded by person’s power

Adler: Success or Superiority

• Begin life with innate striving force and physical deficiencies, producing inferiority
• Normal feelings of inferiority promote social interest
• This encourages people to cooperate with others and develop high levels of social interest.
• Severe feelings of inferiority can cause striving for personal gain and unrealistically high goals
• All are guided by a final goal, which is the product of creative power
• When the final goals are known, all actions make sense and each subgoal becomes significant

Adler: Subjective Perceptions

• Subjective perceptions shape behaviour and personality, not actual reality.
• Fictionalism is a teleological view
• Present perceptions of the future motivate people
• Provides purpose and consistency

Adler: Unity and Self-Consistency

• Assumes a fundamental unity of personality
• Inconsistent behaviours do not arise
• Erratic behaviour can be a clever, unconscious attempt to confuse others
• The person operates with organ dialect and harmony between the conscious and unconscious

Adler: Social Interest

• Human activity is viewed from the viewpoint of social interest
• Gemeinschaftgeful means social or community feeling
• Manifested in cooperation with others for social advancement rather than personal gain
• Natural inferiority necessitates uniting to form a society
• Can be used as a yardstick for measuring psychological health
• 4 types of people based on social interest: ruling dominant, getting leaning, avoiding, and socially useful

Adler: Style of Life

• A self-consistent personality develops into a style of life that includes
• The person’s goal, self-concept, feeling for others, and attitude toward the world
• Psychologically healthy people use social interest through action.
• Psychologically unhealthy people have rigid lives with inability to react to their environment

Adler: Creative Power

• Style of life is moulded by creative power
• All people are free individuals who are responsible for themselves and how they behave
• Creative power puts the individual in control of everything
• Heredity/environment build personality, but creative power determines style of life

Adler: Abnormal Development

• Creative power allows health or unhealth
• Underdeveloped social interest underlies all maladjustment
• Maladjustments = Exaggerated physical deficiencies, pampered or neglected style
• Safeguarding tendencies protect against anxiety, and is largely conscious:
• Excuses, withdrawal and aggression
• Moving backward, standing still, hesitating, constructing obstacles