Prepare 500 word analysis Base on Alfred Adler describe how psychodynamic theories affect individual personalities

theories_of_personality_7e_ch08_0 theories_of_personality_7e_ch06_1 theories_of_personality_7e_ch02_3 theories_of_personality_7e_ch03_4 theories_of_personality_7e_ch04_5

Prepare 500 word analysis Base on Alfred Adler describe how psychodynamic theories affect individual personalities

Sullivan:
Interpersonal Theory

B Overview of Interpersonal Theory

B Biography of Harry Stack

Sullivan

B Tensions

Needs

Anxiety

Energy Transformations

B Dynamisms

Malevolence

Intimacy

Lust

Self-System

B Personifications

Bad-Mother, Good-Mother

Me Personifications

Eidetic Personifications

B Levels of Cognition

Prototaxic Level

Parataxic Level

Syntaxic Level

B Stages of Development

Infancy

Childhood

Juvenile Era

Preadolescence

Early Adolescence

Late Adolescence

Adulthood

Sullivan

B Psychological Disorders

B Psychotherapy

B Related Research

The Pros and Cons of “Chums” for Girls and Boys

Imaginary Friends

B Critique of Sullivan

B Concept of Humanity

B

Key Terms and Concepts

212

C H A P T E R 8

The young boy had no friends his age but did have several imaginary playmates.At school, his Irish brogue and quick mind made him unpopular among school-
mates. Then, at age 81/2, the boy experienced an intimate relationship with a
13-year-old boy that transformed his life. The two boys remained unpopular with
other children, but they developed close bonds with each other. Most scholars
(Alexander, 1990, 1995; Chapman, 1976; Havens, 1987) believe that the relationship
between these boys—Harry Stack Sullivan and Clarence Bellinger—was at least in
some ways homosexual, but others (Perry, 1982) believed that the two boys were
never sexually intimate.

Why is it important to know about Sullivan’s sexual orientation? This knowl-
edge is important for at least two reasons. First, a personality theorist’s early life his-
tory, including gender, birth order, religious beliefs, ethnic background, schooling,
as well as sexual orientation, all relate to that person’s adult beliefs, conception of
humanity, and the type of personality theory that that person will develop.

Second, in Sullivan’s case, his sexual orientation may have prevented him from
gaining the acceptance and recognition he might have had if others had not suspected
that he was homosexual. A. H. Chapman (1976) has argued that Sullivan’s influence
is pervasive yet unrecognized largely because many psychologists and psychiatrists
of his day had difficulty accepting the theoretical concepts and therapeutic practices
of someone they suspected of being homosexual. Chapman contended that Sullivan’s
contemporaries might have easily accepted a homosexual artist, musician, or writer,
but, when it came to a psychiatrist, they were still guided by the concept “Physician
heal thyself.” This phrase was so ingrained in American society during Sullivan’s
time that mental health workers found it very difficult to “admit their indebtedness
to a psychiatrist whose homosexuality was commonly known” (Chapman, 1976, p.
12). Thus, Sullivan, who otherwise might have achieved greater fame, was shackled
by sexual prejudices that kept him from being regarded as American’s foremost psy-
chiatrist of the first half of the 20th century.

Overview of Interpersonal Theory
Harry Stack Sullivan, the first American to construct a comprehensive personality
theory, believed that people develop their personality within a social context. With-
out other people, Sullivan contended, humans would have no personality. “A per-
sonality can never be isolated from the complex of interpersonal relations in which
the person lives and has his being” (Sullivan, 1953a, p. 10). Sullivan insisted that
knowledge of human personality can be gained only through the scientific study of
interpersonal relations. His interpersonal theory emphasizes the importance of var-
ious developmental stages—infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence,
early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood. Healthy human development
rests on a person’s ability to establish intimacy with another person, but unfortu-
nately, anxiety can interfere with satisfying interpersonal relations at any age. Per-
haps the most crucial stage of development is preadolescence—a period when chil-
dren first possess the capacity for intimacy but have not yet reached an age at which
their intimate relationships are complicated by lustful interests. Sullivan believed
that people achieve healthy development when they are able to experience both inti-
macy and lust toward the same other person.

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 213

Ironically, Sullivan’s own relationships with other people were seldom satisfy-
ing. As a child, he was lonely and physically isolated; as an adolescent, he suffered
at least one schizophrenic episode; and as an adult, he experienced only superficial
and ambivalent interpersonal relationships. Despite, or perhaps because of, these in-
terpersonal difficulties, Sullivan contributed much to an understanding of human
personality. In Leston Havens’s (1987) language, “He made his contributions walk-
ing on one leg . . . he never gained the spontaneity, receptiveness, and capacity for
intimacy his own interpersonal school worked to achieve for others” (p. 184).

Biography of Harry Stack Sullivan
Harry Stack Sullivan was born in the small farming town of Norwich, New York, on
February 21, 1892, the sole surviving child of poor Irish Catholic parents. His
mother, Ella Stack Sullivan, was 32 when she married Timothy Sullivan and 39 when
Harry was born. She had given birth to two other sons, neither of whom lived past
the first year. As a consequence, she pampered and protected her only child, whose
survival she knew was her last chance for motherhood. Harry’s father, Timothy Sul-
livan, was a shy, withdrawn, and taciturn man who never developed a close relation-
ship with his son until after his wife had died and Sullivan had become a prominent
physician. Timothy Sullivan had been a farm laborer and a factory worker who
moved to his wife’s family farm outside the village of Smyrna, some 10 miles from
Norwich, before Harry’s third birthday. At about this same time, Ella Stack Sullivan
was mysteriously absent from the home, and Sullivan was cared for by his maternal
grandmother, whose Gaelic accent was not easily understood by the young boy. After
more than a year’s separation, Harry’s mother—who likely had been in a mental hos-
pital—returned home. In effect, Sullivan then had two women to mother him. Even
after his grandmother died, he continued to have two mothers because a maiden aunt
then came to share in the child-rearing duties.

Although both parents were of poor Irish Catholic descent, his mother re-
garded the Stack family as socially superior to the Sullivans. Sullivan accepted the
social supremacy of the Stacks over the Sullivans until he was a prominent psychia-
trist developing an interpersonal theory that emphasized similarities among people
rather than differences. He then realized the folly of his mother’s claims.

As a preschool child, Sullivan had neither friends nor acquaintances of his age.
After beginning school he still felt like an outsider, being an Irish Catholic boy in a
Protestant community. His Irish accent and quick mind made him unpopular with his
classmates throughout his years of schooling in Smyrna.

When Sullivan was 81/2 years old, he formed a close friendship with a 13-year-
old boy from a neighboring farm. This chum was Clarence Bellinger, who lived a
mile beyond Harry in another school district, but who was now beginning high
school in Smyrna. Although the two boys were not peers chronologically, they had
much in common socially and intellectually. Both were retarded socially but ad-
vanced intellectually; both later became psychiatrists and neither ever married. The
relationship between Harry and Clarence had a transforming effect on Sullivan’s life.
It awakened in him the power of intimacy, that is, the ability to love another who was
more or less like himself. In Sullivan’s mature theory of personality, he placed heavy
emphasis on the therapeutic, almost magical power of an intimate relationship dur-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories214

ing the preadolescent years. This belief, along with many other Sullivanian hypothe-
ses, seems to have grown out of his own childhood experiences.

Sullivan was interested in books and science, not in farming. Although he was
an only child growing up on a farm that required much hard work, Harry was able
to escape many of the chores by absentmindedly “forgetting” to do them. This ruse
was successful because his indulgent mother completed them for him and allowed
Sullivan to receive credit.

A bright student, Sullivan graduated from high school as valedictorian at age
16. He then entered Cornell University intending to become a physicist, although he
also had an interest in psychiatry. His academic performance at Cornell was a disas-
ter, however, and he was suspended after 1 year. The suspension may not have been
solely for academic deficiencies. He got into trouble with the law at Cornell, possi-
bly for mail fraud. He was probably a dupe of older, more mature students who used
him to pick up some chemicals illegally ordered through the mail. In any event, for
the next 2 years Sullivan mysteriously disappeared from the scene. Perry (1982) re-
ported he may have suffered a schizophrenic breakdown at this time and was con-
fined to a mental hospital. Alexander (1990), however, surmised that Sullivan spent
this time under the guidance of an older male model who helped him overcome his
sexual panic and who intensified his interest in psychiatry. Whatever the answer to
Sullivan’s mysterious disappearance from 1909 to 1911, his experiences seemed to
have matured him academically and possibly sexually.

In 1911, with only one very unsuccessful year of undergraduate work, Sulli-
van enrolled in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery, where his grades,
though only mediocre, were a great improvement over those he earned at Cornell. He
finished his medical studies in 1915 but did not receive his degree until 1917. Sulli-
van claimed that the delay was because he had not yet paid his tuition in full, but
Perry (1982) found evidence that he had not completed all his academic require-
ments by 1915 and needed, among other requirements, an internship. How was Sul-
livan able to obtain a medical degree if he lacked all the requirements? None of Sul-
livan’s biographers has a satisfactory answer to this question. Alexander (1990)
hypothesized that Sullivan, who had accumulated nearly a year of medically related
employment, used his considerable persuasive abilities to convince authorities at
Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery to accept that experience in lieu of an in-
ternship. Any other deficiency may have been waived if Sullivan agreed to enlist in
the military. (The United States had recently entered World War I and was in need of
medical officers.)

After the war Sullivan continued to serve as a military officer, first for the Fed-
eral Board for Vocational Education and then for the Public Health Service. How-
ever, this period in his life was still confusing and unstable, and he showed little
promise of the brilliant career that lay just ahead (Perry, 1982).

In 1921, with no formal training in psychiatry, he went to St. Elizabeth
Hospital in Washington, DC, where he became closely acquainted with William
Alanson White, one of America’s best-known neuropsychiatrists. At St. Elizabeth,
Sullivan had his first opportunity to work with large numbers of schizophrenic pa-
tients. While in Washington, he began an association with the Medical School of the
University of Maryland and with the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson,
Maryland. During this Baltimore period of his life, he conducted intensive studies of

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 215

schizophrenia, which led to his first hunches about the importance of interpersonal
relationships. In trying to make sense out of the speech of schizophrenic patients,
Sullivan concluded that their illness was a means of coping with the anxiety gener-
ated from social and interpersonal environments. His experiences as a practicing cli-
nician gradually transformed themselves into the beginnings of an interpersonal the-
ory of psychiatry.

Sullivan spent much of his time and energy at Sheppard selecting and training
hospital attendants. Although he did little therapy himself, he developed a system in
which nonprofessional but sympathetic male attendants treated schizophrenic pa-
tients with human respect and care. This innovative program gained him a reputation
as a clinical wizard. However, he became disenchanted with the political climate at
Sheppard when he was passed over for a position as head of the new reception cen-
ter that he had advocated. In March of 1930, he resigned from Sheppard.

Later that year, he moved to New York City and opened a private practice, hop-
ing to enlarge his understanding of interpersonal relations by investigating non-
schizophrenic disorders, especially those of an obsessive nature (Perry, 1982). Times
were hard, however, and his expected wealthy clientele did not come in the numbers
he needed to maintain his expenses.

On a more positive note, his residence in New York brought him into contact
with several psychiatrists and social scientists with a European background. Among
these were Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann who, along
with Sullivan, Clara Thompson, and others, formed the Zodiac group, an informal
organization that met regularly over drinks to discuss old and new ideas in psychia-
try and the related social sciences. Sullivan, who had met Thompson earlier, per-
suaded her to travel to Europe to take a training analysis under Sandor Ferenczi, a
disciple of Freud. Sullivan learned from all members of the Zodiac group, and
through Thompson, and Ferenczi, his therapeutic technique was indirectly influenced
by Freud. Sullivan also credited two other outstanding practitioners, Adolf Meyer
and William Alanson White, as having had an impact on his practice of therapy. De-
spite some Freudian influence on his therapeutic technique, Sullivan’s theory of in-
terpersonal psychiatry is neither psychoanalytic nor neo-Freudian.

During his residence in New York, Sullivan also came under the influence of
several noted social scientists from the University of Chicago, which was the center
of American sociological study during the 1920s and 1930s. Included among them
were social psychologist George Herbert Mead, sociologists Robert Ezra Park and
W. I. Thomas, anthropologist Edward Sapir, and political scientist Harold Lasswell.
Sullivan, Sapir, and Lasswell were primarily responsible for establishing the William
Alanson White Psychiatric Foundation in Washington, DC, for the purpose of join-
ing psychiatry to the other social sciences. Sullivan served as the first president of
the foundation and also as editor of the foundation’s journal, Psychiatry. Under Sul-
livan’s guidance, the foundation began a training institution known as the Washing-
ton School of Psychiatry. Because of these activities, Sullivan gave up his New York
practice, which was not very lucrative anyway, and moved back to Washington, DC,
where he remained closely associated with the school and the journal.

In January 1949, Sullivan attended a meeting of the World Federation for Men-
tal Health in Amsterdam. While on his way home, January 14, 1949, he died of a
cerebral hemorrhage in a Paris hotel room, a few weeks short of his 57th birthday.
Not uncharacteristically, he was alone at the time.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories216

On the personal side, Sullivan was not comfortable with his sexuality and had
ambivalent feelings toward marriage (Perry, 1982). As an adult, he brought into his
home a 15-year-old boy who was probably a former patient (Alexander, 1990). This
young man—James Inscoe—remained with Sullivan for 22 years, looking after his
financial affairs, typing manuscripts, and generally running the household. Although
Sullivan never officially adopted Jimmie, he regarded him as a son and even had his
legal name changed to James I. Sullivan.

Beyond Biography Was Sullivan a homosexual? For
information on Sullivan’s sexual orientation, see our website at
www.mhhe.com/feist7

Sullivan also had ambivalent attitudes toward his religion. Born to Catholic
parents who attended church only irregularly, he abandoned Catholicism early on. In
later life, his friends and acquaintances regarded him as nonreligious or even anti-
Catholic, but to their surprise, Sullivan had written into his will a request to receive
a Catholic burial. Incidentally, this request was granted despite the fact that Sulli-
van’s body had been cremated in Paris. His ashes were returned to the United States,
where they were placed inside a coffin and received a full Catholic burial, complete
with a requiem mass.

Sullivan’s chief contribution to personality theory is his conception of devel-
opmental stages. Before turning to Sullivan’s ideas on the stages of development, we
will explain some of his unique terminology.

Tensions
Like Freud and Jung, Sullivan (1953b) saw personality as an energy system. Energy
can exist either as tension (potentiality for action) or as actions themselves (energy
transformations). Energy transformations transform tensions into either covert or
overt behaviors and are aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety. Tension is a
potentiality for action that may or may not be experienced in awareness. Thus, not
all tensions are consciously felt. Many tensions, such as anxiety, premonitions,
drowsiness, hunger, and sexual excitement, are felt but not always on a conscious
level. In fact, probably all felt tensions are at least partial distortions of reality.
Sullivan recognized two types of tensions: needs and anxiety. Needs usually re-
sult in productive actions, whereas anxiety leads to nonproductive or disintegrative
behaviors.

