1 The Pillar Of Three

The Pillar Of Three Men Kevin Currie PSY 360 Survey Of Mental Health Megan Parketon March 19, 2007 Freud, Adler and Jung Walk In To A Bar. Tickets! I need your tickets, bellowed out the conductor as he walked down the narrow isle of the train car. While his announcement caused a mild flurry of activity, the conductor sluggishly walks by a booth containing three of the greatest minds of psychology. Looking slightly annoyed by the volume of the conductors voice, the swaying of the dinning car, and trains whistle, the three men continue their conversation, which was abruptly interrupted. Even though this scenario may not have occurred, it is exciting to imagine Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl Jung, sitting together, discussing their key concepts and techniques, which has been studied and applied for decades. Its no secret Freud, Adler, and Jung provided the foundation for modern counseling process (Nystul p.173). However, Freuds work The Interpretation of Dreams struck the interest of Adler, and Jung, thus creating an interesting comparison of their theories, also known as key concepts. Since Freud supplied the first the layer of the psychology foundation, it is only proper to examine his theories first. Freud was best known for his personality theories, which include the Id, Super Ego, and Ego. However, Freud suggests these traits may result in Endopsychic Conflict or in other words, a conflict resulting from the id, super ego, and ego fighting for domination of the personality (Nystul p.177). Yet the Endopsychic conflict would not go unrestrained, through another developed theory called Defense Mechanisms, which extremely important if the ego feels threatened and needs to cope. Interestingly, these theories fashioned another personality development, which states personality development was determined to a large degree by early life experiences (insert reference here.) Adlers Evolution of A Theory While Freuds personality concepts mainly focused on the sexual nature of human kind, Adler as did Jung, disassociated themselves from Freud as they did not agree with Freuds overemphasized the role of sexuality in personality development (insert book reference.) In spite of the disassociation from Freud, Adler also emphasized the significance of early life experiences (Nystul p.173). Adlers concepts, including The Creative Self, and The Concept of Telelogical Movement. These two theories among others, including The Psychology of Use, A Phenomenological Psychology, are intertwined with one another. These concepts consist of Alders belief of a persons behavior is molded from life experiences, unlike Freud who solely believes in a sexual reasoning. Furthermore Alder theory of The Creative Self was called the Center Ego by Freud, which clearly shows a cultivated relationship between these two men of science. So Jung, So Little Time

Even though Freud, and Alders counseling techniques are considered more traditional, Carl Gustav adopted a different approach to Psychology. Ironically Jung and Freud shared many common interests; (Smith p. 310) calling Jung his crown prince and successor (insert book reference here). Yet, as with Alder, Jung broke his ties with Freud and developed his own key concepts, including The Ego, the Personal Unconscious, the Collective Unconscious and the Archetypes (Nystul p.197). Conversely, Jungs personal unconscious theory has a similar approach as Freuds preconscious theory (insert book reference.) Moreover, Jung views the personal unconscious as transpersonal since it is not associated with personal experiences (Nystul p.197). In a similar fashion to Adler, the personal self has a greater role than the sexual considerations suggested by Freud. Additionally Jung states the collective unconscious guides an individuals life experiences, thereby influencing perceptions, emotions, and behavior (Nystul p.197). Although, each man has their own preferred method of key concepts including Freuds the id, and superego, Alders the creative self, the family constellation, and Jung Collective unconscious, archetypes have provided a solid foundation, which is still being built on today and for many years to come.

References Nystul, M. S. (2005) Introduction to Counseling: An Art and Science Perspective (3rd edition) New York: Pearson. Smith, Roger. British Journal for the History of Science. Cambridge: Jun 2006. Vol. 39, Iss. 141; p. 310