Sigmund Freud is referred to as the father of psychoanalysis as he was the first scholar to demonstrate an association between the unconscious and conscious. His theory was founded on the assumption that most of the problems faced by individuals are embedded in the unconscious mind. He posits that the unconscious mind forms the foundation for the occurrences in one’s conscious being. Childhood experiences, particularly traumas, play a role in shaping an individual’s way of life in later developmental phases. Other psychoanalysts who developed theories using Freud’s concepts as foundations include Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Alfred Adler, among others. This task compares Freud, Jung, and Horney.
One common feature in Freud, Jung, and Horney’s argument is that they all concede that childhood experiences are critical in shaping an individual’s life. The second feature that is common in these theories is the recognition of the role of the unconscious mind. Freud views unconscious thoughts as the foundation of what happens in the conscious. Jung relies on what he refers to as collective unconscious where he argues that Freud’s theory of personal unconscious is incomplete. He posits that the collective unconscious is the universal version of the personal conscious and is founded on various memories referred to as archetypes and which are expounded in various cultures through literature, artistic works, and dreams (Turner, 2006). Horney connects the unconscious with anxiety and posits that normal growth can be hampered by the notion of having unmet needs, such as a parent’s failure to address a child’s loneliness. She further suggests three strategies that individuals utilize in coping with situations of unmet needs: moving toward, against, or away from people.
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The major differences in the psychoanalytic social theories of Freud, Jung, and Horney is that Freud’s theory focuses on biological determinants of personality while Jung and Horney delve into social and cultural influencers of an individual’s life. Sex is highly emphasized in Freud’s theory as a biological factor involved in influencing personality. Both Jung and Horney de-emphasize sex with Jung developing the notion of introversion and extraversion as the means for self-realization. Jung also proposed the idea of persona which entails a compromise of who one is and the society’s expectations of who one should be (OpenStax Psychology, 2017). Horney, on the other hand, disagrees with the Freudian proposition that girls are envious of a penis and adds that men are envious of the womb since they have no birthing abilities. Horney also emphasizes an individual’s goal for self-realization which is attained through the aforementioned coping strategies.
References
OpenStax Psychology (2017). Neo-Freudians: Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney. Retrieved from https://cnx.org/contents/sa5_X4f8@2/Neo-Freudians-Adler-Erikson-Ju
Turner, J. H. (2006). Psychoanalytic sociological theories and emotions. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-0-387-30715-2_13#page-1
