Human Nature According to Psychoanalysis and the Humanistic Psychology

Human Nature According to Psychoanalysis and the Humanistic Psychology As Carl Jung stated “ As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of

human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of

mere being”. Reflecting on what it is to be a person raises profound

questions which have been very much the concern of two major

psychological perspectives: the psychoanalysis and the humanistic

psychology. Some of this questions are: Why do we act and feel in the

way we do, how far are we open or fixed to change, if we can change

aspects of who we are how we can do it or how can we make sense in the

subjective worlds in which we exist. As we will see both perspectives

will approach these matters and will focus on the subjectivity,

exploring aspects of our inner life.

The major contributors to these perspectives are Sigmund Freud who

created psychotherapy and psychodynamics at the start of the 20th

century, and inside the humanistic perspective, Carl Rogers who

developed the person centred therapy during the 1960’s as a cultural

emphasis on emancipation from tradition and exploration of new ideas

and attitudes.

One problem in comparing these two approaches lays in the fact that

they make rather different kinds of contribution to counselling and

they can not be compare like with like. However both perspectives

offer different models of the person and different ways of bringing

about pe...

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...tions to

counselling and psychotherapy; psychodynamic approach offers a

detailed theory of the human condition and it also constitutes a

clinical method with a set of concepts and methods for penetrating to

the unconscious meanings of the subjective experiences.

Although the person centred approach does not provide with a

comprehensive theory of why we are as we are it provides very extended

ideas and methods which are intended to heighten our awareness of what

it regards as key aspects of the human condition and of our

potentialities.

REFERENCES

Miell, D., Phoenix, A., Thomas, K.(2002), Mapping Psychology

Garcia, J. A., Lacasa, P.(1992), Psicologia Evolutiva

Hoffman, L., Scott, P., Hall E.(1995), Developmental Psychology Today

( Spanish Edition)

Myers, D. G.(1992), PSYCHOLOGY.( Spanish edition)