Needs
Needs are tensions brought on by biological imbalance between a person and the
physiochemical environment, both inside and outside the organism. Needs are
episodic—once they are satisfied, they temporarily lose their power, but after a time,
they are likely to recur. Although needs originally have a biological component,
many of them stem from the interpersonal situation. The most basic interpersonal
need is tenderness. An infant develops a need to receive tenderness from its primary
caretaker (called by Sullivan “the mothering one”). Unlike some needs, tenderness
requires actions from at least two people. For example, an infant’s need to receive

WWW

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 217

tenderness may be expressed as a cry, smile, or coo, whereas the mother’s need to
give tenderness may be transformed into touching, fondling, or holding. In this ex-
ample, the need for tenderness is satisfied through the use of the infant’s mouth and
the mother’s hands.

Tenderness is a general need because it is concerned with the overall well-
being of a person. General needs, which also include oxygen, food, and water, are
opposed to zonal needs, which arise from a particular area of the body. Several areas
of the body are instrumental in satisfying both general and zonal needs. For exam-
ple, the mouth satisfies general needs by taking in food and oxygen, but it also sat-
isfies the zonal need for oral activity. Also, the hands may be used to help satisfy the
general need of tenderness, but they can likewise be used to satisfy the zonal need
for manual activity. Similarly, other body zones, such as the anus and the genitals,
can be used to satisfy both kinds of needs.

Very early in life, the various zones of the body begin to play a significant and
lasting role in interpersonal relations. While satisfying general needs for food, water,
and so forth, an infant expends more energy than necessary, and the excess energy
is transformed into consistent characteristic modes of behavior, which Sullivan
called dynamisms.

Anxiety
A second type of tension, anxiety, differs from tensions of needs in that it is dis-
junctive, is more diffuse and vague, and calls forth no consistent actions for its re-
lief. If infants lack food (a need), their course of action is clear; but if they are anx-
ious, they can do little to escape from that anxiety.

How does anxiety originate? Sullivan (1953b) postulated that it is transferred
from the parent to the infant through the process of empathy. Anxiety in the moth-
ering one inevitably induces anxiety in the infant. Because all mothers have some
amount of anxiety while caring for their babies, all infants will become anxious to
some degree.

Just as the infant does not have the capacity to reduce anxiety, the parent has
no effective means of dealing with the baby’s anxiety. Any signs of anxiety or inse-
curity by the infant are likely to lead to attempts by the parent to satisfy the infant’s
needs. For example, a mother may feed her anxious, crying baby because she mis-
takes anxiety for hunger. If the baby hesitates in accepting the milk, the mother may
become more anxious herself, which generates additional anxiety within the infant.
Finally, the baby’s anxiety reaches a level at which it interferes with sucking and
swallowing. Anxiety, then, operates in opposition to tensions of needs and prevents
them from being satisfied.

Anxiety has a deleterious effect on adults too. It is the chief disruptive force
blocking the development of healthy interpersonal relations. Sullivan (1953b)
likened severe anxiety to a blow on the head. It makes people incapable of learning,
impairs memory, narrows perception, and may result in complete amnesia. It is
unique among the tensions in that it maintains the status quo even to people’s over-
all detriment. Whereas other tensions result in actions directed specifically toward
their relief, anxiety produces behaviors that (1) prevent people from learning from
their mistakes, (2) keep people pursuing a childish wish for security, and (3) gener-
ally ensure that people will not learn from their experiences.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories218

Sullivan insisted that anxiety and loneliness are unique among all experiences
in that they are totally unwanted and undesirable. Because anxiety is painful, people
have a natural tendency to avoid it, inherently preferring the state of euphoria, or
complete lack of tension. Sullivan (1954) summarized this concept by stating simply
that “the presence of anxiety is much worse than its absence” (p. 100).

Sullivan distinguished anxiety from fear in several important ways. First, anx-
iety usually stems from complex interpersonal situations and is only vaguely repre-
sented in awareness; fear is more clearly discerned and its origins more easily pin-
pointed. Second, anxiety has no positive value. Only when transformed into another
tension (anger or fear, for example) can it lead to profitable actions. Third, anxiety
blocks the satisfaction of needs, whereas fear sometimes helps people satisfy certain
needs. This opposition to the satisfaction of needs is expressed in words that can be
considered Sullivan’s definition of anxiety: “Anxiety is a tension in opposition to the
tensions of needs and to action appropriate to their relief ” (Sullivan, 1953b, p. 44).

Energy Transformations
Tensions that are transformed into actions, either overt or covert, are called energy
transformations. This somewhat awkward term simply refers to our behaviors that
are aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety—the two great tensions. Not all
energy transformations are obvious, overt actions; many take the form of emotions,
thoughts, or covert behaviors that can be hidden from other people.

Dynamisms
Energy transformations become organized as typical behavior patterns that charac-
terize a person throughout a lifetime. Sullivan (1953b) called these behavior patterns
dynamisms, a term that means about the same as traits or habit patterns. Dynamisms
are of two major classes: first, those related to specific zones of the body, including
the mouth, anus, and genitals; and second, those related to tensions. This second
class is composed of three categories—the disjunctive, the isolating, and the con-
junctive. Disjunctive dynamisms include those destructive patterns of behavior that
are related to the concept of malevolence; isolating dynamisms include those be-
havior patterns (such as lust) that are unrelated to interpersonal relations; and con-
junctive dynamisms include beneficial behavior patterns, such as intimacy and the
self-system.

Malevolence
Malevolence is the disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred, characterized by
the feeling of living among one’s enemies (Sullivan, 1953b). It originates around
age 2 or 3 years when children’s actions that earlier had brought about maternal ten-
derness are rebuffed, ignored, or met with anxiety and pain. When parents attempt to
control their children’s behavior by physical pain or reproving remarks, some chil-
dren will learn to withhold any expression of the need for tenderness and to protect
themselves by adopting the malevolent attitude. Parents and peers then find it more
and more difficult to react with tenderness, which in turn solidifies the child’s nega-
tive attitude toward the world. Malevolent actions often take the form of timidity,

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 219

mischievousness, cruelty, or other kinds of asocial or antisocial behavior. Sullivan
expressed the malevolent attitude with this colorful statement: “Once upon a time
everything was lovely, but that was before I had to deal with people” (p. 216).

Intimacy
Intimacy grows out of the earlier need for tenderness but is more specific and in-
volves a close interpersonal relationship between two people who are more or less
of equal status. Intimacy must not be confused with sexual interest. In fact, it devel-
ops prior to puberty, ideally during preadolescence when it usually exists between
two children, each of whom sees the other as a person of equal value. Because inti-
macy is a dynamism that requires an equal partnership, it does not usually exist in
parent-child relationships unless both are adults and see one another as equals.

Intimacy is an integrating dynamism that tends to draw out loving reactions
from the other person, thereby decreasing anxiety and loneliness, two extremely
painful experiences. Because intimacy helps us avoid anxiety and loneliness, it is a
rewarding experience that most healthy people desire (Sullivan, 1953b).

Lust
On the other hand, lust is an isolating tendency, requiring no other person for its sat-
isfaction. It manifests itself as autoerotic behavior even when another person is the
object of one’s lust. Lust is an especially powerful dynamism during adolescence, at

Part II Psychodynamic Theories220

Significant intimate relationships prior to puberty are usually boy-boy or girl-girl friendships, according
to Sullivan.

which time it often leads to a reduction of self-esteem. Attempts at lustful activity
are often rebuffed by others, which increases anxiety and decreases feelings of self-
worth. In addition, lust often hinders an intimate relationship, especially during early
adolescence when it is easily confused with sexual attraction.

Self-System
The most complex and inclusive of all the dynamisms is the self-system, a consis-
tent pattern of behaviors that maintains people’s interpersonal security by protecting
them from anxiety. Like intimacy, the self-system is a conjunctive dynamism that
arises out of the interpersonal situation. However, it develops earlier than intimacy,
at about age 12 to 18 months. As children develop intelligence and foresight, they
become able to learn which behaviors are related to an increase or decrease in anxi-
ety. This ability to detect slight increases or decreases in anxiety provides the self-
system with a built-in warning device.

The warning, however, is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it serves as a signal,
alerting people to increasing anxiety and giving them an opportunity to protect
themselves. On the other, this desire for protection against anxiety makes the self-
system resistant to change and prevents people from profiting from anxiety-filled ex-
periences. Because the primary task of the self-system is to protect people against
anxiety, it is “the principal stumbling block to favorable changes in personality”
(Sullivan, 1953b, p. 169). Sullivan (1964), however, believed that personality is not
static and is especially open to change at the beginning of the various stages of de-
velopment.

As the self-system develops, people begin to form a consistent image of them-
selves. Thereafter, any interpersonal experiences that they perceive as contrary to
their self-regard threatens their security. As a consequence, people attempt to defend
themselves against interpersonal tensions by means of security operations, the pur-
pose of which is to reduce feelings of insecurity or anxiety that result from endan-
gered self-esteem. People tend to deny or distort interpersonal experiences that con-
flict with their self-regard. For example, when people who think highly of themselves
are called incompetent, they may choose to believe that the name-caller is stupid or,
perhaps, merely joking. Sullivan (1953b) called security operations “a powerful
brake on personal and human progress” (p. 374).

Two important security operations are dissociation and selective inattention.
Dissociation includes those impulses, desires, and needs that a person refuses to
allow into awareness. Some infantile experiences become dissociated when a baby’s
behavior is neither rewarded nor punished, so those experiences simply do not be-
come part of the self-system. Adult experiences that are too foreign to one’s stan-
dards of conduct can also become dissociated. These experiences do not cease to
exist but continue to influence personality on an unconscious level. Dissociated im-
ages manifest themselves in dreams, daydreams, and other unintentional activities
outside of awareness and are directed toward maintaining interpersonal security
(Sullivan, 1953b).

The control of focal awareness, called selective inattention, is a refusal to see
those things that we do not wish to see. It differs from dissociation in both degree
and origin. Selectively inattended experiences are more accessible to awareness and

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 221

more limited in scope. They originate after we establish a self-system and are trig-
gered by our attempts to block out experiences that are not consistent with our ex-
isting self-system. For example, people who regard themselves as scrupulously law-
abiding drivers may “forget” about the many occasions when they exceeded the
speed limit or the times when they failed to stop completely at a stop sign. Like dis-
sociated experiences, selectively inattended perceptions remain active even though
they are not fully conscious. They are crucial in determining which elements of an
experience will be attended and which will be ignored or denied (Sullivan, 1953b).

Personifications
Beginning in infancy and continuing throughout the various developmental stages,
people acquire certain images of themselves and others. These images, called per-
sonifications, may be relatively accurate, or because they are colored by people’s
needs and anxieties, they may be grossly distorted. Sullivan (1953b) described three
basic personifications that develop during infancy—the bad-mother, the good-
mother, and the me. In addition, some children acquire an eidetic personification
(imaginary playmate) during childhood.

Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
Sullivan’s notion of the bad-mother and good-mother is similar to Klein’s concept of
the bad breast and good breast. The bad-mother personification, in fact, grows out
of the infant’s experiences with the bad-nipple: that is, the nipple that does not sat-
isfy hunger needs. Whether the nipple belongs to the mother or to a bottle held by
the mother, the father, a nurse, or anyone else is not important. The bad-mother per-
sonification is almost completely undifferentiated, inasmuch as it includes everyone
involved in the nursing situation. It is not an accurate image of the “real” mother but
merely the infant’s vague representation of not being properly fed.

After the bad-mother personification is formed, an infant will acquire a good-
mother personification based on the tender and cooperative behaviors of the moth-
ering one. These two personifications, one based on the infant’s perception of an anx-
ious, malevolent mother and the other based on a calm, tender mother, combine to
form a complex personification composed of contrasting qualities projected onto the
same person. Until the infant develops language, however, these two opposing im-
ages of mother can easily coexist (Sullivan, 1953b).

Me Personifications
During midinfancy a child acquires three me personifications (bad-me, good-me,
and not-me) that form the building blocks of the self personification. Each is related
to the evolving conception of me or my body. The bad-me personification is fash-
ioned from experiences of punishment and disapproval that infants receive from their
mothering one. The resulting anxiety is strong enough to teach infants that they are
bad, but it is not so severe as to cause the experience to be dissociated or selectively
inattended. Like all personifications, the bad-me is shaped out of the interpersonal

Part II Psychodynamic Theories222

situation; that is, infants can learn that they are bad only from someone else, ordi-
narily the bad-mother.

The good-me personification results from infants’ experiences with reward and
approval. Infants feel good about themselves when they perceive their mother’s ex-
pressions of tenderness. Such experiences diminish anxiety and foster the good-me
personification. Sudden severe anxiety, however, may cause an infant to form the
not-me personification and to either dissociate or selectively inattend experiences re-
lated to that anxiety. An infant denies these experiences to the me image so that they
become part of the not-me personification. These shadowy not-me personifications
are also encountered by adults and are expressed in dreams, schizophrenic episodes,
and other dissociated reactions. Sullivan believed that these nightmarish experiences
are always preceded by a warning. When adults are struck by sudden severe anxiety,
they are overcome by uncanny emotion. Although this experience incapacitates peo-
ple in their interpersonal relationships, it serves as a valuable signal for approaching
schizophrenic reactions. Uncanny emotion may be experienced in dreams or may
take the form of awe, horror, loathing, or a “chilly crawling” sensation (Sullivan,
1953b).

Eidetic Personifications
Not all interpersonal relations are with real people; some are eidetic personifica-
tions: that is, unrealistic traits or imaginary friends that many children invent in
order to protect their self-esteem. Sullivan (1964) believed that these imaginary
friends may be as significant to a child’s development as real playmates.

Eidetic personifications, however, are not limited to children; most adults see
fictitious traits in other people. Eidetic personifications can create conflict in inter-
personal relations when people project onto others imaginary traits that are remnants
from previous relationships. They also hinder communication and prevent people
from functioning on the same level of cognition.

Levels of Cognition
Sullivan divided cognition into three levels or modes of experience: prototaxic,
parataxic, and syntaxic. Levels of cognition refer to ways of perceiving, imagining,
and conceiving. Experiences on the prototaxic level are impossible to communicate;
parataxic experiences are personal, prelogical, and communicated only in distorted
form; and syntaxic cognition is meaningful interpersonal communication.

Prototaxic Level
The earliest and most primitive experiences of an infant take place on a prototaxic
level. Because these experiences cannot be communicated to others, they are diffi-
cult to describe or define. One way to understand the term is to imagine the earliest
subjective experiences of a newborn baby. These experiences must, in some way, re-
late to different zones of the body. A neonate feels hunger and pain, and these pro-
totaxic experiences result in observable action, for example, sucking or crying. The
infant does not know the reason for the actions and sees no relationship between

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 223

these actions and being fed. As undifferentiated experiences, prototaxic events are
beyond conscious recall.

