Extensions of Psychoanalytic Theory, Essay Example

Abstract

The present work concerns the extension of Freud’s psychological perspective of the role of sexuality and the subconscious in the life and behavior of people. The work analyses views of such neo-Freudians as Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney and Erich Fromm. Their ideas developed Freud’s theory, and many of these psychoanalysts refused to accept the dominant role of biological factors, moving forward such determinants as social and cultural variables. They attributed much influence to the subconscious in the life of people and their mental health but viewed it from a different perspective, making their psychoanalytic theory more humanistic and traditional.

Historical Context

At the beginning of the 20^th century Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney and Erich From became the influential psychologists who worked on the theory of Freud, extended and complemented it with the new findings, agreeing or disagreeing with the major statement of Freud. In general, all mentioned Freud’s followers refused to accept sexuality as the main driving force of the human behavior and worked out their own formulations of the psychiatric theory in the first half of the 20^th century (Sadock and Kaplan, 2007).

For instance, Carl Jung developed his own mystical psychoanalytic system due to the rejection of the dominant role of sexuality; Adler worked on socio-cultural justification of human behavior; Horney and Fromm also devoted more attention and attributed more power to such variables as social, cultural and interpersonal characteristics of their patients (Sadock and Kaplan, 2007).

The most common fact unifying all these members of Freud’s circle is the fact that they did not take biological determinants of human behavior for granted and did not consider them to be dominant in people. They researched other determinants that could have become influential in terms of human behavior, which denominated the emergence of a new psychological perspective.

Major Contributors to the Theory

The psychological perspective in which the first two psychoanalysts specialized is called psychoanalysis. Jung and Adler devoted more attention in their studies to the subconscious, the role of dreams in the human life and resembled Freud in many of his beliefs. They also argued that all human beings are initially with psychiatric deviations due to the conflicts existing in their inner selves, so the fringe between their mental health and mental illness is highly vague and ambiguous (DeGalan and Lambert, 2006).

Horney and Fromm were the followers of a humanistic theory more than the psychoanalytical formulations of Freud. This is an approach to psychiatry that is not clinical and distinguishes a set of cultural, personal and interpersonal characteristics that influence the formation of a personality. This approach initiated the motives for self-improvement, self-discovery and self-treatment through that way. People were seen as the creatures being able to become ideal, so pursuit of that ideal was the prime aim of the research and psychiatry offered by Horney and Fromm (DeGalan and Lambert, 2006).

All these psychiatrists are called neo-Freudians due to their heavy reliance on the views of Freud, and they had the major influence on psychology until the 1950s. Thus, it is possible to say that they have become the truly outstanding figures and influenced the course of development of American psychiatric theory of the 20^th century.

Five Distinguishing Concepts of the Theory

The first concept is the emphasis on cultural and interpersonal determinants of human behavior. All mentioned psychiatrists refused to accept the biological perspective set forth by Freud and made the greater emphasis on the cultural development of the human being. Besides, they relied heavily on the influence of interpersonal communication and researched the patient not only as an ordinary clinical case, but as a living being that could be changed, improved and self-treated (Chambliss, 1996).

The second concept to be discussed is the emphasis on the influence of the subconscious on the human behavior and mental health. Jung and Adler in particular saw the dominant role of the subconscious in the formation of character, attitudes and behavior of a person and the main determinant of mental illnesses as well in this respect (Chambliss, 1996).

The third concept worth discussing is the revised vision of the subconscious conducted by Freud’s followers. They also relied on symbolism, dreams and mystics as the influential variables in their psychoanalysis, but at the same time attributed power of a bit different sort to the subconscious – they saw the course of wisdom, knowledge, spirituality etc. in it.

The forth concept is humanism – the most active protectors of humanism are Horney and Fromm who say the personality as a set of cultural and social variables and posed much influence of these indicators on the individual development of personality. Thus, the initial Freud’s biological perspective lost its sense in their theories.

The fifth concept is the rejection of sexuality proposed by Freud as the main influential component determining human behavior. The neo-Freudians took much from the theory of Freud but sexuality was the main formulation that they all rejected no matter what perspective they adopted and followed.

Evaluation of the Theory from the Religious Perspective

The neo-Freudian psychoanalytic perspective is closely connected with Christianity and Christian apologetics, stating that there is the coherence in human experience. People should share and develop their experience to become better, more stable psychologically and to reduce their inner conflict to the measure that will not prevent them from being valuable members of the society and achieving harmony with their inner selves.

References

Chambliss, J.J. (1996). Philosophy of education: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis.

DeGalan, J., & Lambert, S.E. (2006). Great jobs for psychology majors (3^rd ed.). McGraw-Hill Professional.

Sadock, V.A., & Kaplan, H.I. (2007). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (10^th ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.