Chapter 5 The Psychoanalytic Approach: The Neo-Freudians

1. Chapter 5The Psychoanalytic Approach:The Neo-Freudians

2. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) • Was born in Vienna in 1870, the third of six children • Was first pampered by his mother, then “dethroned” when his younger brother was born • Had a series of childhood illnesses, including pneumonia and rickets, and was nearly run over twice by carts in the streets • Strove to overcome his sense of inferiority by studying furiously • Earned his medical degree in 1895 • Became interested in Freud’s ideas, defended Freud in 1902, and was invited to join Freud’s inner circle • Split with Freud in 1911 and form his own Society for Free Psychoanalytic Research, later named the Association of Individual Psychology

3. Key concepts introduced by Adler • Striving for superiority • Inferiority complex • The social interest • Parental influences on personality development • The optimal parenting style • Problematic parenting styles • Pampering • Neglect • Birth order influences on personality • First borns: “problem children, neurotics, criminals, drunkards, and perverts”? • Middle borns: “de-throned” and therefore motivated to strive for superiority? • Last borns: pampered throughout their childhoods to the point of being spoiled?

4. Birth order differences: What the research findings actually show • Firstborns work hard to meet adult standards from an early age. They tend to achieve more in life and assume positions of greater responsibility, but they also tend to be more anxious and stressed. • Middle borns don’t stand out as a group. They tend to be more like firstborns, however, when the age gap between them and their older sibling(s) is large, rather than small. • Lastborns tend to be charming, sociable, and relatively popular with their peers. They can also be somewhat rebellious and unsatisfied with the existing “social order.” • Only children tend to resemble firstborns in many respects. They often feel particularly burdened by the responsibility of fulfilling their parents’ hopes and dreams for them.

5. Design of the study by Ickes and Turner (1983)

6. Birth order influences in mixed-sex dyads (Ickes & Turner, 1983)

7. Birth order influences in mixed-sex dyads (Ickes & Turner, 1983)

8. Birth order influences in mixed-sex dyads (Ickes & Turner, 1983)

9. Birth order influences in mixed-sex dyads (Ickes & Turner, 1983)

10. Birth order influences in mixed-sex dyads (Ickes & Turner, 1983)

11. Carl Jung (1875-1961) • Was born in a small Swiss canton • As a child, he was a loner who was extremely introspective • Earned his medical degree in 1900 • Began a correspondence with Freud, whom he met in 1907 • Became Freud’s disciple and heir apparent, and accompanied Freud on his 1909 trip to the US • Broke with Freud in 1914 and spent the next seven years in virtual isolation • Emerged from this period with a new view of personality that built on many of Freud’s ideas but added many new and unique elements

12. Key concepts introduced by Jung • Identification of introversion–extraversion as a fundamental dimension of human personality • The collective unconscious • complemented the personal unconscious • represents the collective experience of the human species • Archetypes: primordial images found in all cultures at all times • Primary archetypes • The self • The shadow: the dark side of the self • The anima: the feminine aspect of the male • The animus: the masculine aspect of the female

13. Jungian archetypes

14. Jungian archetypes in the movie Star Wars

15. Erik Homberger Erikson (1902-1994) • Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1902. His Danish father abandoned the family before he was born. • Three years later, his mother married Dr. Theodor Homberger, whom Erik believed to be his real father. • He had identity problems that led him to resist becoming a physician and wander about Europe instead during the late 1920s. • He met Anna Freud and her colleagues, acquired a Montessori teaching credential, and learned about the psychoanalytic approach. • He fled the Nazis in 1933 and moved to the United States, where he published on ego psychology and proposed a psycho-social stage theory of personality development.

16. Key concepts introduced by Erikson • Ego psychology: emphasized the important functions of the ego • Acts as the mediator between the id, the superego, and the demands of external reality • Works to establish and maintain a sense of identity • Stable sense of identity (successful outcome) • Identity crisis (unsuccessful outcome) • Works to establish and maintain mastery over the environment • A psychosocial stage model of personality development • Viewed the conflicts at each stage as primarily psychosocial conflicts, rather than psychosexual conflicts • Added stages that extended throughout the entire lifespan, from infancy through old age

18. Key concepts introduced by Erikson • Ego psychology: emphasized the important functions of the ego • Acts as the mediator between the id, the superego, and the demands of external reality • Works to establish and maintain a sense of identity • Stable sense of identity (successful outcome) • Identity crisis (unsuccessful outcome) • Works to establish and maintain mastery over the environment • A psychosocial stage model of personality development • Viewed the conflicts at each stage as primarily psychosocial conflicts, rather than psychosexual conflicts • Added stages that extended throughout the entire lifespan, from infancy through old age

19. Erickson’s psychosocial stage theory

20. Karen Horney (1885-1952) • Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1885 • Resented her authoritarian father’s sexist attitudes • Determined to always be first in her class, to go to college, and then to medical school • Earned her medical degree in 1915 • Studied to become a psychoanalyst and found much to criticize in Freud’s writings • Joined the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1934 but split with them in 1941 over differences of opinion • Established the American Institute for Psychoanalysis

21. Key concepts introduced by Horney • Neurotic adaptation styles • Moving toward others • Moving away from others • Moving with others • Moving against others • Neurotic shoulds: neurotic demands placed on oneself • Feminine psychology • Countered Freud’s concept of penis envy with her own concept of womb envy • Pointed out the more sexist aspects of Freud’s theorizing and called for a greater emphasis on social and cultural factors

24. Key concepts introduced by Horney • Neurotic adaptation styles • Moving toward others • Moving away from others • Moving with others • Moving against others • Neurotic shoulds: neurotic demands placed on oneself • Feminine psychology • Countered Freud’s concept of penis envy with her own concept of womb envy • Pointed out the more sexist aspects of Freud’s theorizing and called for a greater emphasis on social and cultural factors

25. Two ways to better integrate the real self and the ideal self in response to “neurotic shoulds” real self ideal self real self ideal self

26. Key concepts introduced by Horney • Neurotic adaptation styles • Moving toward others • Moving away from others • Moving with others • Moving against others • Neurotic shoulds: neurotic demands placed on oneself • Feminine psychology • Countered Freud’s concept of penis envy with her own concept of womb envy • Pointed out the more sexist aspects of Freud’s theorizing and called for a greater emphasis on social and cultural factors

27. Views of religion held by psychoanalytic theorists • Sigmund Freud was an atheist who thought that religion was “the opiate of the masses,” and viewed it as a type of collective wish fulfillment. • The son of a minister, Carl Jung struggled with religious issues throughout his life but felt that the universality of the God archetype attested to its importance.

28. Jung’s eight psychological typesAttitude

29. Optimal career settings for personality types

30. Strengths and criticisms of neo-Freudian theories • Strengths • Elaborated important concepts that Freud either ignored or de-emphasized • Introduced many new and useful concepts • Set the stage for the humanistic approach • Made the psychoanalytic approach more widely acceptable • Criticisms • Sometimes lacking in research support • Patient samples make it difficult to generalize to all people • None dealt with so many topics in so much depth as Freud • As with Freud, the tone and emphases of the neo-Freudians’ theories reveal their personal biases