In adults, prototaxic experiences take the form of momentary sensations, im-
ages, feelings, moods, and impressions. These primitive images of dream and wak-
ing life are dimly perceived or completely unconscious. Although people are inca-
pable of communicating these images to others, they can sometimes tell another
person that they have just had a strange sensation, one that they cannot put into
words.

Parataxic Level
Parataxic experiences are prelogical and usually result when a person assumes a
cause-and-effect relationship between two events that occur coincidentally. Parataxic
cognitions are more clearly differentiated than prototaxic experiences, but their
meaning remains private. Therefore, they can be communicated to others only in a
distorted fashion.

An example of parataxic thinking takes place when a child is conditioned to
say “please” in order to receive candy. If “candy and “please” occur together a num-
ber of times, the child may eventually reach the illogical conclusion that her suppli-
cations caused the candy’s appearance. This conclusion is a parataxic distortion, or
an illogical belief that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between two events in
close temporal proximity. However, uttering the word “please” does not, by itself,
cause the candy to appear. A dispensing person must be present who hears the word
and is able and willing to honor the request. When no such person is present, a child
may ask God or imaginary people to grant favors. A good bit of adult behavior
comes from similar parataxic thinking.

Syntaxic Level
Experiences that are consensually validated and that can be symbolically communi-
cated take place on a syntaxic level. Consensually validated experiences are those
on whose meaning two or more persons agree. Words, for example, are consensually
validated because different people more or less agree on their meaning. The most
common symbols used by one person to communicate with another are those of lan-
guage, including words and gestures.

Sullivan hypothesized that the first instance of syntaxic cognition appears
whenever a sound or gesture begins to have the same meaning for parents as it does
for a child. The syntaxic level of cognition becomes more prevalent as the child be-
gins to develop formal language, but it never completely supplants prototaxic and
parataxic cognition. Adult experience takes place on all three levels.

In summary, Sullivan identified two kinds of experience—tensions and energy
transformations. Tensions, or potentiality for action, include needs and anxiety.
Whereas needs are helpful or conjunctive when satisfied, anxiety is always disjunc-
tive, interfering with the satisfaction of needs and disrupting interpersonal relations.
Energy transformations literally involve the transformation of potential energy into
actual energy (behavior) for the purpose of satisfying needs or reducing anxiety.
Some of these behaviors form consistent patterns of behavior called dynamisms. Sul-
livan also recognized three levels of cognition—prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic.
Table 8.1 summarizes Sullivan’s concept of personality.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories224

Stages of Development
Sullivan (1953b) postulated seven epochs or stages of development, each crucial to
the formation of human personality. The thread of interpersonal relations runs
throughout the stages; other people are indispensable to a person’s development from
infancy to mature adulthood.

Personality change can take place at any time, but it is most likely to occur dur-
ing the transition from one stage to the next. In fact, these threshold periods are more
crucial than the stages themselves. Experiences previously dissociated or selectively
inattended may enter into the self-system during one of the transitional periods.
Sullivan hypothesized that, “as one passes over one of these more-or-less deter-
minable thresholds of a developmental era, everything that has gone before becomes

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 225

T A B L E 8 . 1

Summary of Sullivan’s Theory of Personality

I. Tensions (potential for action)
A. Needs (conjunctive; they help integrate personality)

1. General needs (facilitate the overall well-being of a person)
a. Interpersonal (tenderness, intimacy, and love)
b. Physiological (food, oxygen, water, and so forth)

2. Zonal needs (may also satisfy general needs)
a. Oral
b. Genital
c. Manual

B. Anxiety (disjunctive; it interferes with the satisfaction of needs)

II. Energy Transformations (overt or covert actions designed to satisfy needs or to
reduce anxiety. Some energy transformations become relatively consistent
patterns of behavior called dynamisms)

III. Dynamisms (traits or behavioral patterns)

A. Malevolence (a feeling of living in enemy country)

B. Intimacy (an integrating experience marked by a close personal relationship
with another person who is more or less of equal status)

C. Lust (an isolating dynamism characterized by an impersonal sexual interest in
another person)

IV. Levels of Cognitions (ways of perceiving, imagining, and conceiving)

A. Prototaxic (undifferentiated experiences that are completely personal)

B. Parataxic (prelogical experiences that are communicated to others only in a
distorted fashion)

C. Syntaxic (consensually validated experiences that can be accurately
communicated to others)

reasonably open to influence” (p. 227). His seven stages are infancy, childhood, the
juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood.

Infancy
Infancy begins at birth and continues until a child develops articulate or syntaxic
speech, usually at about age 18 to 24 months. Sullivan believed that an infant be-
comes human through tenderness received from the mothering one. The satisfaction
of nearly every human need demands the cooperation of another person. Infants can-
not survive without a mothering one to provide food, shelter, moderate temperature,
physical contact, and the cleansing of waste materials.

The emphatic linkage between mother and infant leads inexorably to the de-
velopment of anxiety for the baby. Being human, the mother enters the relationship
with some degree of previously learned anxiety. Her anxiety may spring from any
one of a variety of experiences, but the infant’s first anxiety is always associated with
the nursing situation and the oral zone. Unlike that of the mother, the infant’s reper-
toire of behaviors is not adequate to handle anxiety. So, whenever infants feel anx-
ious (a condition originally transmitted to it by the mother), they try whatever means
available to reduce anxiety. These attempts typically include rejecting the nipple, but
this neither reduces anxiety nor satisfies the need for food. An infant’s rejection of
the nipple, of course, is not responsible for the mother’s original anxiety but now
adds to it. Eventually the infant discriminates between the good-nipple and the bad-
nipple: the former being associated with relative euphoria in the feeding process; the
latter, with enduring anxiety (Sullivan, 1953b).

An infant expresses both anxiety and hunger through crying. The mothering
one may mistake anxiety for hunger and force the nipple onto an anxious (but not
hungry) infant. The opposite situation may also take place when a mother, for what-
ever reason, fails to satisfy the baby’s needs. The baby then will experience rage,
which increases the mother’s anxiety and interferes with her ability to cooperate with
her baby. With mounting tension, the infant loses the capacity to receive satisfaction,
but the need for food, of course, continues to increase. Finally, as tension approaches
terror, the infant experiences difficulty with breathing. The baby may even stop
breathing and turn a bluish color, but the built-in protections of apathy and somno-
lent detachment keep the infant from death. Apathy and somnolent detachment
allow the infant to fall asleep despite the hunger (Sullivan, 1953b).

During the feeding process, the infant not only receives food but also satisfies
some tenderness needs. The tenderness received by the infant at this time demands
the cooperation of the mothering one and introduces the infant to the various strate-
gies required by the interpersonal situation. The mother-infant relationship, however,
is like a two-sided coin. The infant develops a dual personification of mother, seeing
her as both good and bad; the mother is good when she satisfies the baby’s needs and
bad when she stimulates anxiety.

Around midinfancy, infants begin to learn how to communicate through lan-
guage. In the beginning, their language is not consensually validated but takes place
on an individualized or parataxic level. This period of infancy is characterized by
autistic language, that is, private language that makes little or no sense to other peo-
ple. Early communication takes place in the form of facial expressions and the

Part II Psychodynamic Theories226

sounding of various phonemes. Both are learned through imitation, and eventually
gestures and speech sounds have the same meaning for the infant as they do for other
people. This communication marks the beginning of syntaxic language and the end
of infancy.

Childhood
The era of childhood begins with the advent of syntaxic language and continues until
the appearance of the need for playmates of an equal status. The age of childhood
varies from culture to culture and from individual to individual, but in Western
society it covers the period from about age 18 to 24 months until about age 5 or 6
years.

During this stage, the mother remains the most significant other person, but
her role is different from what it was in infancy. The dual personifications of mother
are now fused into one, and the child’s perception of the mother is more congruent
with the “real” mother. Nevertheless, the good-mother and bad-mother personifica-
tions are usually retained on a parataxic level. In addition to combining the mother
personifications, the child differentiates the various persons who previously formed
the concept of the mothering one, separating mother and father and seeing each as
having a distinct role.

At about the same time, children are fusing the me-personifications into a sin-
gle self-dynamism. Once they establish syntaxic language, they can no longer con-
sciously deal with the bad-me and good-me at the same time; now they label behav-
iors as good or bad in imitation of their parents. However, these labels differ from
the old personifications of infancy because they are symbolized on a syntaxic level
and originate from children’s behavior rather than from decreases or increases in
their anxiety. Also, good and bad now imply social or moral value and no longer
refer to the absence or presence of that painful tension called anxiety.

During childhood, emotions become reciprocal; a child is able to give tender-
ness as well as receive it. The relationship between mother and child becomes more
personal and less one-sided. Rather than seeing the mother as good or bad based on
how she satisfied hunger needs, the child evaluates the mother syntaxically accord-
ing to whether she shows reciprocal tender feelings, develops a relationship based on
the mutual satisfaction of needs, or exhibits a rejecting attitude.

Besides their parents, preschool-aged children often have one other significant
relationship—an imaginary playmate. This eidetic friend enables children to have a
safe, secure relationship that produces little anxiety. Parents sometimes observe their
preschool-aged children talking to an imaginary friend, calling the friend by name,
and possibly even insisting that an extra place be set at the table or space be made
available in the car or the bed for this playmate. Also, many adults can recall their
own childhood experiences with imaginary playmates. Sullivan insisted that having
an imaginary playmate is not a sign of instability or pathology but a positive event
that helps children become ready for intimacy with real friends during the preado-
lescence stage. These playmates offer children an opportunity to interact with an-
other “person” who is safe and who will not increase their level of anxiety. This com-
fortable, nonthreatening relationship with an imaginary playmate permits children to
be more independent of parents and to make friends in later years.

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 227

Sullivan (1953b) referred to childhood as a period of rapid acculturation. Be-
sides acquiring language, children learn cultural patterns of cleanliness, toilet train-
ing, eating habits, and sex-role expectancies. They also learn two other important
processes: dramatizations and preoccupations. Dramatizations are attempts to act
like or sound like significant authority figures, especially mother and father. Preoc-
cupations are strategies for avoiding anxiety and fear-provoking situations by re-
maining occupied with an activity that has earlier proved useful or rewarding.

The malevolent attitude reaches a peak during the preschool years, giving
some children an intense feeling of living in a hostile or enemy country. At the same
time, children learn that society has placed certain restraints on their freedom. From
these restrictions and from experiences with approval and disapprobation, children
evolve their self-dynamism, which helps them handle anxiety and stabilize their per-
sonality. In fact, the self-system introduces so much stability that it makes future
changes exceedingly difficult.

Juvenile Era
The juvenile era begins with the appearance of the need for peers or playmates of
equal status and ends when one finds a single chum to satisfy the need for intimacy.
In the United States, the juvenile stage is roughly parallel to the first 3 years of
school, beginning around age 5 or 6 and ending at about age 81/2. (It is interesting
that Sullivan was so specific with the age at which this period ends and the preado-
lescent stage begins. Remember that Sullivan was 81/2 when he began an intimate re-
lationship with a 13-year-old boy from a nearby farm.)

During the juvenile stage, Sullivan believed, a child should learn to compete,
compromise, and cooperate. The degree of competition found among children of this

Part II Psychodynamic Theories228

During the juvenile stage, children need to learn competition, cooperation, and compromise.

age varies with the culture, but Sullivan believed that people in the United States
have generally overemphasized competition. Many children believe that they must
be competitive to be successful. Compromise, too, can be overdone. A 7-year-old
child who learns to continually give in to others is handicapped in the socialization
process, and this yielding trait may continue to characterize the person in later life.
Cooperation includes all those processes necessary to get along with others. The
juvenile-age child must learn to cooperate with others in the real world of interper-
sonal relationships. Cooperation is a critical step in becoming socialized and is the
most important task confronting children during this stage of development.

During the juvenile era, children associate with other children who are of equal
standing. One-to-one relationships are rare, but if they exist, they are more likely to
be based on convenience than on genuine intimacy. Boys and girls play with one an-
other with little regard for the gender of the other person. Although permanent
dyadic (two-person) relationships are still in the future, children of this age are be-
ginning to make discriminations among themselves and to distinguish among adults.
They see one teacher as kinder than another, one parent as more indulgent. The real
world is coming more into focus, allowing them to operate increasingly on the syn-
taxic level.

By the end of the juvenile stage, a child should have developed an orientation
toward living that makes it easier to consistently handle anxiety, satisfy zonal and
tenderness needs, and set goals based on memory and foresight. This orientation to-
ward living readies a person for the deeper interpersonal relationships to follow (Sul-
livan, 1953b).

Preadolescence
Preadolescence, which begins at age 81/2 and ends with adolescence, is a time for in-
timacy with one particular person, usually a person of the same gender. All preced-
ing stages have been egocentric, with friendships being formed on the basis of self-
interest. A preadolescent, for the first time, takes a genuine interest in the other
person. Sullivan (1953a) called this process of becoming a social being the “quiet
miracle of preadolescence” (p. 41), a likely reference to the personality transforma-
tion he experienced during his own preadolescence.

The outstanding characteristic of preadolescence is the genesis of the capacity
to love. Previously, all interpersonal relationships were based on personal need sat-
isfaction, but during preadolescence, intimacy and love become the essence of
friendships. Intimacy involves a relationship in which the two partners consensually
validate one another’s personal worth. Love exists “when the satisfaction or the se-
curity of another person becomes as significant to one as is one’s own satisfaction or
security” (Sullivan, 1953a, pp. 42–43).

A preadolescent’s intimate relationship ordinarily involves another person of
the same gender and of approximately the same age or social status. Infatuations
with teachers or movie stars are not intimate relationships because they are not con-
sensually validated. The significant relationships of this age are typically boy-boy or
girl-girl chumships. To be liked by one’s peers is more important to the preadoles-
cent than to be liked by teachers or parents. Chums are able to freely express opin-
ions and emotions to one another without fear of humiliation or embarrassment. This

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 229

free exchange of personal thoughts and feelings initiates the preadolescent into the
world of intimacy. Each chum becomes more fully human, acquires an expanded
personality, and develops a wider interest in the humanity of all people.

Sullivan believed that preadolescence is the most untroubled and carefree time
of life. Parents are still significant, even though they have been reappraised in a more
realistic light. Preadolescents can experience unselfish love that has not yet been
complicated by lust. The cooperation they acquired during the juvenile era evolves
into collaboration or the capacity to work with another, not for self-prestige, but for
the well-being of that other.

Experiences during preadolescence are critical for the future development of
personality. If children do not learn intimacy at this time, they are likely to be seri-
ously stunted in later personality growth. However, earlier negative influences can be
extenuated by the positive effects of an intimate relationship. Even the malevolent
attitude can be reversed, and many other juvenile problems, such as loneliness and
self-centeredness, are diminished by the achievement of intimacy. In other words,
mistakes made during earlier stages of development can be overcome during pread-
olescence, but mistakes made during preadolescence are difficult to surmount dur-
ing later stages. The relatively brief and uncomplicated period of preadolescence is
shattered by the onset of puberty.

