Freud Vs Adler Research Paper

778 Words2 Pages

Rachel Wizman
Dr. Susan Marell
Psych 334
March 2, 2015

FREUD vs. ADLER
Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler are both Psychoanalysts. Although Freud and Adler grew up in the same city, in the same era, and even attended the same university, their theories vary from one another other. Freud and Adler originally worked together as a team. However their ideas eventually became too dissimilar from each other, which caused them to separate and pursue their own individual studies.
Freud believed our personality fully developed by age six. He believed that humans are motivated by sex and aggression. Freud mainly viewed the human psyche from a psychosexual perspective. He theorized that the human mind is divided into three major components that determine …show more content…

Adler disagreed with Freud's emphasis on the importance of sexuality, instinctual drives and unconscious. He felt that we are more influenced by society and environment as opposed to biological instincts. Adler believes that our main driving force in personality is by “striving for superiority” - a struggle to overcome imperfections, a drive for achievement. Adler is recognized as the founder of “individual psychology.” He named the field as 'individual psychology' because his goal was to get a holistic understanding of each and every patient according to his specific and distinct needs. Unlike Freud, Adler believed the past continues to influence the choices people make throughout their …show more content…

Freud's psychoanalytic therapy was more of a long-term therapeutic investment. His main focus was to bring the unconscious into consciousness. Freud believed the role of the therapist was to encourage a transference relationship. The therapist is supposed to function as a "blank screen" (Tabula rasa) upon which the client transfers his experiences and emotions. In this relationship, for example, a client could see the therapist as someone in their life who they wish they could stand up to and the client would react, as they would have at the time of the original experience. As the analyst interprets the client's responses, the therapist uncovers unconscious thoughts and works toward bringing them into the client's awareness. Throughout this therapy, the psychoanalyst remains anonymous, meaning the client does not physically see the therapist during the actual session. This theory has it’s benefits and liabilities. On one hand, this really helps the clients think for themselves. It helps them gain new insights and really analyze their thoughts on their own. Understanding one’s own thoughts is very important for the client’s future because they won’t have the therapist available everywhere they go. On the other hand, there would be a lack of feedback and goals from the therapist. In addition, Freud focuses a lot on the past and very little on setting self-improvement goals for the future. This doesn’t give the client as

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