What is psychoanalytic psychology?

Introduction

One grand theory in psychology that dramatically revolutionized the way in which personality and its formation were viewed is psychoanalysis. Orthodox psychoanalysis and later versions of this model offer several unique perspectives of personality development, assessment, and change.

The genius of Sigmund Freud
, the founder of psychoanalysis, is revealed in the magnitude of his achievements and the monumental scope of his works. Over the course of his lifetime, Freud developed a theory of personality and psychopathology (disorders of psychological functioning that include major as well as minor mental disorders and behavior disorders), a method for probing the realm of the unconscious, and a therapy for dealing with personality disorders. He posited that an individual is motivated by unconscious forces that are instinctual in nature. The two major instinctual forces are the life instincts, or eros, and the death instinct, or thanatos. Their source is biological tension whose aim is tension reduction through a variety of objects. Freud viewed personality as a closed system composed of three structures: the id, the ego, and the superego. The irrational id consists of the biological drives and libido, or psychic energy. It operates according to the pleasure principle, which seeks the immediate gratification of needs. The rational ego serves as the executive component of personality and the mediator among the demands of the id, the superego, and the environment. Governed by the reality principle, it seeks to postpone the gratification of needs. The superego, or moral arm of personality, consists of the conscience (internalized values) and the ego ideal (that which the person aspires to be).

According to Freud, the origins of personality are embedded in the first seven years of life. Personality develops through a sequence of psychosexual stages
that each focus on an area of the body (erogenous zone) that gives pleasure to the individual; they are the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. The frustration or overindulgence of needs contributes to a fixation, or arrest in development at a particular stage.

Freud also developed a therapy for treating individuals experiencing personality disturbances. Psychoanalysis has shown how physical disorders have psychological roots, how unbearable anxiety generates conflict, and how problems in adulthood result from early childhood experiences. In therapy, Freud surmounted his challenge to reveal the hidden nature of the unconscious by exposing the resistances and transferences of his patients. His method for probing a patient’s unconscious thoughts, motives, and feelings was based on the use of many clinical techniques. Free association, dream interpretation, analyses of slips of the tongue, misplaced objects, and humor enabled him to discover the contents of an individual’s unconscious mind and open the doors to a new and grand psychology of personality.

Responses to Freudian Theory

The theory of psychosocial development of Erik H. Erikson
occupies a position between orthodox psychoanalysis and neoanalytic schools of thought. His theory builds on the basic concepts and tenets of Freudian psychology by illustrating the influential role of social and cultural forces in personality development. Erikson’s observations of infants and investigations of the parent-child relationship in various societies contributed to his development of the model of the eight stages of human development. He proposed that personality unfolds over the entire life cycle according to a predetermined plan. As an individual moves through this series of stages, he or she encounters periods of vulnerability that require him or her to resolve crises of a social nature and develop new abilities and patterns of behavior. Erikson’s eight psychosocial stages not only parallel Freud’s psychosexual ones but also, more important, have contributed immensely to contemporary thought in developmental psychology.

Several other schools of thought arose in opposition to Freudian orthodoxy. Among the proponents of these new psychoanalytic models were Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan. These theorists advocated revised versions of Freud’s psychoanalytic model and became known as the neoanalysts.

Jung’s Approach

Carl Jung’s analytical psychology
stresses the complex interaction of opposing forces within the total personality (psyche) and the manner in which these inner conflicts influence development. Personality is driven by general life process energy, called libido. It operates according to the principle of opposites, for example, a contrast between conscious and unconscious. An individual’s behavior is seen as a means to some end, whose goal is to create a balance between these polar opposites through a process of self-realization. Personality is composed of several regions, including the ego (a unifying force at the center of consciousness), the personal unconscious (experiences blocked from consciousness), and the collective unconscious

(inherited predispositions of ancestral experiences). The major focus of Jung’s theory is the collective unconscious, with its archetypes
(primordial thoughts and images), persona (public self), anima/animus (feminine and masculine components), shadow (repulsive side of the personality), and self (an archetype reflecting a person’s striving for personality integration). Jung further proposed two psychological attitudes that the personality could use in relating to the world: introversion and extroversion. He also identified four functions of thought: sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuiting. Eight different personality types emerge when one combines these attitudes and functions. Like Freud, Jung proposed developmental stages: childhood, young adulthood, and middle age. Through the process of individuation, a person seeks to create an inner harmony that results in self-realization. In conjunction with dream analysis, Jung used painting therapy and a word-association test to disclose underlying conflicts in patients. Therapy helped patients to reconcile the conflicting sides of their personalities and experience self-realization.