Early Adolescence
Early adolescence begins with puberty and ends with the need for sexual love with
one person. It is marked by the eruption of genital interest and the advent of lustful
relationships. In the United States, early adolescence is generally parallel with the
middle-school years. As with most other stages, however, Sullivan placed no great
emphasis on chronological age.

The need for intimacy achieved during the preceding stage continues during
early adolescence, but is now accompanied by a parallel but separate need—lust. In
addition, security, or the need to be free from anxiety, remains active during early
adolescence. Thus, intimacy, lust, and security often collide with one another, bring-
ing stress and conflict to the young adolescent in at least three ways. First, lust in-
terferes with security operations because genital activity in American culture is fre-
quently ingrained with anxiety, guilt, and embarrassment. Second, intimacy also can
threaten security, as when young adolescents seek intimate friendships with other-
gender adolescents. These attempts are fraught with self-doubt, uncertainty, and
ridicule from others, which may lead to loss of self-esteem and an increase in anxi-
ety. Third, intimacy and lust are frequently in conflict during early adolescence. Al-
though intimate friendships with peers of equal status are still important, powerful
genital tensions seek outlet without regard for the intimacy need. Therefore, young
adolescents may retain their intimate friendships from preadolescence while feeling
lust for people they neither like nor even know.

Because the lust dynamism is biological, it bursts forth at puberty regardless
of the individual’s interpersonal readiness for it. A boy with no previous experience
with intimacy may see girls as sex objects, while having no real interest in them. An
early adolescent girl may sexually tease boys but lack the ability to relate to them on
an intimate level.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories230

Sullivan (1953b) believed that early adolescence is a turning point in person-
ality development. The person either emerges from this stage in command of the in-
timacy and lust dynamisms or faces serious interpersonal difficulties during future
stages. Although sexual adjustment is important to personality development, Sulli-
van felt that the real issue lies in getting along with other people.

Late Adolescence
Late adolescence begins when young people are able to feel both lust and intimacy
toward the same person, and it ends in adulthood when they establish a lasting love
relationship. Late adolescence embraces that period of self-discovery when adoles-
cents are determining their preferences in genital behavior, usually during secondary
school years, or about ages 15 to 17 or 18.

The outstanding feature of late adolescence is the fusion of intimacy and lust.
The troubled attempts at self-exploration of early adolescence evolve into a stable
pattern of sexual activity in which the loved one is also the object of lustful interest.
People of the other gender are no longer desired solely as sex objects but as people
who are capable of being loved nonselfishly. Unlike the previous stage that was ush-
ered in by biological changes, late adolescence is completely determined by inter-
personal relations.

Successful late adolescence includes a growing syntaxic mode. At college or
in the workplace, late adolescents begin exchanging ideas with others and having
their opinions and beliefs either validated or repudiated. They learn from others how
to live in the adult world, but a successful journey through the earlier stages facili-
tates this adjustment. If previous developmental epochs were unsuccessful, young

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 231

The early adolescent’s search for intimacy can increase anxiety and threaten security.

people come to late ado-
lescence with no intimate
interpersonal relations,
inconsistent patterns of
sexual activity, and a
great need to maintain se-
curity operations. They
rely heavily on the
parataxic mode to avoid
anxiety and strive to pre-
serve self-esteem through
selective inattention, dis-
sociation, and neurotic
symptoms. They face seri-
ous problems in bridging
the gulf between society’s
expectations and their own
inability to form intimate
relations with persons of
the other gender. Believ-
ing that love is a universal
condition of young peo-
ple, they are often pres-
sured into “falling in love.”
However, only the mature
person has the capacity to
love; others merely go

through the motions of being “in love” in order to maintain security (Sullivan,
1953b).

Adulthood
The successful completion of late adolescence culminates in adulthood, a period
when people can establish a love relationship with at least one significant other per-
son. Writing of this love relationship, Sullivan (1953b) stated that “this really highly
developed intimacy with another is not the principal business of life, but is, perhaps,
the principal source of satisfaction in life” (p. 34).

Sullivan had little to say about this final stage because he believed that mature
adulthood was beyond the scope of interpersonal psychiatry; people who have
achieved the capacity to love are not in need of psychiatric counsel. His sketch of the
mature person, therefore, was not founded on clinical experience but was an extrap-
olation from the preceding stages.

Mature adults are perceptive of other people’s anxiety, needs, and security.
They operate predominantly on the syntaxic level, and find life interesting and ex-
citing (Sullivan, 1953b).

Table 8.2 summarizes the first six Sullivanian stages of development and
shows the importance of interpersonal relationships at each stage.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories232

During late adolescence, young people feel both lust and intimacy
toward one other person.

Psychological Disorders
Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and
can be understood only with reference to the patient’s social environment. He also
held that the deficiencies found in psychiatric patients are found in every person, but
to a lesser degree. There is nothing unique about psychological difficulties; they are
derived from the same kind of interpersonal troubles faced by all people. Sullivan
(1953a) insisted that “everyone is much more simply human than unique, and that
no matter what ails the patient, he is mostly a person like the psychiatrist” (p. 96).

Most of Sullivan’s early therapeutic work was with schizophrenic patients, and
many of his subsequent lectures and writings dealt with schizophrenia. Sullivan
(1962) distinguished two broad classes of schizophrenia. The first included all those
symptoms that originate from organic causes and are therefore beyond the study of
interpersonal psychiatry. The second class included all schizophrenic disorders

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 233

T A B L E 8 . 2

Summary of Sullivan’s Stages of Development

Infancy
Childhood

Juvenile era

Preadolescence

Early
adolescence

Late
adolescence

0 to 2

2 to 6

6 to 81/2

81/2 to 13

13 to 15

15 —

Mothering one

Parents

Playmates of
equal status

Single chum

Several chums

Lover

Tenderness

Protect security
through
imaginary
playmates

Orientation
toward living
in the world
of peers

Intimacy

Intimacy and
lust toward
different
persons

Fusion of
intimacy and
lust

Good mother/
bad mother;
good me/bad
me

Syntaxic
language

Competition,
compromise,
cooperation

Affection and
respect from
peers

Balance of
lust,
intimacy and
security
operations

Discovery of
self and the
world
outside of
self

Significant Interpersonal Important
Stage Age Others Process Learnings

grounded in situational factors. These disorders were the only ones of concern to
Sullivan because they are the only ones amenable to change through interpersonal
psychiatry.

Dissociated reactions, which often precede schizophrenia, are characterized by
loneliness, low self-esteem, the uncanny emotion, unsatisfactory relations with oth-
ers, and ever-increasing anxiety (Sullivan, 1953b). People with a dissociated per-
sonality, in common with all people, attempt to minimize anxiety by building an
elaborate self-system that blocks out those experiences that threaten their security.
Whereas normal individuals feel relatively secure in their interpersonal relations and
do not need to constantly rely on dissociation as a means of protecting self-esteem,
mentally disordered individuals dissociate many of their experiences from their self-
system. If this strategy becomes persistent, these people will begin to increasingly
operate in their own private worlds, with increasing parataxic distortions and de-
creasing consensually validated experiences (Sullivan, 1956).

Psychotherapy
Because he believed that psychic disorders grow out of interpersonal difficulties,
Sullivan based his therapeutic procedures on an effort to improve a patient’s rela-
tionship with others. To facilitate this process, the therapist serves as a participant
observer, becoming part of an interpersonal, face-to-face relationship with the pa-
tient and providing the patient an opportunity to establish syntaxic communication
with another human being.

While at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Sullivan devised a then radical means of treat-
ing seriously disturbed patients. His supervisors agreed to grant him a ward for his
own patients and to allow him to select and train paraprofessional workers who could
treat the patients as fellow human beings. At that time, most schizophrenic and other
psychotic patients were warehoused and regarded as subhuman. But Sullivan’s ex-
periment worked. A high rate of his patients got better. Erich Fromm (1994) re-
garded Sullivan’s near miraculous results as evidence that a psychosis is not merely
a physical disorder and that the personal relationship of one human being to another
is the essence of psychological growth.

In general terms, Sullivanian therapy is aimed at uncovering patients’ difficul-
ties in relating to others. To accomplish this goal, the therapist helps patients to give
up some security in dealing with other people and to realize that they can achieve
mental health only through consensually validated personal relations. The therapeu-
tic ingredient in this process is the face-to-face relationship between therapist and
patients, which permits patients to reduce anxiety and to communicate with others
on the syntaxic level.

Although they are participants in the interview, Sullivanian therapists avoid
getting personally involved. They do not place themselves on the same level with the
patient; on the contrary, they try to convince the patient of their expert abilities. In
other words, friendship is not a condition of psychotherapy—therapists must be
trained as experts in the difficult business of making discerning observations of the
patient’s interpersonal relations (Sullivan, 1954).

Sullivan was primarily concerned with understanding patients and helping
them improve foresight, discover difficulties in interpersonal relations, and restore

Part II Psychodynamic Theories234

their ability to participate in consensually validated experiences. To accomplish
these goals, he concentrated his efforts on answering three continuing questions:
Precisely what is the patient saying to me? How can I best put into words what I wish
to say to the patient? What is the general pattern of communication between us?

Related Research
Sullivan’s interpersonal theory of personality rests on the assumption that unhealthy
personality development results from interpersonal conflicts and difficulties. Begin-
ning around the age of 6, and especially by the age of 9, children’s relationships with
peers their own age become increasingly important for personality development.
Sullivan particularly emphasized the importance of same-sex friends and used the
term “chums” to describe this specific category of peers. In this section we review
some recent research on the dynamics of same-sex friendships in childhood and how
they can be simultaneously helpful and harmful for healthy development depending
on certain factors.

The Pros and Cons of “Chums” for Girls and Boys
Harry Stack Sullivan, like countless other psychologists, considered friends during
childhood and adolescence to be crucial to developing into a healthy adult. Friends
are a source of social support, and it is comforting to lean on them when times are
tough or when you’re having a bad day. Friends may be particularly important dur-
ing childhood because children do not have the same advanced coping mechanisms
that adults have and sometimes struggle to deal with issues like being rejected by a
peer. In situations like these it is important to have a friend, or a “chum” to use Sul-
livan’s language, to talk to. But recently, psychologists have begun investigating the
potentially harmful aspects of social support in childhood. It may seem counterintu-
itive to suggest that having friends can be a bad thing, but sometimes the dynamics
of a particular friendship can actually be damaging.

Rumination is one such dynamic that can have a negative impact on children’s
well-being. Ruminating is the act of dwelling on a negative event or negative aspects
of an otherwise neutral or even positive event and is generally considered to be
harmful as it is associated with an increase in depression. When rumination occurs
in the context of a friendship, it is called co-rumination, which is defined as exces-
sively discussing personal problems within a relationship (Rose, Carlson, & Waller,
2007). While generally speaking, Sullivan had it right when he emphasized the im-
portance of childhood friendships in his interpersonal theory of personality, one of
the most important attributes of science is to question previously held assumptions.

And this is exactly what Amanda Rose and her colleagues have begun doing
in their research on how, in some cases, friendships can be damaging. Specifically,
Rose and colleagues are interested in the negative impact of co-rumination in child-
hood friendships (Rose, 2002; Rose et al., 2007).

To investigate the existence of co-rumination in childhood relationships and
the impact of co-rumination on children’s well-being, Amanda Rose and colleagues
conducted a longitudinal study of children in elementary and middle school. The re-
searchers went into local schools and recruited almost 1,000 children in third, fifth,

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 235

seventh, and ninth grades to participate in the study. Toward the beginning of the
school year, all participants completed self-report measures of depression and anxi-
ety and also rated their friendships on overall quality and co-rumination. The items
for co-rumination within friendships consisted of statements like “When we talk
about a problem that one of us has, we usually talk about that problem every day
even if nothing new has happened” and “When we talk about a problem that one of
us has, we try to figure out everything about the problem, even if there are parts that
we may never understand” (Rose et al., 2007, p. 1022). As these sample items
demonstrate, co-rumination is not a constructive process by which a child works
through a problem with a friend. Rather, co-rumination involves dwelling on the neg-
ative even when there is no solution to be found and no good that can come of it.

The researchers returned to the schools toward the end of the school year and
once again had participants complete measures of depression, anxiety, and friend-
ship quality. Nearly all of the children reported that their closest friends were same-
sex (or “chums” as Sullivan would call them), so the researchers focused on these
friendships. Overall, co-rumination in same-sex friendships was related to increased
feelings of depression and anxiety but was also related to greater friendship quality
(Rose et al., 2007). In other words, although co-rumination did increase negative
feelings, it was not all negative because it was also a sign of a good friendship. This
makes sense because constantly dwelling on negative events will understandably
lead one to feel more depressed, but disclosing your feelings to friends can make you
feel closer to that person and generally improve the relationship.

The researchers were also interested in whether co-rumination functions dif-
ferently in boys and girls. Are girls more likely to engage in co-rumination than
boys? Is co-rumination better for girls than boys or vice versa? Before her study on
co-rumination, Rose and a colleague conducted a review of research on the friend-
ships of boys and girls (Rose & Rudolph, 2006). What they found was that boys and
girls engage in very different activities within their friendships on a daily basis. For
example, girls spend more time talking, and particularly engaging in self-disclosure,
whereas boys are more likely to engage in rough-and-tumble play together. Girls also
report placing a greater importance on their friendships than do boys. These findings
indicate that there are different dynamics within same-sex friendships for girls and
boys.

Returning to the longitudinal study of children and their same-sex friends,
Rose and colleagues looked for sex differences in the effects of co-rumination on de-
pression, anxiety, and overall friendship quality. What they found was quite interest-
ing because co-rumination was particularly bad for girls but not so bad for boys. For
girls, the overall effects previously described held up: Co-rumination was associated
with increased depression and anxiety but also with better friendships. For boys,
however, co-rumination was associated with better friendships but was not related
to increased depression or anxiety. These findings make clear that there are very dif-
ferent dynamics functioning in the same-sex friendships of boys and girls and that
the implications can be profound.

Many times when a parent, therapist, or school counselor evaluates whether or
not a child is at risk for depression or other psychological issues, they check to make
sure the child has a supportive friend group or “chums.” Amanda Rose’s research
shows that for boys, having a supportive friend may well be sufficient to ward off

Part II Psychodynamic Theories236

depression and anxiety. For girls, however, the research paints a different picture: If
girls are engaging in co-rumination with their friends, then no matter how supportive
those friends are and no matter how good the friendship is, girls are at increased risk
for developing depression.

Imaginary Friends
More than any other personality theorist, Sullivan recognized the importance of hav-
ing an imaginary friend, especially during the childhood stage. He believed that these
friendships can facilitate independence from parents and help children build real re-
lationships. In support of Sullivan’s notion, research has found that children do tend
to view imaginary friends as a source of nurturance (Gleason, 2002; Gleason &
Hohmann, 2006). Moreover, evidence supports Sullivan’s theory that children who
develop imaginary friends—in contrast to those who do not—are more creative,
imaginary, intelligent, friendly, and sociable (Fern, 1991; Gleason, 2002). Of course
it’s hard to get by on imaginary friends alone, but there is some evidence that sug-
gests imaginary friends are just as important as real friends, at least in the eyes of
children (Gleason & Hohmann, 2006).

