outline, explain, evaluate: the neo-freudians*

Erik Erikson and Carl Jung were neo-Freudians who built upon Sigmund Freud’s theories on human behavior and the structure and function of personality. Erikson’s main departure from Freud was the theory of the 8 stages of personality development, which emphasized adulthood, contrasting Freud’s great focus on childhood experiences. Jung proposed the idea of a biologically shared collective unconscious in addition to the personal unconscious, modifying Freud’s classic idea that the unconscious is only based on personal experiences. By broadening views on the functioning of personality and elaborating upon the unconscious, Jung contributed to modern psychology and helped develop a further understanding of human behavior.

Jung broke new ground by developing the idea of the collective unconscious, the second portion of the unconscious level of awareness that personality functions upon. The collective unconscious, which Jung said is biologically inherited and shared throughout different cultures, contains ideas and themes that are not related to personal experience. He argued that it is composed of archetypes, or patterns that arrange experiences; its forms are the animus, anima, and shadow. The animus represents the femininity of men, including sentimentality and emotionality; the anima represents the masculinity of women, including assertiveness; the shadow represents the aggressive and sexual urges of human nature. Overall, Jung emphasized on the role of symbols and the idea of complementary opposites.

Erikson proposed the ground-breaking theory of psychosocial stages. According to him, development involves resolving various conflicts in life, including those related to relationships and self-image, and that social drives motivate human behavior. He defined his stages by social interactions. The task of the 1^st stage is gaining trust in oneself and others, and minimizing mistrust. Reliable, caring parents help children develop a sense of safeness in the external world; ignorant parents may cause insecurity and distrust. Erikson argued that stage 2’s goal is to gain autonomy and self-esteem with little shame, which is influenced by the amount of freedom parents provide and may lead to impulsiveness or compulsiveness. Stage 3 deals with learning to optimistically take the initiative with little guilt, and developing new abilities. During stage 4, the child learns social skills and develops competency as the social network expands, and school activities become significant parts of life. Stage 5 involves identity formation and avoiding role confusion by learning to fit into the community, which may cause an identity crisis. Adolescence may be influenced by dating partners, friends and conflicts with parents.

According to Erikson, adulthood begins at stage 6, in which one learns to achieve intimacy and commitment to relationships, instead of isolation. The success in balancing intimacy and independence and isolation means acquiring the “psychosocial strength called love”. At stage 7, the individual learns to contribute to the community and extend love and care to younger generations without expecting compensation and being stagnated. Lastly, in stage 8, the ultimate goal is to achieve wisdom and integrity while feeling little despair of learning to accept the past. This happens if one is able to overcome losses of loved ones and face death without fear.

Erikson, who proposed that personality development occurs throughout the entire life cycle, not focusing only on childhood, altered Freud’s classic theory that personality functions on 5 psychosexual stages. Freud argued that childhood experiences and sexual causes are crucial in influencing personality development; conversely, Erikson stated that adulthood was no less important, and focused 4 of the psychosocial stages on years after puberty. Erikson argued that development is more biologically psychosocial rather than psychosexual, and that basic drives are social ones, unlike Freud’s pessimistic viewpoints of repressed sexual desires and death wishes.

Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious also modified a classic psychoanalytic theory. Freud argued that personality operates only on a personal unconscious, which contains repressed past experiences and inner drives. Conversely, Jung argued that there is a second portion to the unconscious—the collective unconscious, which is shared cross-culturally. Jung also stated that everyone inherits the same universal archetypes that may influence human behavior; on the contrary, Freudian symbols represent sexual aspects. Jung placed more emphasis on mythology and spirituality, and de-emphasized sexual drives. Because of modifications made to certain aspects of classic theories, Erikson and Jung used Freud’s ideas only as a basis, and further developed new, ground-breaking ideas.

Some critics say Jung’s approach of the theory of the collective unconscious contributed to the understanding of human behavior in more mystical ways. It gave modern psychologists a broader view of the functioning of personality and psychodynamics that is very rich in detail, and provided a modification, a different theory they could consider—not just one Freudian theory of the personal unconscious. Therefore, his works provided a deeper understanding of psychodynamics and identified new possible causes. However, there is vague evidence to prove the presence of archetypes, and there may be many different interpretations of its meaning. Critics have questioned the nature of Jung’s theories because he was spiritual and religious. They aren’t falsifiable, as the collective unconscious could not be accessed through conscious awareness; therefore they are unscientific and possibly inaccurate. Although he found cross-cultural similarities in mythology, generalization is difficult. Whether inaccurate or not, Jung influenced modern psychologists’ views, who used his ideas as bases for further studies.

Erikson and Jung proposed new, innovative neo-Freudian theories that contributed to modern psychology, and provided modifications of classic Freudian ones. Both influenced new views of human behavior that have never been studied before. Overall, Erikson’s stages and Jung’s collective unconscious has opened a new approach to understanding psychodynamics.

-- yuki