Posted: February 11th, 2022

Freud, Jung, & Adler

Assignment One Jeremie William Edwards PSY/250 Elaine Parks Assignment Two Freud, Jung, and Adler are commonly referred to as the fathers of modern Psychology. The three men spent much time delving into why people act and think the ways which they do. Freud’s psychoanalytical approach tells us that the human psyche consists of three different parts that drive us to our thoughts and actions; the Ego, Super-Ego, and the Id (direct Latin translation is the it). Adler was at differences with Freud in this separation of these three parts.
Adler believed that the Ego, Super-Ego, and the Id were not separated but viewed as a whole; He believed that it was more important to look at the entire picture rather than trying to separate these parts, as Freud would. Jung and Freud had a difference on personal motivation that drives each of us. Freud believed that all human motivation was sexually based, where Jung thought that every person suffered from a type of inferiority complex. I can agree with portions from all of the doctors and their theories.
I believe that there is a sexual connotation to most everything that people do, whether it is out-right or hidden in context. I can also see where most everyone suffers from some type of inferiority complex. Every person can admit to be lacking in some area in which they would rather excel. As far as Jung and his individuation on the other hand, I believe this to be lacking in substance. His thoughts on humans being social creatures and the influence that our surroundings have on us are quite valid.

I also believe that we do have an Id or a primal instinct inside of us, but that Id is not in conflict with our Ego and Super-Ego. These three parts work in unison to drive us and propel each of us into becoming better people yet not letting us forget from where we originate. Sigmund Freud had a five stage theory on human personality development. The five stages in order are; Oral/Dependency, Anal/Potty Training, Phallic, Latency Period, and Genital. The Oral stage is from the time of birth up to about two years old.
This stage talks of breastfeeding and how a person can develop an oral fixation if weaned too early from the teat. An oral fixation can manifest in the forms of smoking, eating, or drinking. The second stage, Anal, is where the child is learning to use a toilet properly. The child uses the anal sphincter as a means of maintaining control of the situation. For example, if a child does not want to learn how to use the toilet they may withhold their feces or defecate in places or at times that are seen as inappropriate. These actions will allow the child to perceive that they are still in control of the situation.
Under this understanding is where Freud believes that a person can develop obsessive compulsive disorder or dreams of spinning out of control and the person left trying to get everything back in order. The Phallic stage is the third stage of Freud’s. This stage is from the ages of three to five, this is the time where a child starts to become more aware of the differences between men and women. This time frame is when a person can develop an Oedipus or Electra complex, depending on the gender of the person. What this entails is the child becoming jealous of the same sex parent.
For boys this would present because of the child wanting a relationship with the mother that the father has, this scenario in turn makes the boy child adopt the acts and mannerisms of the father in order to live vicariously through him in this relationship. For a girl child, she is jealous of the mother and wants the father’s penis (penis envy). The fourth phase is a latency period where no real advancement is made. The final stage of Freud’s five stages is the Genital stage. The Genital stage starts around the age of 12 and ends in the peak of puberty.
This stage is a reawakening of a person’s sexual interest. In this stage a person will start to feel sexual attraction towards the opposite sex (the writer does not know about homosexuality in this theory as of yet). The urges and needs are to pleasure the genitals and a sort of coming of age, or growing up. Freud had many different defense mechanisms. The three we will be looking at are; Denial, Rationalization, and Repression. Denial is a fairly self-explanatory defense; it is when a person argues with the reality of what has actually happened. E. G.
When a woman has been raped she must deal with an extraordinary situation which she had no choice in. Some women face this reality with denying that it ever actually happened. Rationalization is a bit different in a person will fabricate a truth rather than facing what the observable truth is. Say a person gets fired from a position; he/she may claim that it is because they refused to kiss up to the boss when in reality it was because of a lack in performance. Repression is when a person forces something out of memory, often a person will repress memories of child abuse.

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