To explore how children view imaginary friends in relation to their real
friends, Tracy Gleason and Lisa Hohmann (2006) conducted a study of preschool-
age children. The researchers had 84 children enrolled in preschool complete an ac-
tivity in which they listed who their friends were at preschool, described their imag-
inary friend if they had one, and rated each friend (including the imaginary ones) on
several dimensions. Specifically, the children rated how much they liked playing
with each friend, whether they told secrets to one another, how much they liked each
friend in general, and how good each friend made them feel about their own abili-
ties. Of course, because the participants in this study were young children, they
could not respond to a standard self-report measure. Instead, the questions were read
aloud to each child, and the questions were carefully worded to use language that
preschoolers could easily understand. Additionally, because children can get con-
fused easily, their responses had to be corroborated by their parents and preschool
teachers.

What Gleason and Hohmann (2006) found was generally supportive of
Sullivan’s notion that imaginary friends are important and help to model how real
friendships should work. Twenty-six percent of the preschoolers sampled reported
having an imaginary friend and that their imaginary friend was a source of real sup-
port and one of their highest rated sources of enjoyment (Gleason & Hohmann,
2006). The researchers were also able to compare children’s ratings of imaginary
friends with those of their real friends and found that imaginary friends very closely
modeled the enjoyment derived from reciprocal friendships but not that derived from
friendships that were essentially one-way. That is, relationships with imaginary
friends were enjoyable at about the same level as those friendships in which both
children described each other as friends (a reciprocal friendship), but not in which
one child says the other is a friend but the other one does not reciprocate (one-way
friendships).

In summary, research tends to support Sullivan’s assumptions that having an
imaginary playmate is a normal, healthy experience It is neither a sign of pathology

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 237

nor a result of feelings of loneliness and alienation from other children. Indeed,
imaginary friends not only may serve as a source of enjoyment but also may have the
more important purpose of modeling for children what a truly good, mutually enjoy-
able friendship should be so that they can avoid bad relationships as they grow and
mature into healthy adults.

Critique of Sullivan
Although Sullivan’s theory of personality is quite comprehensive, it is not as popular
among academic psychologists as the theories of Freud, Adler, Jung, or Erik Erikson
(see Chapter 9). However, the ultimate value of any theory does not rest on its pop-
ularity but on the six criteria enumerated in Chapter 1.

The first criterion of a useful theory is its ability to generate research. Cur-
rently, few researchers are actively investigating hypotheses specifically drawn from
Sullivan’s theory. One possible explanation for this deficiency is Sullivan’s lack of
popularity among researchers most apt to conduct research—the academicians. This
lack of popularity might be accounted for by Sullivan’s close association with psy-
chiatry, his isolation from any university setting, and the relative lack of organization
in his writings and speeches.

Second, a useful theory must be falsifiable; that is, it must be specific enough
to suggest research that may either support or fail to support its major assumptions.
On this criterion, Sullivan’s theory, like those of Freud, Jung, and Fromm, must re-
ceive a very low mark. Sullivan’s notion of the importance of interpersonal relations
for psychological health has received a moderate amount of indirect support. How-
ever, alternative explanations are possible for most of these findings.

Third, how well does Sullivanian theory provide an organization for all that is
known about human personality? Despite its many elaborate postulates, the theory can
receive only a moderate rating on its ability to organize knowledge. Moreover, the the-
ory’s extreme emphasis on interpersonal relations subtracts from its ability to organize
knowledge, because much of what is presently known about human behavior has a bi-
ological basis and does not easily fit into a theory restricted to interpersonal relations.

The relative lack of testing of Sullivan’s theory diminishes its usefulness as a
practical guide for parents, teachers, psychotherapists, and others concerned with
the care of children and adolescents. However, if one accepts the theory without sup-
porting evidence, then many practical problems can be managed by resorting to Sul-
livanian theory. As a guide to action, then, the theory receives a fair to moderate
rating.

Is the theory internally consistent? Sullivan’s ideas suffer from his inability to
write well, but the theory itself is logically conceptualized and holds together as a
unified entity. Although Sullivan used some unusual terms, he did so in a consistent
fashion throughout his writings and speeches. Overall, his theory is consistent, but
it lacks the organization he might have achieved if he had committed more of his
ideas to the printed page.

Finally, is the theory parsimonious, or simple? Here Sullivan must receive a
low rating. His penchant for creating his own terms and the awkwardness of his writ-
ing add needless bulk to a theory that, if streamlined, would be far more useful.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories238

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 239

Concept of Humanity
Sullivan’s basic conception of humanity is summed up in his one-genus hypothesis,
which states that “everyone is much more simply human than otherwise” (1953b,
p. 32). This hypothesis was his way of saying that similarities among people are
much more important than differences. People are more like people than anything
else.

In other words, the differences between any two instances of human personality—
from the lowest-grade imbecile to the highest-grade genius—are much less
striking than the difference between the least-gifted human being and a member of
the nearest other biological genus. (p. 33)

Sullivan’s ability to successfully treat schizophrenic patients undoubtedly was
greatly enhanced by his deeply held belief that they shared a common humanity
with the therapist. Having experienced at least one schizophrenic episode himself,
Sullivan was able to form an empathic bond with these patients through his role
as a participant observer.

The one influence separating humans from all other creatures is interpersonal
relations. People are born biological organisms—animals with no human qualities
except the potential for participation in interpersonal relations. Soon after birth,
they begin to realize their potential when interpersonal experiences transform them
into human beings. Sullivan believed that the mind contains nothing except what
was put there through interpersonal experiences. People are not motivated by in-
stincts but by those environmental influences that come through interpersonal re-
lationships.

Children begin life with a somewhat one-sided relationship with a mothering
one who both cares for their needs and increases their anxiety. Later, they become
able to reciprocate feelings for the mothering one, and this relationship between
child and parent serves as a foundation on which subsequent interpersonal rela-
tions are built. At about the time children enter the first grade at school, they are
exposed to competition, cooperation, and compromise with other children. If they
handle these tasks successfully, they obtain the tools necessary for intimacy and
love that come later. Through their intimate and love relationships, they become
healthy personalities. However, an absence of healthy interpersonal relationships
leads to stunted psychological growth.

Personal individuality is an illusion; people exist only in relation to other
people and have as many personalities as they have interpersonal relations. Thus,
the concepts of uniqueness and individuality are of little concern to Sullivan’s in-
terpersonal theory.

Anxiety and interpersonal relations are tied together in a cyclic manner,
which makes significant personality changes difficult. Anxiety interferes with in-
terpersonal relations, and unsatisfactory interpersonal relations lead to the use of
rigid behaviors that may temporarily buffer anxiety. But because these inflexible be-
haviors do not solve the basic problem, they eventually lead to higher levels of anx-
iety, which lead to further deterioration in interpersonal relations. The increasing

Part II Psychodynamic Theories240

anxiety must then be held in check by an ever-rigid self-system. For this rea-
son, we rate Sullivan’s theory as neither optimistic nor pessimistic concerning the
potential for growth and change. Interpersonal relations can transform a person
into either a healthy personality or one marked by anxiety and a rigid self-
structure.

Because Sullivan believed that personality is built solely on interpersonal re-
lations, we rate his theory very high on social influence. Interpersonal relations are
responsible for both positive and negative characteristics in people. Infants who
have their needs satisfied by the mothering one will not be greatly disturbed by
their mother’s anxiety, will receive genuine feelings of tenderness, can avoid being
a malevolent personality, and have the ability to develop tender feelings toward
others. However, unsatisfactory interpersonal relations may trigger malevolence and
leave some children with the feeling that people cannot be trusted and that they
are essentially alone among their enemies.

Key Terms and Concepts

• People develop their personality through interpersonal relationships.
• Experience takes place on three levels—prototaxic (primitive,

presymbolic), parataxic (not accurately communicated to others), and
syntaxic (accurate communication).

• Two aspects of experience are tensions (potential for action) and energy
transformations (actions or behaviors).

• Tensions are of two kinds—needs and anxiety.
• Needs are conjunctive in that they facilitate interpersonal development.
• Anxiety is disjunctive in that it interferes with the satisfaction of needs and

is the primary obstacle to establishing healthy interpersonal relationships.
• Energy transformations become organized into consistent traits or behavior

patterns called dynamisms.
• Typical dynamisms include malevolence (a feeling of living in enemy

country), intimacy (a close interpersonal relationship with a peer of equal
status, and lust (impersonal sexual desires).

• Sullivan’s chief contribution to personality was his concept of various
developmental stages.

• The first developmental stage is infancy (from birth to the development
of syntaxic language), a time when an infant’s primary interpersonal
relationship is with the mothering one.

• During childhood (from syntaxic language to the need for playmates of
equal status), the mother continues as the most important interpersonal
relationship, although children of this age often have an imaginary
playmate.

• The third stage is the juvenile era (from the need for playmates of equal
status to the development of intimacy), a time when children should learn

Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 241

competition, compromise, and cooperation—skills that will enable them to
move successfully through later stages of development.

• The most crucial stage of development is preadolescence (from intimacy
with a best friend to the beginning of puberty). Mistakes made during this
phase are difficult to overcome later.

• During early adolescence young people are motivated by both intimacy
(usually for someone of the same gender) and lust (ordinarily for a person
of the opposite gender).

• People reach late adolescence when they are able to direct their intimacy
and lust toward one other person.

• The successful completion of late adolescence culminates in adulthood, a
stage marked by a stable love relationship.

• With Sullivan’s psychotherapy, the therapist serves as a participant
observer and attempts to improve patients’ interpersonal relations.

Horney:
Psychoanalytic
Social Theory

B Overview of Psychoanalytic
Social Theory

B Biography of Karen

Horney

B Introduction to Psychoanalytic
Social Theory

Horney and Freud Compared

The Impact of Culture

The Importance of Childhood Experiences

B Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
B Compulsive Drives

Neurotic Needs

Neurotic Trends

Moving Toward People

Moving Against People

Moving Away From People

B Intrapsychic Conflicts
The Idealized Self-Image

The Neurotic Search for Glory

Neurotic Claims

Neurotic Pride

Self-Hatred

Horney

B Feminine Psychology
B Psychotherapy
B Related Research

The Neurotic Compulsion to Avoid the Negative

Can Neuroticism Ever Be a Good Thing?

B Critique of Horney
B Concept of Humanity
B

Key Terms and Concepts

162

C H A P T E R 6

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 163

Please Mark These “True” or “False” as They Apply to You.

1. T F It’s very important to me to please other people.

2. T F When I feel distressed, I seek out an emotionally strong person to
tell my troubles to.

3. T F I prefer routine more than change.
4. T F I enjoy being in a powerful leadership position.
5. T F I believe in and follow the advice: “Do unto others before they can

do unto me.”
6. T F I enjoy being the life of the party.
7. T F It’s very important to me to be recognized for my accomplishments.
8. T F I enjoy seeing the achievements of my friends.
9. T F I usually end relationships when they begin to get too close.

10. T F It’s very difficult for me to overlook my own mistakes and personal
flaws.

These questions represent 10 important needs proposed by Karen Horney. We
discuss these items in the section on neurotic needs. Please know that marking an
item in the direction of neurotic needs does not indicate that you are emotionally
unstable or driven by neurotic needs.

Overview of Psychoanalytic
Social Theory
The psychoanalytic social theory of Karen Horney (pronounced Horn-eye) was
built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood ex-
periences, are largely responsible for shaping personality. People who do not have
their needs for love and affection satisfied during childhood develop basic hostility
toward their parents and, as a consequence, suffer from basic anxiety. Horney theo-
rized that people combat basic anxiety by adopting one of three fundamental
styles of relating to others: (1) moving toward people, (2) moving against people, or
(3) moving away from people. Normal individuals may use any of these modes of re-
lating to other people, but neurotics are compelled to rigidly rely on only one. Their
compulsive behavior generates a basic intrapsychic conflict that may take the form
of either an idealized self-image or self-hatred. The idealized self-image is expressed
as (1) neurotic search for glory, (2) neurotic claims, or (3) neurotic pride. Self-
hatred is expressed as either self-contempt or alienation from self.

Although Horney’s writings are concerned mostly with the neurotic personal-
ity, many of her ideas can also be applied to normal individuals. This chapter
looks at Horney’s basic theory of neurosis, compares her ideas to those of Freud,
examines her views on feminine psychology, and briefly discusses her ideas on
psychotherapy.

As with other personality theorists, Horney’s views on personality are a re-
flection of her life experiences. Bernard Paris (1994) wrote that “Horney’s insights
were derived from her efforts to relieve her own pain, as well as that of her patients.
If her suffering had been less intense, her insights would have been less profound”
(p. xxv). We look now at the life of this often-troubled woman.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories164

Biography of Karen Horney
The biography of Karen Horney has several parallels with the life of Melanie Klein
(see Chapter 5). Each was born during the 1880s, the youngest child of a 50-year-
old father and his second wife. Each had older siblings who were favored by the par-
ents, and each felt unwanted and unloved. Also, each had wanted to become a physi-
cian, but only Horney fulfilled that ambition. Finally, both Horney and Klein
engaged in an extended self-analysis—Horney’s, beginning with her diaries from age
13 to 26, continuing with her analysis by Karl Abraham, and culminating with her
book Self-Analysis (Quinn, 1987).

Karen Danielsen Horney was born in Eilbek, a small town near Hamburg,
Germany, on September 15, 1885. She was the only daughter of Berndt (Wackels)
Danielsen, a sea captain, and Clothilda van Ronzelen Danielsen, a woman nearly 18
years younger than her husband. The only other child of this marriage was a son,
about 4 years older than Karen. However, the old sea captain had been married ear-
lier and had four other children, most of whom were adults by the time Horney was
born. The Danielsen family was an unhappy one, in part because Karen’s older half-
siblings turned their father against his second wife. Karen felt great hostility toward
her stern, devoutly religious father and regarded him as a religious hypocrite. How-
ever, she idolized her mother, who both supported and protected her against the stern
old sea captain. Nevertheless, Karen was not a happy child. She resented the favored
treatment given to her older brother, and in addition, she worried about the bitterness
and discord between her parents.

When she was 13, Horney decided to become a physician, but at that time no
university in Germany admitted women. By the time she was 16, this situation had
changed. So Horney—over the objections of her father, who wanted her to stay home
and take care of the household—entered the gymnasium, a school that would lead to
a university and then to medical school. On her own for the first time, Karen was to
remain independent for the rest of her life. According to Paris (1994), however, Hor-
ney’s independence was mostly superficial. On a deeper level, she retained a com-
pulsive need to merge with a great man. This morbid dependency, which typically in-
cluded idealization and fear of inciting angry rejection, haunted Horney during her
relationships with a series of men.

In 1906, she entered the University of Freiburg, becoming one of the first
women in Germany to study medicine. There she met Oskar Horney, a political sci-
ence student. Their relationship began as a friendship, but it eventually became a ro-
mantic one. After their marriage in 1909, the couple settled in Berlin, where Oskar,
now with a PhD, worked for a coal company and Karen, not yet with an MD, spe-
cialized in psychiatry.

