Aabia Tahir Belgaumi

Personality Psychology

Syed Baqar Mehdi Rizvi

19.04.2021
 Freud’s work influenced numerous people, many of whom started following the Freudian school of

thought but many others gradually concluded that their adaptation of Freud’s theory made more sense, which

included their own alterations and additions to overcome what they believed were shortcomings in Freud’s

theory. These thinkers were categorised as Neo-Freudian psychologists and included famous names such as

Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney.

Carl Jung was a swiss psychiatrist who initially was known to be Freud’s protégé but gradually he

devised his own theory which were different from Freud’s and split off from him. Jung came up with what

was called analytical psychology, the focus of which was on balancing the forces of unconscious and

conscious thought. Jung’s focus was on the collective unconscious as opposed to the personal conscious,

which according to him includes mental pattens and memory traces that are common to everyone, therefore,

a universal version of personal unconscious. He emphasized on the existence of archetypes, which basically

meant ancestral memories that he believed could explain common experiences across people all over the

globe that are sent down through biology. With this, Jung’s shift in orientation centred around self-

realization and the belief that personality is determined specifically by past events unlike what Freud

preached. Another significant theory developed by Jung was about personality types. This included two

approaches namely, extroversion and introversion and helped come up with the Myers-Briggs personality

test, in accordance to his context of self-realization, Jung believed a balance between extroversion and

introversion served the goal of self-realization in the best way possible. Another significant element in

Jung’s theory is his stance on psyche, libido, and the nature of opposites. He claimed that all nature is

composed of opposites and “every energy phenomenon…consists of pairs of opposites; beginning and end,

above and below, hot and cold, earlier and later, cause and effect, etc.” (pg. 202; Jung, 1971) and with this

comparison he drew to the field of physics, he believed that psyche sought balance too. By applying the

principle of dynamic psychic energy to motivation, he stated that we go through life trying to reduce the

imbalance of psychic energy between opposing pairs of emotion and emphasized how important it is to

listen to the opposing point of views within us because that is what represents a “whole” person. Another

addition to Jung’s theory was the concept of persona, which according to him was basically a mask that

people choose to wear that reflects a compromise between the expectations of the society we reside in and

who we really are.

 Alfred Adler, the world-renowned psychiatrist and philosopher is still an integral part of personality

psychology. He is best known for creating the individual psychology school of thought and his work in the

conception of inferiority complex is still significant today, given how it played a major part in the formation

of personality. He initially started out as Freud’s colleague, in fact, he was the first president of the Vienna

Psychoanalytical Society, which was Freud’s inner circle of colleagues but his advancements in the area of

psychology slowly led him to break away from Freud and therefore, becoming a Neo-Freudian. He believed

that at the end of the day, each person desires to feel like they belong and feel significant, which is what

most of his theories centred around. Adler believed that a sense of inferiority was the primary psychological

element of neurosis and those who suffer from this spend their lives trying to overcome this feeling. With

this, he explained the concept of compensation and overcompensation of weakness, and how it revolves

around feelings of inferiority and the impact it has on personality development. He also distinguished

inferiority into two parts; primary and secondary, in which primary refers to inferiority maintained by infants

that acts like a driving force and makes them more productive. Whereas, secondary inferiority refers to that

felt by adults, which is harmful and leads to an inferiority complex. Unlike Jung, Adler did not believe in

personality types and believed that it limits an individual’s uniqueness, which is not a healthy practice.

Instead, he recognized patterns styles of life.