Neo-Freudians

• Neo-Freudian approach

  Includes Adler, Jung, Horney
• Neo-Freudian Psychology

  • Recognises unconscious processes
  • Defence mechanisms
  • Intra-psychic conflict and structure of the mind
  • Reinterprets libido to be about a more general motivation to enhance one's life
  • Less emphasis on unconscious compared to conscious/rational thought
  • Focus less heavily on internal life, more heavily on interpersonal life
  • Disagrees with emphasis on psychopathology
• Alfred Adler

  • Emphasises unity/consistency among personality structures rather than competing elements
  • Views person as an indivisible entity
  • Makes psychoanalysis accessible
  • Emphasises community/social context and "social interest"
  • Teleology - striving towards something in the future rather than being driven by the past
  • Focuses on goal-directed behaviour
• Inferiority

  • Biological (organ) inferiority and compensation - if someone loses an arm the other becomes stronger
  • Triggers need for compensation = strive for superiority/mastery/competence
  • Inferiority as normal for infants (helpless)
  • Motivated towards equalising or becoming superior
  • Attitude to inferiority influences behaviour
  • Negative world view - do battle with the world
  • Positive world view - participate and learn from other people
  • Options when facing inferiority: acknowledge and improve, or develop an inferiority complex
• Inferiority complex

  • Constantly feeling inferior, preoccupied with denying/disguising inferiority from others
  • Afraid of failing, leading to avoidance of risks
  • May lead to overcompensation with an exaggerated sense of superiority
• Theory of birth order


  Idea that the order in which you are born shapes personality
• Adlerian therapy


  • Aims to understand the unique lifestyle of the patient
  • Uses the therapeutic relationship to strengthen social interest (empathy for others)
  • Uses techniques to uncover style of life including earliest childhood memory, position in birth order, any childhood problems/medical issues, dreams (particularly recurrent), and examination of factors causing distress - current problems
• Carl Jung (1875-1961) focused on the Psyche
• Carl Jung's basic principles

  • Principle of opposites - conflict between opposing structures in the psyche creates energy
  • Principle of equivalence - adding to one "side" takes energy from the other opposite side
  • Principle of entropy - innately head towards balance
  • Emphasised lifespan development
  • Teleology - self-realisation/individuation as a goal
• Collective unconscious according to Carl Jung

  • Contains inborn uniquely human ideas and memories
  • Kept in the deepest part of the unconscious
  • Contains basic images known as Archetypes which show up in dreams, fantasies, art, symbols across all different cultures, both ancient and modern
• Archetypes in pop culture

  • Star Wars as the "Hero's journey"
• Structure of the psyche according to Carl Jung

  • Persona - social mask one wears, false self learned through contact with others, may impinge on the ability to become individuated in late life
  • Anima/Animus - made up of humankind's experiences with women and men, focus on balance
  • Shadow - repressed "evil" self, may be revealed in dreams and visions, may deny this side of oneself and project onto others
  • The Self - the unified, cohesive, whole self, regained through a lifelong process called individuation, integrates all aspects of personality to a balanced whole
• Jungian therapy

  • Dream analysis - collective unconscious as the basis for recurrent/common images in dreams
  • Word association - uncover imbalances
  • Art therapy - paintings from patients
  • 4 stages in therapy: Confession - admit problems, Elucidation - uncover nature of problem, Education - understand
• Jungian therapy

  • Dream analysis
  • Word association
  • Art therapy
  • 4 stages; confession, elucidation, education, transformation
• Karen Horney was associated with Feminine Psychology (1885-1952)
• Karen Horney's Feminine psychology

  • Penis envy - yearn for privileges that come with having a penis
  • Need for safety as motivation
  • Need for relationships
  • Supportive parents - child can become real self
  • Indifference of parents = basic evil
  • Basic anxiety - Feelings of hopelessness/helplessness in children. The way they deal with the anxiety shapes their personality
• Neurotic needs

  • Affection/approval
  • A partner
  • Power
  • Exploit and beat others
  • Social recognition
  • Personal admiration
  • Personal achievement
  • Self sufficiency/independence
  • Perfection
  • Restrict life within narrow borders
• The tyranny of the 'shoulds'

  • Idealised images create motivation that one 'should' be a certain way
  • Perception that one's anxiety/pain would disappear if only these conditions were met
  • Clinging to idealised self - tyranny of the 'shoulds'
• Horney's therapy

  • Focus on interpersonal relationships
  • Developmental origins of these
  • Interpersonal problems reflected and enacted in relationship with the therapist
  • Therapeutic relationship as paramount
  • Importance of honesty
  • Confrontational when patients were not aware of acceptable behaviour in relationships or were in denial
  • Try to reduce their idealised illusions of themselves