By this time, Freudian psychoanalysis was becoming well established, and
Karen Horney became familiar with Freud’s writings. Early in 1910, she began an
analysis with Karl Abraham, one of Freud’s close associates and a man who later an-
alyzed Melanie Klein. After Horney’s analysis was terminated, she attended Abra-
ham’s evening seminars, where she became acquainted with other psychoanalysts.
By 1917, she had written her first paper on psychoanalysis, “The Technique of Psy-
choanalytic Therapy” (Horney, 1917/1968), which reflected the orthodox Freudian
view and gave little indication of Horney’s subsequent independent thinking.

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 165

The early years of her marriage were filled with many notable personal expe-
riences for Horney. Her father and mother, who were now separated, died within less
than a year of each other; she gave birth to three daughters in 5 years; she received
her MD degree in 1915 after 5 years of psychoanalysis; and, in her quest for the right
man, she had several love affairs (Paris, 1994; Quinn, 1987).

After World War I, the Horneys lived a prosperous, suburban lifestyle with
several servants and a chauffeur. Oskar did well financially while Karen enjoyed a
thriving psychiatric practice. This idyllic scene, however, soon ended. The inflation
and economic disorder of 1923 cost Oskar his job, and the family was forced to
move back to an apartment in Berlin. In 1926, Karen and Oskar separated but did
not officially divorce until 1938 (Paris, 1994).

The early years following her separation from Oskar were the most productive
of Horney’s life. In addition to seeing patients and caring for her three daughters, she
became more involved with writing, teaching, traveling, and lecturing. Her papers
now showed important differences with Freudian theory. She believed that culture,
not anatomy, was responsible for psychic differences between men and women.
When Freud reacted negatively to Horney’s position, she became even more outspo-
ken in her opposition.

In 1932, Horney left Germany for a position as associate director of the newly
established Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. Several factors contributed to her de-
cision to immigrate—the anti-Jewish political climate in Germany (although Horney
was not Jewish), increasing opposition to her unorthodox views, and an opportunity
to extend her influence beyond Berlin. During the 2 years she spent in Chicago, she
met Margaret Mead, John Dollard, and many of the same scholars who had influ-
enced Harry Stack Sullivan (see Chapter 8). In addition, she renewed acquaintances
with Erich Fromm and his wife, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, whom she had known in
Berlin. During the next 10 years, Horney and Fromm were close friends, greatly in-
fluencing one another and eventually becoming lovers (Hornstein, 2000).

After 2 years in Chicago, Horney moved to New York, where she taught at the
New School for Social Research. While in New York, she became a member of the
Zodiac group that included Fromm, Fromm-Reichmann, Sullivan, and others. Al-
though Horney was a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, she seldom
agreed with the established members. Moreover, her book New Ways in Psycho-
analysis (1939) made her the leader of an opposition group. In this book, Horney
called for abandoning the instinct theory and placing more emphasis on ego and so-
cial influences. In 1941, she resigned from the institute over issues of dogma and or-
thodoxy and helped form a rival organization—the Association for the Advancement
of Psychoanalysis (AAP). This new group, however, also quickly suffered from in-
ternal strife. In 1943, Fromm (whose intimate relationship with Horney had recently
ended) and several others resigned from the AAP, leaving that organization without
its strongest members. Despite this rift, the association continued, but under a new
name—the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1952, Horney established the
Karen Horney Clinic.

In 1950, Horney published her most important work, Neurosis and Human
Growth. This book sets forth theories that were no longer merely a reaction to Freud
but rather were an expression of her own creative and independent thinking. After a
short illness, Horney died of cancer on December 4, 1952. She was 65 years old.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories166

Introduction to Psychoanalytic
Social Theory
The early writings of Karen Horney, like those of Adler, Jung, and Klein, have a dis-
tinctive Freudian flavor. Like Adler and Jung, she eventually became disenchanted
with orthodox psychoanalysis and constructed a revisionist theory that reflected her
own personal experiences—clinical and otherwise.

Although Horney wrote nearly exclusively about neuroses and neurotic per-
sonalities, her works suggest much that is appropriate to normal, healthy develop-
ment. Culture, especially early childhood experiences, plays a leading role in shap-
ing human personality, either neurotic or healthy. Horney, then, agreed with Freud
that early childhood traumas are important, but she differed from him in her insis-
tence that social rather than biological forces are paramount in personality develop-
ment.

Horney and Freud Compared
Horney criticized Freud’s theories on several accounts. First, she cautioned that strict
adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation in both theoretical
thought and therapeutic practice (Horney, 1937). Second, Horney (1937, 1939) ob-
jected to Freud’s ideas on feminine psychology, a subject we return to later. Third,
she stressed the view that psychoanalysis should move beyond instinct theory and
emphasize the importance of cultural influences in shaping personality. “Man is
ruled not by the pleasure principle alone but by two guiding principles: safety and
satisfaction” (Horney, 1939, p. 73). Similarly, she claimed that neuroses are not the
result of instincts but rather of the person’s “attempt to find paths through a wilder-
ness full of unknown dangers” (p. 10). This wilderness is created by society and not
by instincts or anatomy.

Despite becoming increasingly critical of Freud, Horney continued to recog-
nize his perceptive insights. Her main quarrel with Freud was not so much the accu-
racy of his observations but the validity of his interpretations. In general terms, she
held that Freud’s explanations result in a pessimistic concept of humanity based on
innate instincts and the stagnation of personality. In contrast, her view of humanity
is an optimistic one and is centered on cultural forces that are amenable to change
(Horney, 1950).

The Impact of Culture
Although Horney did not overlook the importance of genetic factors, she repeatedly
emphasized cultural influences as the primary bases for both neurotic and normal
personality development. Modern culture, she contended, is based on competition
among individuals. “Everyone is a real or potential competitor of everyone else”
(Horney, 1937, p. 284). Competitiveness and the basic hostility it spawns result in
feelings of isolation. These feelings of being alone in a potentially hostile world lead
to intensified needs for affection, which, in turn, cause people to overvalue love. As
a result, many people see love and affection as the solution for all their problems.
Genuine love, of course, can be a healthy, growth-producing experience; but the des-
perate need for love (such as that shown by Horney herself ) provides a fertile ground

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 167

for the development of neuroses. Rather than benefiting from the need for love, neu-
rotics strive in pathological ways to find it. Their self-defeating attempts result in low
self-esteem, increased hostility, basic anxiety, more competitiveness, and a continu-
ous excessive need for love and affection.

According to Horney, Western society contributes to this vicious circle in sev-
eral respects. First, people of this society are imbued with the cultural teachings of
kinship and humility. These teachings, however, run contrary to another prevailing
attitude, namely, aggressiveness and the drive to win or be superior. Second, society’s
demands for success and achievement are nearly endless, so that even when people
achieve their material ambitions, additional goals are continually being placed be-
fore them. Third, Western society tells people that they are free, that they can ac-
complish anything through hard work and perseverance. In reality, however, the free-
dom of most people is greatly restricted by genetics, social position, and the
competitiveness of others.

These contradictions—all stemming from cultural influences rather than bio-
logical ones—provide intrapsychic conflicts that threaten the psychological health of
normal people and provide nearly insurmountable obstacles for neurotics.

The Importance of Childhood Experiences
Horney believed that neurotic conflict can stem from almost any developmental
stage, but childhood is the age from which the vast majority of problems arise. A va-
riety of traumatic events, such as sexual abuse, beatings, open rejection, or pervasive
neglect, may leave their impressions on a child’s future development; but Horney
(1937) insisted that these debilitating experiences can almost invariably be traced to
lack of genuine warmth and affection. Horney’s own lack of love from her father and
her close relationship with her mother must have had a powerful effect on her per-
sonal development as well as on her theoretical ideas.

Horney (1939) hypothesized that a difficult childhood is primarily responsible
for neurotic needs. These needs become powerful because they are the child’s only
means of gaining feelings of safety. Nevertheless, no single early experience is re-
sponsible for later personality. Horney cautioned that “the sum total of childhood ex-
periences brings about a certain character structure, or rather, starts its development”
(p. 152). In other words, the totality of early relationships molds personality devel-
opment. “Later attitudes to others, then, are not repetitions of infantile ones but em-
anate from the character structure, the basis of which is laid in childhood” (p. 87).

Although later experiences can have an important effect, especially in normal
individuals, childhood experiences are primarily responsible for personality devel-
opment. People who rigidly repeat patterns of behavior do so because they interpret
new experiences in a manner consistent with those established patterns.

Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
Horney (1950) believed that each person begins life with the potential for healthy de-
velopment, but like other living organisms, people need favorable conditions for
growth. These conditions must include a warm and loving environment yet one that
is not overly permissive. Children need to experience both genuine love and healthy

Part II Psychodynamic Theories168

discipline. Such conditions provide them with feelings of safety and satisfaction and
permit them to grow in accordance with their real self.

Unfortunately, a multitude of adverse influences may interfere with these fa-
vorable conditions. Primary among these is the parents’ inability or unwillingness to
love their child. Because of their own neurotic needs, parents often dominate, ne-
glect, overprotect, reject, or overindulge. If parents do not satisfy the child’s needs
for safety and satisfaction, the child develops feelings of basic hostility toward the
parents. However, children seldom overtly express this hostility as rage; instead, they
repress their hostility toward their parents and have no awareness of it. Repressed
hostility then leads to profound feelings of insecurity and a vague sense of appre-
hension. This condition is called basic anxiety, which Horney (1950) defined as “a
feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile”
(p. 18). Earlier, she gave a more graphic description, calling basic anxiety “a feeling
of being small, insignificant, helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to
abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray, envy” (Horney, 1937, p. 92).

Horney (1937, p. 75) believed that basic hostility and basic anxiety are “inex-
tricably interwoven.” Hostile impulses are the principal source of basic anxiety, but
basic anxiety can also contribute to feelings of hostility. As an example of how basic
hostility can lead to anxiety, Horney (1937) wrote about a young man with repressed
hostility who went on a hiking trip in the mountains with a young woman with whom
he was deeply in love. His repressed hostility, however, also led him to become jeal-
ous of the woman. While walking on a dangerous mountain pass, the young man
suddenly suffered a severe “anxiety attack” in the form of rapid heart rate and heavy
breathing. The anxiety resulted from a seemingly inappropriate but conscious im-
pulse to push the young woman over the edge of the mountain pass.

In this case, basic hostility led to severe anxiety, but anxiety and fear can also
lead to strong feelings of hostility. Children who feel threatened by their parents de-
velop a reactive hostility in defense of that threat. This reactive hostility, in turn, may
create additional anxiety, thus completing the interactive circle between hostility and
anxiety. Horney (1937) contended that “it does not matter whether anxiety or hostil-
ity has been the primary factor” (p. 74). The important point is that their reciprocal
influence may intensify a neurosis without a person’s experiencing any additional
outside conflict.

Basic anxiety itself is not a neurosis, but “it is the nutritive soil out of which a
definite neurosis may develop at any time” (Horney, 1937, p. 89). Basic anxiety is
constant and unrelenting, needing no particular stimulus such as taking a test in
school or giving a speech. It permeates all relationships with others and leads to un-
healthy ways of trying to cope with people.

Although she later amended her list of defenses against basic anxiety, Horney
(1937) originally identified four general ways that people protect themselves against
this feeling of being alone in a potentially hostile world. The first is affection, a strat-
egy that does not always lead to authentic love. In their search for affection, some
people may try to purchase love with self-effacing compliance, material goods, or
sexual favors.

The second protective device is submissiveness. Neurotics may submit them-
selves either to people or to institutions such as an organization or a religion. Neu-
rotics who submit to another person often do so in order to gain affection.

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 169

Neurotics may also try to protect themselves by striving for power, prestige, or
possession. Power is a defense against the real or imagined hostility of others and
takes the form of a tendency to dominate others; prestige is a protection against hu-
miliation and is expressed as a tendency to humiliate others; possession acts as a
buffer against destitution and poverty and manifests itself as a tendency to deprive
others.

The fourth protective mechanism is withdrawal. Neurotics frequently protect
themselves against basic anxiety either by developing an independence from others
or by becoming emotionally detached from them. By psychologically withdrawing,
neurotics feel that they cannot be hurt by other people.

These protective devices did not necessarily indicate a neurosis, and Horney
believed that all people use them to some extent. They become unhealthy when peo-
ple feel compelled to rely on them and are thus unable to employ a variety of inter-
personal strategies. Compulsion, then, is the salient characteristic of all neurotic
drives.

Compulsive Drives
Neurotic individuals have the same problems that affect normal people, except neu-
rotics experience them to a greater degree. Everyone uses the various protective de-
vices to guard against the rejection, hostility, and competitiveness of others. But
whereas normal individuals are able to use a variety of defensive maneuvers in a
somewhat useful way, neurotics compulsively repeat the same strategy in an essen-
tially unproductive manner.

Horney (1942) insisted that neurotics do not enjoy misery and suffering. They
cannot change their behavior by free will but must continually and compulsively pro-
tect themselves against basic anxiety. This defensive strategy traps them in a vicious
circle in which their compulsive needs to reduce basic anxiety lead to behaviors that
perpetuate low self-esteem, generalized hostility, inappropriate striving for power,
inflated feelings of superiority, and persistent apprehension, all of which result in
more basic anxiety.

Neurotic Needs
At the beginning of this chapter, we asked you to select either “True” or “False” for
each of 10 items that might suggest a neurotic need. For each item except number 8,
a “True” response parallels one of Horney’s neurotic needs. For number 8, a “False”
answer is consistent with the neurotic need for self-centeredness. Remember that en-
dorsing most or even all of these statements in the “neurotic” direction is no indica-
tion of emotional instability, but these items may give you a better understanding of
what Horney meant by neurotic needs.

Horney tentatively identified 10 categories of neurotic needs that characterize
neurotics in their attempts to combat basic anxiety. These needs were more specific
than the four protective devices discussed earlier, but they describe the same basic
defensive strategies. The 10 categories of neurotic needs overlapped one another, and
a single person might employ more than one. Each of the following neurotic needs
relates in some way or another to other people.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories170

1. The neurotic need for affection and approval. In their quest for affection and
approval, neurotics attempt indiscriminately to please others. They try to live
up to the expectations of others, tend to dread self-assertion, and are quite
uncomfortable with the hostility of others as well as the hostile feelings
within themselves.

2. The neurotic need for a powerful partner. Lacking self-confidence, neurotics
try to attach themselves to a powerful partner. This need includes an
overvaluation of love and a dread of being alone or deserted. Horney’s own
life story reveals a strong need to relate to a great man, and she had a series
of such relationships during her adult life.

3. The neurotic need to restrict one’s life within narrow borders. Neurotics
frequently strive to remain inconspicuous, to take second place, and to be
content with very little. They downgrade their own abilities and dread
making demands on others.

