A Comparison of the Theories of Jung, Adler, Horney, and Erikson with the Theory of Freud - Essay Example

A Comparison of the Theories of Jung, Adler, Horney, and Erikson with the Theory of Freud Introduction Psychologists have proposed many personality theories trying to explain why people have similar or different personalities. These psychologists have attempted to give details of similarities and offer reasons why people have differences in their personality. While people consider Sigmund Freud as the father of psychology (the father of the modern theory of personality), there are also new theories which have differences and similarities as compared to his theory. However, these new theories, which are arising from his writings and thoughts, maintain a great component of Freud’s theory (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). This essay aims at comparing and contrasting the theory of Freud with those of some neo-Freudian. Among those compared are Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, and Erikson. The main difference and disagreement resolved due to (1) Feud’s failure to incorporate cultural and social influences, (2) negativity of his theories, and (3) and his believe that, all adult personalities are shaped by the childhood experiences (Rathus, 2012). Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology Similar to Freud’s theory of personality, Adler’s theory states that everyone is born with some sense of inferiority. We are born as helpless and weak children and we strive through hard work to overcome these inferiorities to become superiors. Adler called this live struggle “A Striving for Superiority”. However, like Freud’s Thanatos and Eros, Adler termed this as the driving force that drives all people’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Adler agreed with theorist Freud in various aspects relating to child’s parenting and the long-term impacts of inefficient and improper child rearing (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). He pointed out two major parental techniques that he believed could cause major problems during adulthood. The first parenting style was pampering that means a parent overprotecting his child, giving him much attention, and protecting him from facing negative life realities. He claimed that as a child matures is seems to be ill equipped to stand these challenges due to the safety he enjoyed in his childhood. In addition, Adler believed that the birth order of a child inherently affects his adult personality, especially with first born children because their parents give much attention and pampering. His birth order theory states that the first-born children usually hold many problems in the adulthood (Rathus, 2012). Carl Jung’s Analytic Psychology The main disagreement between Carl Jung’s theory and that of Freud lies in his belief that there is more to unconsciousness than with Freud’s theory. Unlike Freud, Carl believed that there exist behaviors, fears, and thoughts that adult and children exhibit and these aspects are remarkably similar across time and culture (Rathus, 2012). Jung believed that these aspects were more than coincidence hence representing them as “collective unconscious”. He currently theorized on how these unconscious aspects influences the personality of an individual. Unlike Freud, he Jung argued that personality comprises of “archetypes”, which result from the “primordial images” people inherit from their ancestors (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). To support his theory, Jung pointed out the immediate believes infants get from their mothers such as fear of the dark, and how images like sun, moon angels, wise old men, and evil seem as predominant believes throughout history. In Jung’s view of personality, children are friendlier to their mothers due to the unconscious image they see in their mothers and even in our adulthood, we fear darkness due to its unconscious image. Although Jung described several archetypes in his personality theory, the fear that he gives more thought and attention include anima/animus, the self, and the shadow (Rathus, 2012). The animus refers to the side of females and the anima refers to the side of males. This expands the Freud’s theory that, human beings are bisexual and grow normal sexual personalities through their psychosexual development. According to Jung’s argument, human beings develop an unconscious hidden opposite gender and its role is to guide human beings towards the perfect mate. In other words, people project their anima/animus onto others who project theirs to them. When a match occurs, they have found a good partner. Another archetype with personality is shadow, which refers to the dark side or unconscious negative of our personality (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). This archetype belongs to the past and has differing names depending on culture and time. For instance, the shadow archetype of Christians, according to Jung is the Devil. Lastly, the archetype self, is a unifying tool that brings balance to our lives. It helps people feel complete and manage the other types of archetypes (Rathus, 2012). Erik Erikson’s Ego Psychology Erik Erikson thought that the ego described by Freud was more than being a mediator between the id and superego. He argued that this ego was a positive, encouraging force in the human personality and development. As such, Erik believed the main role of the ego is