Adler’s Approach

The individual psychology
of Alfred Adler
illustrates the significance of social variables in personality development and the uniqueness of the individual. Adler proposed that an individual seeks to compensate for inborn feelings of inferiority by striving for superiority. It is lifestyle that helps a person achieve future goals, ideals, and superiority. Adler extended this theme of perfection to society by using the concept of social interest to depict the human tendency to create a productive society. He maintained that early childhood experiences play a crucial role in the development of a person’s unique lifestyle. An individual lacking in social interest develops a mistaken lifestyle (for example, an inferiority complex). Physical inferiority as well as spoiling or pampering and neglecting children contributes to the development of faulty lifestyles. Adler examined dreams, birth order, and first memories to trace the origins of lifestyle and goals. These data were used in Adlerian psychotherapy to help the person create a new lifestyle oriented toward social interest.

Horney’s Approach

Karen Horney’s social and cultural psychoanalysis considers the influence of social and cultural forces on the development and maintenance of neurosis. Her theory focuses on disturbed human relationships, especially between parents and children. She discussed several negative factors, such as parental indifference, erratic behavior, and unkept promises, which contributed to basic anxiety in children. This basic anxiety led to certain defenses or neurotic needs. Horney proposed ten neurotic needs that are used to reestablish safety. She further summarized these needs into three categories that depicted the individual’s adjustment to others: moving toward people (compliant person), moving against people (aggressive person), and moving away from people (detached person). Horney believed that neurosis occurs when an individual lives according to his or her ideal rather than real self. She also wrote a number of articles on feminine psychology that stressed the importance of cultural rather than biological factors in personality formation. Like Freud, she used the techniques of transference, dream analysis, and free association in her psychotherapy; however, the goal of therapy was to help an individual overcome his or her idealized neurotic self and become more real as he or she experienced self-realization.

Sullivan’s Approach

Harry Stack Sullivan’s interpersonal theory examines personality from the perspective of the interpersonal relationships that have influenced it, especially the mother-infant relationship. Sullivan believed that this relationship contributed to an individual’s development of a “good me,” “bad me,” or “not me” personification of self. He also proposed six stages of development: infancy, childhood, juvenile epoch, preadolescence, early adolescence, and late adolescence. These stages illustrate an individual’s experiences and need for intimacy with significant others. Overall, his theory emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relations, the appraisals of others toward an individual, and the need to achieve interpersonal security and avoid anxiety.

Use of Case Studies

Psychoanalytic psychology and its later versions have been used to explain normal and abnormal personality development. Regardless of their perspectives, psychologists in all these schools have relied on the case study method to communicate their theoretical insights and discoveries.

The theoretical roots of orthodox psychoanalysis may be traced to the famous case of Anna O., a patient under the care of Josef Breuer, Freud’s friend and colleague. Fascinated with the hysterical symptoms of this young girl and with Breuer’s success in using catharsis (the talking cure) with her, Freud asked Breuer to collaborate on a work entitled Studien über Hysterie (1895; Studies in Hysteria, 1950) and discuss his findings. It was the world’s first book on psychoanalysis, containing information on the unconscious, defenses, sexual cause of neurosis, resistance, and transference. Freud’s own self-analysis and analyses of family members and other patients further contributed to the changing nature of his theory. Among his great case histories are “Dora” (hysteria), “Little Hans” (phobia), the “Rat Man” (obsessional neurosis), “Schreiber” (paranoia), and “Wolf Man” (infantile neurosis). His method of treatment, psychoanalysis, is also well documented in contemporary cases, such as the treatment for multiple personality described in the book Sybil (1974).

In his classic work Childhood and Society (1950), Erikson discussed the applicability of the clinical method of psychoanalysis and the case-history technique to normal development in children. His case analyses of the Sioux and Yurok Indians and his observations of children led to the creation of a psychosocial theory of development that emphasized the significant role played by one’s culture. Moreover, Erikson’s psychohistorical accounts, Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (1958) and Gandhi’s Truth on the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (1969), illustrated the applications of clinical analyses to historical and biographical research so prominent today.