4. The neurotic need for power. Power and affection are perhaps the two
greatest neurotic needs. The need for power is usually combined with the
needs for prestige and possession and manifests itself as the need to control
others and to avoid feelings of weakness or stupidity.

5. The neurotic need to exploit others. Neurotics frequently evaluate others on
the basis of how they can be used or exploited, but at the same time, they
fear being exploited by others.

6. The neurotic need for social recognition or prestige. Some people combat
basic anxiety by trying to be first, to be important, or to attract attention to
themselves.

7. The neurotic need for personal admiration. Neurotics have a need to be
admired for what they are rather than for what they possess. Their inflated
self-esteem must be continually fed by the admiration and approval of others.

8. The neurotic need for ambition and personal achievement. Neurotics often
have a strong drive to be the best—the best salesperson, the best bowler,
the best lover. They must defeat other people in order to confirm their
superiority.

9. The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence. Many neurotics
have a strong need to move away from people, thereby proving that they can
get along without others. The playboy who cannot be tied down by any
woman exemplifies this neurotic need.

10. The neurotic need for perfection and unassailability. By striving relentlessly
for perfection, neurotics receive “proof ” of their self-esteem and personal
superiority. They dread making mistakes and having personal flaws, and they
desperately attempt to hide their weaknesses from others.

Neurotic Trends
As her theory evolved, Horney began to see that the list of 10 neurotic needs could
be grouped into three general categories, each relating to a person’s basic attitude to-
ward self and others. In 1945, she identified the three basic attitudes, or neurotic
trends, as (1) moving toward people, (2) moving against people, and (3) moving away
from people.

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 171

Although these neurotic trends constitute Horney’s theory of neurosis, they
also apply to normal individuals. There are, of course, important differences between
normal and neurotic attitudes. Whereas normal people are mostly or completely con-
scious of their strategies toward other people, neurotics are unaware of their basic at-
titude; although normals are free to choose their actions, neurotics are forced to act;
whereas normals experience mild conflict, neurotics experience severe and insoluble
conflict; and whereas normals can choose from a variety of strategies, neurotics are
limited to a single trend. Figure 6.1 shows Horney’s conception of the mutual influ-
ence of basic hostility and basic anxiety as well as both normal and neurotic defenses
against anxiety.

People can use each of the neurotic trends to solve basic conflict, but unfortu-
nately, these solutions are essentially nonproductive or neurotic. Horney (1950) used
the term basic conflict because very young children are driven in all three direc-
tions—toward, against, and away from people.

In healthy children, these three drives are not necessarily incompatible. But the
feelings of isolation and helplessness that Horney described as basic anxiety drive

FIGURE 6.1 The Interaction of Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety with the Defenses
against Anxiety.

Defenses against anxiety

Basic anxiety
Results from parental threats or
from a defense against hostility

Basic anxiety
Results from parental threats or
from a defense against hostility

Basic hostility
Results from childhood feelings of rejection or neglect

by parents or from a defense against basic anxiety

Basic anxiety
Results from parental threats or
from a defense against hostility

Normal defenses

Spontaneous movement

Toward people
(friendly, loving personality)

Against people
(a survivor in a competitive society)

Away from people
(autonomous, serene personality)

Neurotic defenses

Compulsive movement

Toward people
(compliant personality)

Against people
(aggressive personality)

Away from people
(detached personality)

Part II Psychodynamic Theories172

some children to act compulsively, thereby limiting their repertoire to a single neu-
rotic trend. Experiencing basically contradictory attitudes toward others, these chil-
dren attempt to solve this basic conflict by making one of the three neurotic trends
consistently dominant. Some children move toward people by behaving in a compli-
ant manner as a protection against feelings of helplessness; other children move
against people with acts of aggression in order to circumvent the hostility of others;
and still other children move away from people by adopting a detached manner, thus
alleviating feelings of isolation (Horney, 1945).

Moving Toward People
Horney’s concept of moving toward people does not mean moving toward them in
the spirit of genuine love. Rather, it refers to a neurotic need to protect oneself
against feelings of helplessness.

In their attempts to protect themselves against feelings of helplessness, com-
pliant people employ either or both of the first two neurotic needs; that is, they des-
perately strive for affection and approval of others, or they seek a powerful partner
who will take responsibility for their lives. Horney (1937) referred to these needs as
“morbid dependency,” a concept that anticipated the term “codependency.”

The neurotic trend of moving toward people involves a complex of strategies.
It is “a whole way of thinking, feeling, acting—a whole way of life” (Horney, 1945,
p. 55). Horney also called it a philosophy of life. Neurotics who adopt this philoso-
phy are likely to see themselves as loving, generous, unselfish, humble, and sensitive
to other people’s feelings. They are willing to subordinate themselves to others, to
see others as more intelligent or attractive, and to rate themselves according to what
others think of them.

Moving Against People
Just as compliant people assume that everyone is nice, aggressive people take for
granted that everyone is hostile. As a result, they adopt the strategy of moving
against people. Neurotically aggressive people are just as compulsive as compliant
people are, and their behavior is just as much prompted by basic anxiety. Rather than
moving toward people in a posture of submissiveness and dependence, these people
move against others by appearing tough or ruthless. They are motivated by a strong
need to exploit others and to use them for their own benefit. They seldom admit their
mistakes and are compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful, and superior.

Five of the 10 neurotic needs are incorporated in the neurotic trend of moving
against people. They include the need to be powerful, to exploit others, to receive
recognition and prestige, to be admired, and to achieve. Aggressive people play to
win rather than for the enjoyment of the contest. They may appear to be hard work-
ing and resourceful on the job, but they take little pleasure in the work itself. Their
basic motivation is for power, prestige, and personal ambition.

In the United States, the striving for these goals is usually viewed with admi-
ration. Compulsively aggressive people, in fact, frequently come out on top in many
endeavors valued by American society. They may acquire desirable sex partners,
high-paying jobs, and the personal admiration of many people. Horney (1945) said
that it is not to the credit of American society that such characteristics are rewarded
while love, affection, and the capacity for true friendship—the very qualities that ag-
gressive people lack—are valued less highly.

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 173

Moving toward others and moving against others are, in many ways, polar op-
posites. The compliant person is compelled to receive affection from everyone,
whereas the aggressive person sees everyone as a potential enemy. For both types,
however, “the center of gravity lies outside the person” (Horney, 1945, p. 65). Both
need other people. Compliant people need others to satisfy their feelings of help-
lessness; aggressive people use others as a protection against real or imagined hos-
tility. With the third neurotic trend, in contrast, other people are of lesser importance.

Moving Away From People
In order to solve the basic conflict of isolation, some people behave in a detached
manner and adopt a neurotic trend of moving away from people. This strategy is an
expression of needs for privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency. Again, each of
these needs can lead to positive behaviors, with some people satisfying these needs
in a healthy fashion. However, these needs become neurotic when people try to sat-
isfy them by compulsively putting emotional distance between themselves and other
people.

Many neurotics find associating with others an intolerable strain. As a conse-
quence, they are compulsively driven to move away from people, to attain autonomy
and separateness. They frequently build a world of their own and refuse to allow any-
one to get close to them. They value freedom and self-sufficiency and often appear
to be aloof and unapproachable. If married, they maintain their detachment even
from their spouse. They shun social commitments, but their greatest fear is to need
other people.

All neurotics possess a need to feel superior, but detached persons have an in-
tensified need to be strong and powerful. Their basic feelings of isolation can be

Moving away from people is a neurotic trend that many people use in an attempt to solve the basic
conflict of isolation.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories174

T A B L E 6 . 1

Summary of Horney’s Neurotic Trends

Basic conflict
or source of
neurotic trend

Neurotic needs

Normal analog

The Compliant
Personality

Feelings of
helplessness

1. Affection and
approval

2. Powerful
partner

3. Narrow limits
to life

Friendly, loving

The Detached
Personality

Feelings of
isolation

9. Self-sufficiency
and
independence

10. Perfection and
prestige

Autonomous and
serene

The Aggressive
Personality

Protection against
hostility of
others

4. Power

5. Exploitation

6. Recognition
and
unassailability

7. Personal
admiration

8. Personal
achievement

Ability to survive
in a
competitive
society

Neurotic Trends

Toward People Against People Away from People

tolerated only by the self-deceptive belief that they are perfect and therefore beyond
criticism. They dread competition, fearing a blow to their illusory feelings of supe-
riority. Instead, they prefer that their hidden greatness be recognized without any ef-
fort on their part (Horney, 1945).

In summary, each of the three neurotic trends has an analogous set of charac-
teristics that describe normal individuals. In addition, each of 10 neurotic needs can
be easily placed within the three neurotic trends. Table 6.1 summarizes the three neu-
rotic trends, the basic conflicts that give rise to them, the outstanding characteristics
of each, the 10 neurotic needs that compose them, and the three analogous traits that
characterize normal people.

Intrapsychic Conflicts
The neurotic trends flow from basic anxiety, which in turn, stems from a child’s re-
lationships with other people. To this point, our emphasis has been on culture and in-
terpersonal conflict. However, Horney did not neglect the impact of intrapsychic fac-

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 175

tors in the development of personality. As her theory evolved, she began to place
greater emphasis on the inner conflicts that both normal and neurotic individuals ex-
perience. Intrapsychic processes originate from interpersonal experiences; but as
they become part of a person’s belief system, they develop a life of their own—an
existence separate from the interpersonal conflicts that gave them life.

This section looks at two important intrapsychic conflicts: the idealized self-
image and self-hatred. Briefly, the idealized self-image is an attempt to solve con-
flicts by painting a godlike picture of oneself. Self-hatred is an interrelated yet
equally irrational and powerful tendency to despise one’s real self. As people build
an idealized image of their self, their real self lags farther and farther behind. This
gap creates a growing alienation between the real self and the idealized self and leads
neurotics to hate and despise their actual self because it falls so short in matching the
glorified self-image (Horney, 1950).

The Idealized Self-Image
Horney believed that human beings, if given an environment of discipline and
warmth, will develop feelings of security and self-confidence and a tendency to
move toward self-realization. Unfortunately, early negative influences often impede
people’s natural tendency toward self-realization, a situation that leaves them with
feelings of isolation and inferiority. Added to this failure is a growing sense of alien-
ation from themselves.

Feeling alienated from themselves, people need desperately to acquire a stable
sense of identity. This dilemma can be solved only by creating an idealized self-
image, an extravagantly positive view of themselves that exists only in their personal
belief system. These people endow themselves with infinite powers and unlimited
capabilities; they see themselves as “a hero, a genius, a supreme lover, a saint, a god”
(Horney, 1950, p. 22). The idealized self-image is not a global construction. Neu-
rotics glorify and worship themselves in different ways. Compliant people see them-
selves as good and saintly; aggressive people build an idealized image of themselves
as strong, heroic, and omnipotent; and detached neurotics paint their self-portraits as
wise, self-sufficient, and independent.

As the idealized self-image becomes solidified, neurotics begin to believe in
the reality of that image. They lose touch with their real self and use the idealized
self as the standard for self-evaluation. Rather than growing toward self-realization,
they move toward actualizing their idealized self.

Horney (1950) recognized three aspects of the idealized image: (1) the neu-
rotic search for glory, (2) neurotic claims, and (3) neurotic pride.

The Neurotic Search for Glory
As neurotics come to believe in the reality of their idealized self, they begin to in-
corporate it into all aspects of their lives—their goals, their self-concept, and their
relations with others. Horney (1950) referred to this comprehensive drive toward ac-
tualizing the ideal self as the neurotic search for glory.

In addition to self-idealization, the neurotic search for glory includes three
other elements: the need for perfection, neurotic ambition, and the drive toward a
vindictive triumph.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories176

The need for perfection refers to the drive to mold the whole personality into
the idealized self. Neurotics are not content to merely make a few alterations; noth-
ing short of complete perfection is acceptable. They try to achieve perfection by
erecting a complex set of “shoulds” and “should nots.” Horney (1950) referred to
this drive as the tyranny of the should. Striving toward an imaginary picture of per-
fection, neurotics unconsciously tell themselves: “Forget about the disgraceful crea-
ture you actually are; this is how you should be” (p. 64).

A second key element in the neurotic search for glory is neurotic ambition,
that is, the compulsive drive toward superiority. Although neurotics have an exag-
gerated need to excel in everything, they ordinarily channel their energies into those
activities that are most likely to bring success. This drive, therefore, may take sev-
eral different forms during a person’s lifetime (Horney, 1950). For example, while
still in school, a girl may direct her neurotic ambition toward being the best student
in school. Later, she may be driven to excel in business or to raise the very best show
dogs. Neurotic ambition may also take a less materialistic form, such as being the
most saintly or most charitable person in the community.

The third aspect of the neurotic search for glory is the drive toward a vindic-
tive triumph, the most destructive element of all. The need for a vindictive triumph
may be disguised as a drive for achievement or success, but “its chief aim is to put
others to shame or defeat them through one’s very success; or to attain the power
. . . to inflict suffering on them—mostly of a humiliating kind” (Horney, 1950, p. 27).
Interestingly, in Horney’s personal relationship with men, she seemed to take plea-
sure in causing them to feel ashamed and humiliated (Hornstein, 2000).

The drive for a vindictive triumph grows out of the childhood desire to take re-
venge for real or imagined humiliations. No matter how successful neurotics are in
vindictively triumphing over others, they never lose their drive for a vindictive tri-
umph—instead, they increase it with each victory. Every success raises their fear of
defeat and increases their feelings of grandeur, thus solidifying their need for further
vindictive triumphs.

Neurotic Claims
A second aspect of the idealized image is neurotic claims. In their search for glory,
neurotics build a fantasy world—a world that is out of sync with the real world.
Believing that something is wrong with the outside world, they proclaim that they
are special and therefore entitled to be treated in accordance with their idealized
view of themselves. Because these demands are very much in accord with their
idealized self-image, they fail to see that their claims of special privilege are
unreasonable.

Neurotic claims grow out of normal needs and wishes, but they are quite dif-
ferent. When normal wishes are not fulfilled, people become understandably frus-
trated; but when neurotic claims are not met, neurotics become indignant, bewil-
dered, and unable to comprehend why others have not granted their claims. The
difference between normal desires and neurotic claims is illustrated by a situation in
which many people are waiting in line for tickets for a popular movie. Most people
near the end of the line might wish to be up front, and some of them may even try
some ploy to get a better position. Nevertheless, these people know that they don’t
really deserve to cut ahead of others. Neurotic people, on the other hand, truly

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 177

believe that they are enti-
tled to be near the front
of the line, and they feel
no guilt or remorse in
moving ahead of others.

Neurotic Pride
The third aspect of an
idealized image is neu-
rotic pride, a false pride
based not on a realistic
view of the true self but
on a spurious image of
the idealized self. Neu-
rotic pride is qualitatively
different from healthy
pride or realistic self-
esteem. Genuine self-
esteem is based on realis-
tic attributes and accom-
plishments and is gener-
ally expressed with quiet
dignity. Neurotic pride,
on the other hand, is
based on an idealized
image of self and is usu-

ally loudly proclaimed in order to protect and support a glorified view of one’s self
(Horney, 1950).

