Psychoanalytic Theory

In this paper I will be talking about the founder of the psychoanalytic theory, Sigmund Freud. Who came up with many ways to find out why we do the things we do and think the way we think. Sigmund Freud was an awesome mind that thought things and put it on paper that we might would think was too offending to others. Throughout the decades his work has been deciphered by many people who try to make sense of it, and in this paper I will try to let you know what understanding I got from the readings. When it comes to comparing and contrasting the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Alder, I felt like Sigmund Freud had the most, wide range of theories and the broader range of thoughts throughout his readings. One thing that Alder touched on that puzzled me is the fact that we all some kind of way are coming into our personality as a child while suckling on our moms breast. Another thing that puzzled me about Alder is that our personality comes from a form of sexuality, like the comment he made about everyone having a crush on their mother at an early age and mainly boys but girls also. From what I read though is that the female will stop that sexual connection with their mother and transfer it to their dad, and it was said it’s because they don’t have a penis. It seems to me that all of Alders research was more on how people think from sexuality experiences rather than any life experiences. On the other hand there is Jung who wrote that the visions and dreams he often experienced were not unimportant coincidences, but instead were valuable communications of information from the realm of the paranormal. This I also found really puzzling because we all know that we have dreams but have never thought that the dreams or thoughts came from another realm.
Jung’s ego is quite similar in scope and meaning to Freud’s. It is the aspect of personality that’s conscious, and it embodies the sense of self. (Jung believed that this personal identity, or ego, developed around age four.) One of the central ways in which Adler’s views differed from those of Freud was the emphasis each placed on the origin of motivation. REF…

Throughout my reading about Jung I found that his theories made more sense than those of Freud, mainly because Freud’s theories were based on a person’s sexuality which I find hard to believe mainly because of the fact that his theories are based on sex. Whereas Jung’s theories made more sense to me as far as him quoting that our dreams are like an iceberg, with dreams being bigger than what they appear to be and our collective unconscious that we can’t control is our past elders. When it comes to Alder I feel like his psychoanalytic theories makes a lot of sense also because he feels like everyone has their own unique motivations on why they make the decisions they make in life and also how that individual person perceives the life that they have been raised around. What is significant about Adler’s notion is that it involves comparisons and rivalries with other people. For Adler, social interest is a primary source of motivation. The internal drives emphasized by Freud are complemented by external pressures, especially those arising from relationships. REF… When it comes to the stages of Freud’s theory, it’s very interesting on how he broke down the stages. The first one I want to talk to you about is the Oral stage in which he says that you are like a child that’s depending on their mother for milk and comfort and pleasure. Also he felt like that if you carry this Oral stage over into your adult life that you would develop habits like attachment, and also have pleasure from biting, chewing, sucking hard candy, eating or smoking cigarettes. The next stage is the Anal stage in which he talked how as kids we learned to use the pot, and those of us who learned quick and was willing to use the bathroom would shake the Anal stage and the ones who would want to hold their feces would likely be stuck in the anal stage. Also he stated that these certain people would like to make messes and also making messes of other peoples lives. (Or they may be overly concerned with neatness, parsimony, order, and organization…REF) The next stage is the phallic stage in where he says a child starts touching their genitals and participates in masturbation. This stage seemed odd to me because I can’t recall masturbating at the age of four. The next stage is the genital stage in which he states that if you make it through all the challenges of childhood with enough sexual energy still left then there will supposedly be a fairly well-adjusted life, dominated by the genital stage. When it comes to the defense mechanisms of Freud repression is one that I can relate to simply because as a child my father left the house and was gone for many birthdays which made me not trust men. That plays on in my mind now that I have a two year old son of my own, that I would never leave his side and will always be there as long as God is willing. Another defense mechanism is denial and I can relate to that also because when my granddad passed away it was hard on me and I was in denial of not wanting to accept that he was gone and I’d never see him again.
Another defense mechanism that I could relate to is sublimation in which I transform my dangerous urges into positive ones. One way that I do this is by helping out at the local boys club and helping my elders as much as possible. In conclusion Freud, Jung, and Alder had great minds on them that needed to be wrote down with every thought. Because throughout my time on this earth I have never heard people talk so openly about why people do the things they do and think the way they think. As I went over the readings I could only think what type of life these people really lived. Also some of the points they made about certain things really made sense especially the oral stage. We need great minds like that in our world to make sense of things like why things happen the way they do.