The founders of other psychoanalytic schools of thought have similarly shown that their theories can best be understood in the context of the therapeutic situations and in the writings of case histories. Harold Greenwald’s Great Cases in Psychoanalysis (1959) is an excellent source of original case histories written by Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney, and Sullivan. Jung’s case of “The Anxious Young Woman and the Retired Business Man” clarifies the differences and similarities between his theory and Freud’s psychoanalytic model. In “The Drive for Superiority,” Adler uses material from several cases to illustrate the themes of lifestyle, feelings of inferiority, and striving for superiority. Horney’s case of “The Ever Tired Editor” portrays her use of the character analysis method; that is, she concentrates on the way in which a patient characteristically functions. Sullivan’s case of “The Inefficient Wife” sheds some light on the manner in which professional advice may be given to another (student) practitioner. In retrospect, all these prominent theorists have exposed their independent schools of thought through case histories. Even today, this method continues to be used to explain human behavior and to enhance understanding of personality functioning.

Evolution of Study

Historically, the evolution of psychoanalytic psychology originated with Freud’s clinical observations of the work conducted by the famous French neurologist
Jean-Martin Charcot and his collaborations on the treatment of hysteria neurosis with Breuer. The publication of Studies in Hysteria marked the birth of psychoanalysis since it illustrated a theory of hysteria, a therapy of catharsis, and an analysis of unconscious motivation. Between 1900 and 1920, Freud made innumerable contributions to the field. His major clinical discoveries were contained in the publications Die Traumdeutung (1900;
The Interpretation of Dreams
, 1913) and Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie (1905; Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory, 1910; also translated as Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 1949) as well as in various papers on therapy, case histories, and applications to everyday life. During this time, Freud began his international correspondence with people such as Jung. He also invited a select group of individuals to his home for evening discussions; these meetings were known as the psychological Wednesday society. Eventually, these meetings led to the establishment of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society, with Adler as its president, and the First International Psychoanalytical Congress, with Jung as its president. In 1909, Freud, Jung, and others were invited by President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University to come to the United States to deliver a series of introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. This momentous occasion acknowledged Freud’s achievements and gave him international recognition. In subsequent years, Freud reformulated his theory and demonstrated how psychoanalysis could be applied to larger social issues.

Trained in psychoanalysis by Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, Erikson followed in Sigmund Freud’s footsteps by supporting and extending his psychosexual theory of development with eight stages of psychosocial identity. Among the members of the original psychoanalytic group, Adler was the first to defect from the Freudian school, in 1911. Protesting Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex, Adler founded his own individual psychology. Two years later, in 1913, Jung parted company with Freud to establish analytical psychology; he objected to Freud’s belief that all human behavior stems from sex. With Horney’s publications New Ways in Psychoanalysis (1939) and Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis (1945), it became quite clear that her ideas only remotely resembled Freud’s. Objecting to a number of Freud’s major tenets, she attributed the development of neurosis and the psychology of being feminine to social, cultural, and interpersonal influences. Similarly, Sullivan extended psychoanalytic psychology to interpersonal phenomena, arguing that the foundations of human nature and development are not biological but rather cultural and social.

Accomplishments and Influence

The accomplishments of Freud and his followers are truly remarkable. The creative genius of each theorist spans a lifetime of effort and work. The magnitude of their achievements is shown in their efforts to provide new perspectives on personality development and psychopathology, theories of motivation, psychotherapeutic methods of treatment, and methods for describing the nature of human behavior. Clearly, these independent schools of thought have had a profound influence not only on the field of psychology but also on art, religion, anthropology, sociology, and literature. Undoubtedly, they will continue to serve as the cornerstone of personality theory and provide the foundation for new and challenging theories of tomorrow—theories that seek to discover the true nature of what it means to be human.

Bibliography

Adler, Alfred. Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind. New York: Capricorn, 1964. Print.

Erikson, Erik H. Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: Norton, 1994. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. New York: Norton, 1977. Print.

Gabbard, Glen O., Bonnie E. Litowitz, and Paul Williams. Textbook of Psychoanalysis. 2nd ed. Washington: American Psychiatric, 2012.

Greenwald, Harold, ed. Great Cases in Psychoanalysis. New York: Aronson, 1973. Print.

Horney, Karen. The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. New York: Routledge, 1999. Print.

Mitchell, Stephen A. Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought. New York: Basic, 1996. Print.

Ricoeur, Paul. On Psychoanalysis. Malden: Polity, 2012. Print.

Safran, Jeremy D. Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Therapies. Washington: APA, 2011. Print.

Sullivan, Harry Stack. The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.