to maintain and establish an identity sense. An individual who has a strong identification sense is the one understood his stand in life accepts this position and has realistic goals for growth and change. Those who have weak egos encounter hard times in their lives and poorly developed goals and identity crisis. Identity crisis, according to Erick, is that time in one’s life when he lacks direction. Erik believes that every individual has an identity crisis in his life and this does not bring negative in our lives, but give a driving force to come up with positive resolutions (Rathus, 2012). Like Freud and other theorists, Erik Erikson believed that personality grows in predetermined stages. Unlike Freud and others who focused on sexual development, Erik was interested in the way children socialize with others and how this socialization affects their self-sense. Unlike Freud, Erik saw personality as a continuous development throughout our lives and evaluated the identity crisis we experience at each human development stage. His theory of “psychological Development” he discussed eight distinct life development stages in human beings whereby, each stage has two possible outcomes. According to his theory, when an individual completes each stage successfully, this result of a successful and heath interaction with other people (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). On the other hand, when one fails to complete all stages successfully, this results in unhealthy and unsuccessful interaction with other people (personality). These stages include trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus doubt and shame, initiative versus guilt, identity versus role confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generatively versus stagnation and ego integrity versus despair (Rathus, 2012). Karen Horney’s Feminine Psychology Karen Horney’s theory of feminine psychology differed from that of Freud. Perhaps one the most vital contributions Horney brought of the field of psychology was her divergence with Freud theory’s view of women personality. Horney extremely differed from Freud in the way he viewed feminine personality. Karen Horney countered Freud’s concept of penis envy with womb envy, which she also termed as man’s envy on a woman’s ability to give birth. Unlike Freud, Horney argued that men influenced this inability through striving for success and achievements in other realms. Karen Horney also disagreed with Freud’s view that females and males were born with inherited dissimilarities in their personality (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). Instead of referencing biological divergences, Horney argued for a cultural and societal explanation. In her view, women and men were equally outside the cultural restriction of being a female. His views, although they were not well appreciated seem to be helpful in promoting gender equality. Horney was also famous for her neurotic personality study (Rathus, 2012). According to Horney, neurosis is a counterproductive and a maladaptive way of addressing relationships. Many people are not happy and desperately seeking for relationships to help them feel good about themselves. Their approaches of securing their relationships include projecting their own needless and insecurity, which help drive others away. In most cases we come across people who successfully frighten or irritate people away with own significant self-esteem lack, clinginess, anger, and threatening characteristics. According to his theory, people adapted these personality styles during their childhood (Rathus, 2012). Although this personality style may seem beneficial in youth live, it may be challenging in adulthood. Unlike Freud, Horney identified three styles of dealing with neurotic: moving away from others, moving against people, and moving towards people. Her first way to deal with neurotic is to move towards others in order to feel good about yourself (Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2011). For instance, those children who feel helpless and a great anxiety deal tend to move towards other people in order to look for acceptance and help. Her second method of dealing with anxiety and insecurities is through forcing your power towards other people in order to feel good about you. Horney argued that such people project their hostilities towards others to use this as a validation to deal with anxiety and insecurity. Her last way to deal with anxiety and insecurity is the use of social behavior, which keeps away all aspects of relationships, which seem positive (Rathus, 2012). Conclusion In conclusion, Sigmund Freud is the famous proponent of psychological theories of personality, although; neo-Freudians such as Adler, Jung, Horney, and Erikson are also main contributors of personality theories. Sigmund Freud created the psychoanalytic perspective concerning personality and emphasized on the importance of childhood unconscious mind and experiences. Although Neo-Freudians believed in the unconscious importance, they disagreed with several aspects of Sigmund Freud’s theories. However, these new theories, which are arising from his writings and thoughts, maintain a great component of Freud’s theory. References Plotnik, R., & Kouyoumjian, H. (2011). Introduction to psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Rathus, S. A. (2012). Psychology: Concepts and connections. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Read More