PERSONALITY & PERSONAL

DEVELOPMENT
ASSIGNMENT:1
 Freud and Neo-Freudians
Sigmund Freud(1859-1939)
He is the founder of Psychodynamic Perspective. He was an Australian physician in the 1900s- a
neurologist by profession. “The Interpretation of Dreams” is his book. He gives importance to
inner unconscious experiences such as the person who thoughts, memories and desires. Also,
give importance to the forces that lead their behaviours. He is the first person who identifies
therapy in psychology. He said that behaviours are greatly influenced by how people can cope
with sexual urges. He also found Instinct theory, theories of personality or structural theory,
anxiety, defence mechanisms, theories of psychosexual developments and techniques of
psychoanalysis. The book Studies in Hysteria by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer- They
diagnosed in hysteria by hypnosis. Freud contended that at the root of hysterical symptoms were
repressed memories of distressing occurrences, almost always having direct or indirect
associations.

NEO-FREUDIAN’S
Many followers of Sigmund Freud adapted his concepts to produce new personality theories.
These thinkers, referred to as neo-Freudians, agreed with Freud that childhood experiences are
important, but they stressed the social environment and therefore the impact of culture on
personality instead of sex. Sigmund Freud's writings were unpopular at first, but he quickly
gained a following of young, ambitious doctors who created an inner circle around their strong-
willed leader. These early psychoanalysts, known as neo-Freudians, embraced Freud's core
concepts, such as the id, ego, and superego personality structures, the role of the unconscious, the
formation of personality in childhood, and the anxiety dynamics and defensive mechanisms.
However, they diverged from Freud in two significant respects. First, they emphasized the
function of the conscious mind in understanding experience and dealing with the environment.
Second, they questioned if sex and violence were the sole motivators. Rather, they tended to
place a greater emphasis on higher motives and social connections. The major neo-Freudians
are:-
I. Alfred Adler
 II. Carl Gustav Jung
III. Erik Erikson
IV. Henry Alexander Murray
V. Harry Stack Sullivan
VI. Karen Horney's
VII. Erich Fromm

Comparison between Freudians and Neo- Freudians

I. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Adler and Freud
 Adler focused on individual psychology whereas Freud emphasised levels of
consciousness (conscious, subconscious and unconscious) also emphasise
structural theory whereas Adler emphasised inferiority feelings. Adler (1930,
1961) argued that early experiences of inadequacy lead individuals to strive for
superiority and that this striving is the driving force behind all of our ideas,
emotions, and behaviours.
 According to Adler humans are primarily motivated by social urges and according
to Freud, humans are motivated by inborn instincts.
 According to Adler, a creative self-subjective system analyzes and gives meaning
to the organism's experiences. Whereas Freud says a group of psychological
processes serving the ends of inborn instincts.
 Adler focused on Consciousness whereas Freud focused on Unconsciousness.
 Adler believed in the importance of social relationships, seeing childhood
development as arising from social development( birth order), whereas Freud
emphasized sexual phases more prominently.


II. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Carl Gustav Jung and Freud
  Jung was a religious, spiritual, and cultural thinker. Sigmund Freud, on the other
hand, believed that psychology is an empirical science.
 Jung was a firm believer in making direct eye contact with his patients. Patients,
on the other hand, feel that if they are facing away from the psychologist and
relaxing comfortably, they would be more comfortable discussing their emotions.
 Dreams, according to Jung, may represent a wide range of human experiences.
Dreams, on the other hand, were thought by Sigmund Freud to be an expression
of an underlying human need.
 Jung thinks that our conscious emotions have an impact on our subconscious
mind. Freud, on the other hand, argues that aggressiveness and sex drive the
unconscious mind.
 According to Jung the direction of the forces that influence personality whereas
Freud viewed human beings as a prisoner or victims of past events, Jung argued
that we are shaped by our future as well as past.
 Jung constructed a very complex structure of the human psyche that is not easy to
understand fully and clearly. Freud's theory is easy to understand and not
complex.

III. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Erik Erikson and Freud

 Erikson's psychosocial theory is based on environmental and social variables
whereas The psychosexual theory of Sigmund Freud stresses the significance of
basic wants and biological processes.
 Erikson did not give much importance to parent-child relationships. He gave
importance to the role of the ego. But Freud emphasized on Oedipus complex and
Electra complex.
 Erikson focused on psychosocial development but Freud focused on psychosexual
development.
 
 According to them, development occurs stage by stage.

IV. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Henry Alexander Murray and Freud

 Murray divided personality into 4 parts. Whereas Freud divided into 3.
 Murray almost agreeing with the sexual developmental process of Freud even
though there are slight variations

V. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Harry Stack Sullivan and Freud

 Freud used Psychoanalytical Theory to explain various aspects of mental health in
humans whereas Sullivan used Interpersonal theory with scientific studies. He
also mentioned various developmental stages from infancy to adulthood.
  Freud states anxiety as a state of tension that makes an individual do something-
occurs due to conflict between id and ego. He also found three types of anxiety.
According to Sullivan Anxiety and needs are the subdivisions of tensions. He says
that it transfers from mother to child through empathy which leads to blocking the
development of healthy interpersonal relationships.
 Sullivan made 7 stages of development whereas Freud made 5 stages of
psychosexual development
VI. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Karen Horney's and Freud
 Horney agreed with much of Sigmund Freud's theories, but not his beliefs on
female psychology. She frowned at his notion of penis envy, calling it both
incorrect and insulting to women. Instead, Horney developed the idea of womb
envy, in which males feel inferior because they are unable to deliver offspring.
 She denied the preeminence of sexual factors, challenged the validity of the
Oedipal theory, and discarded the concepts of libido. Psychosexual development
was the crucial field of study to Freud.


 She also rejected the three-part personality framework. Specifically, the id, ego,
and superego. But he emphasized the three-part structure of personality i.e. id, ego
and superego.
  Horney proposed three coping strategies. Moving toward people, moving against
people, and moving away from people are the first three coping styles. To deal
with his anxiousness, he used defence mechanisms.

VII. Distinction Between Neo-Freudian: Erich Fromm and Freud

 Fromm accepted the importance of unconscious, biological drives, repression and
defence mechanisms, but rejected Freud's theory of id, ego and superego. Fromm
did not believe in specific developmental stages. "He believed that the growing
child slowly learns to distinguish between "I and not I", through contact with the
environment, notably those involving the parents."(Ewen 194) Fromm contends
that personality development continues into adulthood.
 Freud's attitude was purely scientific. Fromm desired to humanize things.
 According to Formm, two factors affect behaviour 1) the Inevitability of
separateness and 2) the history and social movement into which the person is
born. For Freud, it's our childhood experiences and based on the pleasure
principle.


 For Freud, both life and death instincts are inherited in the biology of the person.
Life is primary potential death is secondary potential.
 Freud never typified personality but, Formm made 5 types of personality

References

[PDF] Theories of Personality | Semantic Scholar. (2015). Retrieved September 22, 2021, from

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Theories-of-Personality-Schultz-

Schultz/6c7a89d2e6f09dc157e459980eb8f941dfdf7107