Neurotics imagine themselves to be glorious, wonderful, and perfect, so when
others fail to treat them with special consideration, their neurotic pride is hurt. To
prevent the hurt, they avoid people who refuse to yield to their neurotic claims, and
instead, they try to become associated with socially prominent and prestigious insti-
tutions and acquisitions.

Self-Hatred
People with a neurotic search for glory can never be happy with themselves because
when they realize that their real self does not match the insatiable demands of their
idealized self, they will begin to hate and despise themselves:

The glorified self becomes not only a phantom to be pursued; it also becomes a
measuring rod with which to measure his actual being. And this actual being is
such an embarrassing sight when viewed from the perspective of a godlike
perfection that he cannot but despise it. (Horney, 1950, p. 110)

Horney (1950) recognized six major ways in which people express self-hatred.
First, self-hatred may result in relentless demands on the self, which are exemplified

Self-hatred is sometimes expressed through abuse of alcohol.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories178

by the tyranny of the should. For example, some people make demands on them-
selves that don’t stop even when they achieve a measure of success. These people
continue to push themselves toward perfection because they believe they should be
perfect.

The second mode of expressing self-hatred is merciless self-accusation. Neu-
rotics constantly berate themselves. “If people only knew me, they would realize that
I’m pretending to be knowledgeable, competent, and sincere. I’m really a fraud, but
no one knows it but me.” Self-accusation may take a variety of forms—from obvi-
ously grandiose expressions, such as taking responsibility for natural disasters, to
scrupulously questioning the virtue of their own motivations.

Third, self-hatred may take the form of self-contempt, which might be
expressed as belittling, disparaging, doubting, discrediting, and ridiculing
oneself. Self-contempt prevents people from striving for improvement or achieve-
ment. A young man may say to himself, “You conceited idiot! What makes you
think you can get a date with the best-looking woman in town?” A woman
may attribute her successful career to “luck.” Although these people may
be aware of their behavior, they have no perception of the self-hatred that moti-
vates it.

A fourth expression of self-hatred is self-frustration. Horney (1950) distin-
guished between healthy self-discipline and neurotic self-frustration. The former in-
volves postponing or forgoing pleasurable activities in order to achieve reasonable
goals. Self-frustration stems from self-hatred and is designed to actualize an inflated
self-image. Neurotics are frequently shackled by taboos against enjoyment. “I don’t
deserve a new car.” “I must not wear nice clothes because many people around the
world are in rags.” “I must not strive for a better job because I’m not good enough
for it.”

Fifth, self-hatred may be manifested as self-torment, or self-torture. Although
self-torment can exist in each of the other forms of self-hatred, it becomes a separate
category when people’s main intention is to inflict harm or suffering on themselves.
Some people attain masochistic satisfaction by anguishing over a decision, exagger-
ating the pain of a headache, cutting themselves with a knife, starting a fight that
they are sure to lose, or inviting physical abuse.

The sixth and final form of self-hatred is self-destructive actions and impulses,
which may be either physical or psychological, conscious or unconscious, acute or
chronic, carried out in action or enacted only in the imagination. Overeating, abus-
ing alcohol and other drugs, working too hard, driving recklessly, and suicide are
common expressions of physical self-destruction. Neurotics may also attack them-
selves psychologically, for example, quitting a job just when it begins to be fulfill-
ing, breaking off a healthy relationship in favor of a neurotic one, or engaging in
promiscuous sexual activities.

Horney (1950) summarized the neurotic search for glory and its attendant self-
hatred with these descriptive words:

Surveying self-hate and its ravaging force, we cannot help but see in it a great
tragedy, perhaps the greatest tragedy of the human mind. Man in reaching out for
the Infinite and Absolute also starts destroying himself. When he makes a pact
with the devil, who promises him glory, he has to go to hell—to the hell within
himself. (p. 154)

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 179

Feminine Psychology
As a woman trained in the promasculine psychology of Freud, Horney gradually re-
alized that the traditional psychoanalytic view of women was skewed. She then set
forth her own theory, one that rejected several of Freud’s basic ideas.

For Horney, psychic differences between men and women are not the result of
anatomy but rather of cultural and social expectations. Men who subdue and rule
women and women who degrade or envy men do so because of the neurotic com-
petitiveness that is rampant in many societies. Horney (1937) insisted that basic anx-
iety is at the core of men’s need to subjugate women and women’s wish to humiliate
men.

Although Horney (1939) recognized the existence of the Oedipus complex, she
insisted that it was due to certain environmental conditions and not to biology. If it
were the result of anatomy, as Freud contended, then it would be universal (as Freud
indeed believed). However, Horney (1967) saw no evidence for a universal Oedipus
complex. Instead, she held that it is found only in some people and is an expression
of the neurotic need for love. The neurotic need for affection and the neurotic need
for aggression usually begin in childhood and are two of the three basic neurotic
trends. A child may passionately cling to one parent and express jealousy toward the
other, but these behaviors are means of alleviating basic anxiety and not manifesta-
tions of an anatomically based Oedipus complex. Even when there is a sexual aspect
to these behaviors, the child’s main goal is security, not sexual intercourse.

Horney (1939) found the concept of penis envy even less tenable. She con-
tended that here is no more anatomical reason why girls should be envious of the penis
than boys should desire a breast or a womb. In fact, boys sometimes do express a de-
sire to have a baby, but this desire is not the result of a universal male “womb envy.”

Horney agreed with Adler that many women possess a masculine protest; that
is, they have a pathological belief that men are superior to women. This perception
easily leads to the neurotic desire to be a man. The desire, however, is not an ex-
pression of penis envy but rather “a wish for all those qualities or privileges which
in our culture are regarded as masculine” (Horney, 1939, p. 108). (This view is
nearly identical to that expressed by Erikson and discussed in Chapter 9).

In 1994, Bernard J. Paris published a talk that Horney had delivered in 1935 to
a professional and business women’s club in which she summarized her ideas on
feminine psychology. By that time Horney was less interested in differences between
men and women than in a general psychology of both genders. Because culture and
society are responsible for psychological differences between women and men, Hor-
ney felt that “it was not so important to try to find the answer to the question about
differences as to understand and analyze the real significance of this keen interest in
feminine ‘nature’” (Horney, 1994, p. 233). Horney concluded her speech by saying
that

once and for all we should stop bothering about what is feminine and what is not.
Such concerns only undermine our energies. Standards of masculinity and
femininity are artificial standards. All that we definitely know at present about sex
differences is that we do not know what they are. Scientific differences between
the two sexes certainly exist, but we shall never be able to discover what they are
until we have first developed our potentialities as human beings. Paradoxical as it

Part II Psychodynamic Theories180

may sound, we shall find out about these differences only if we forget about them.
(p. 238)

Psychotherapy
Horney believed that neuroses grow out of basic conflict that usually begins in child-
hood. As people attempt to solve this conflict, they are likely to adopt one of the
three neurotic trends: namely, moving toward, against, or away from others. Each of
these tactics can produce temporary relief, but eventually they drive the person farther
away from actualizing the real self and deeper into a neurotic spiral (Horney, 1950).

The general goal of Horneyian therapy is to help patients gradually grow in the
direction of self-realization. More specifically, the aim is to have patients give up
their idealized self-image, relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and change self-
hatred to an acceptance of the real self. Unfortunately, patients are usually convinced
that their neurotic solutions are correct, so they are reluctant to surrender their neu-
rotic trends. Even though patients have a strong investment in maintaining the status
quo, they do not wish to remain ill. They find little pleasure in their sufferings and
would like to be free of them. Unfortunately, they tend to resist change and cling to
those behaviors that perpetuate their illness. The three neurotic trends can be cast in
favorable terms such as “love,” “mastery,” or “freedom.” Because patients usually
see their behaviors in these positive terms, their actions appear to them to be healthy,
right, and desirable (Horney, 1942, 1950).

The therapist’s task is to convince patients that their present solutions are per-
petuating rather than alleviating the core neurosis, a task that takes much time and
hard work. Patients may look for quick cures or solutions, but only the long, labori-
ous process of self-understanding can effect positive change. Self-understanding
must go beyond information; it must be accompanied by an emotional experience.
Patients must understand their pride system, their idealized image, their neurotic
search for glory, their self-hatred, their shoulds, their alienation from self, and their
conflicts. Moreover, they must see how all these factors are interrelated and operate
to preserve their basic neurosis.

Although a therapist can help encourage patients toward self-understanding,
ultimately successful therapy is built on self-analysis (Horney, 1942, 1950). Patients
must understand the difference between their idealized self-image and their real self.
Fortunately, people possess an inherent curative force that allows them to move in-
evitably in the direction of self-realization once self-understanding and self-analysis
are achieved.

As to techniques, Horneyian therapists use many of the same ones employed
by Freudian therapists, especially dream interpretation and free association. Horney
saw dreams as attempts to solve conflicts, but the solutions can be either neurotic or
healthy. When therapists provide a correct interpretation, patients are helped toward
a better understanding of their real self. “From dreams . . . the patient can catch a
glimpse, even in the initial phase of analysis, of a world operating within him which
is peculiarly his own and which is more true of his feelings than the world of his il-
lusions” (Horney, 1950, p. 349).

With the second major technique, free association, patients are asked to say
everything that comes to mind regardless of how trivial or embarrassing it may seem
(Horney, 1987). They are also encouraged to express whatever feelings may arise

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 181

from the associations. As with dream interpretation, free association eventually re-
veals patients’ idealized self-image and persistent but unsuccessful attempts at ac-
complishing it.

When therapy is successful, patients gradually develop confidence in their
ability to assume responsibility for their psychological development. They move to-
ward self-realization and all those processes that accompany it; they have a deeper
and clearer understanding of their feelings, beliefs, and wishes; they relate to others
with genuine feelings instead of using people to solve basic conflicts; at work, they
take a greater interest in the job itself rather than seeing it as a means to perpetuate
a neurotic search for glory.

Related Research
Horney’s psychoanalytic social theory has not directly inspired a great deal of research
in modern personality psychology. Her musings on neurotic trends however are quite
relevant to much of the research being conducted today on neuroticism.

The Neurotic Compulsion to Avoid the Negative
Most research on neuroticism highlights its negative side. High levels of neuroticism are
associated with experiencing more negative emotion and being more likely to develop
generalized anxiety disorder (Borkovec & Sharpless, 2004). Neuroticism is also as-
sociated with setting avoidance goals, in which a person avoids negative outcomes,
rather than setting approach goals in which a person approaches positive outcomes
(Elliot & Thrash, 2002). In Horney’s (1942) view, neurotics are compulsively pro-
tecting themselves against basic anxiety and this defensive strategy traps them in a
negative cycle. Setting goals that are framed as approaching positive outcomes is
generally considered to be a healthier way of life than being preoccupied with avoid-
ing negative outcomes, but neurotics are generally unable to break free from their
avoidance mindset (Elliot & Thrash, 2002). These findings would not be too sur-
prising to Horney as they fit quite well into her model of neurotic trends. Whether
it’s the constant battle with basic anxiety or just being stuck in a frame of mind fo-
cused on avoiding negative outcomes, neurotic defenses are not the path to a strong
sense of positive well-being.

Can Neuroticism Ever Be a Good Thing?
Horney’s theory, as well as most of the work in personality psychology, paints neu-
roticism rather negatively. Based on the research reviewed in the previous section on
neuroticism and avoidance goals and the associated negative outcomes, the negative
bias toward neuroticism is understandable. Some recent research has begun investi-
gating conditions under which neuroticism might not be all negative and, ironically,
may actually have some benefits.

Michael Robinson and colleagues (Robinson, Ode, Wilkowski, & Amodio,
2007) asked the question “How could one be a successful neurotic?” For sure it’s
tough to be a successful neurotic. People high in neuroticism are constantly drawn
toward avoidance goals and dealing with basic anxiety by using all the detrimental

Part II Psychodynamic Theories182

neurotic defenses described by Horney. But there may be some cases where neuroti-
cism is good, specifically in detecting threats. Neurotics are predisposed to avoid
threats (and any negative outcome). Therefore, Robinson and colleagues designed a
study to investigate the relationship between neuroticism, recognition of threats, and
mood. They predicted that for those high in neuroticism, the ability to accurately rec-
ognize threats in the environment would be related to decreased negative mood. In
other words, the neurotic sensitivity to threat would serve a purpose in that such peo-
ple could recognize problems, and presumably avoid them, and that successful
avoidance would make them feel better.

To test this hypothesis, Robinson and colleagues (2007) had 181 students
come into the lab and complete a self-report measure of neuroticism and then engage
in a computer task that measured their ability to accurately detect threats and as-
sessed what they did upon making an error in detecting a threat. If a person makes
an error, the adaptive thing to do would be to slow down and assess the situation
more carefully. But not everyone does this, and the computer task used by Robinson
and colleagues measured whether people exhibited the appropriate response to mak-
ing an error. The computer task consisted of a word appearing on a computer screen
and then the participant, as quickly as possible, had to determine whether or not the
word represented a threat. For example, the word “stench” does not represent a
threat, but the word “knife” does. The computer kept track of how long participants
took at deciding whether or not the word was a threat and whether or not the partic-
ipant correctly identified the threat. Additionally, when the participant made an error,
the computer also kept track of how long a participant took to determine whether or
not the next word to appear on the screen represented a threat. Once the researchers
had each participant’s neuroticism score and a good measure of how they detected
threats and reacted to errors, participants were asked to keep track of their mood over
the next 7 days.

Interestingly, Robinson and colleagues found that there actually is a way to be
a “successful neurotic.” Specifically, they discovered that for those who are predis-
posed toward being neurotic, the ability to react adaptively to errors (i.e., to slow
down and think carefully) while assessing threat was related to experiencing less
negative mood in daily life (Robinson et al., 2007).

Generally speaking, it may not be a positive thing to be neurotic and constantly
obsessed with avoiding negative outcomes, but there is only so much about our per-
sonality that is in our control. Neurotic people cannot simply wake up one day and
stop being neurotic. Neurotic trends and related defenses outlined by Horney are sta-
ble and durable aspects of individuals’ personalities that are not likely to change sud-
denly. Therefore, it is important to realize that, though much research shows the dark
side of neuroticism, it is not all bad news. Many neurotic people are quite skilled at
avoiding negative outcomes, and the avoidance of these outcomes does indeed make
them feel better on a daily basis.

Critique of Horney
Horney’s social psychoanalytic theory provides interesting perspectives on the na-
ture of humanity, but it suffers from lack of current research that might support her
suppositions. The strength of Horney’s theory is her lucid portrayal of the neurotic

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 183

personality. No other personality theorist has written so well (or so much) about
neuroses. Her comprehensive descriptions of neurotic personalities provide an excellent
framework for understanding unhealthy people. However, her nearly exclusive con-
cern with neurotics is a serious limitation to her theory. Her references to the normal
or healthy personality are general and not well explicated. She believed that people
by their very nature will strive toward self-realization, but she suggested no clear pic-
ture of what self-realization would be.

Horney’s theory falls short on its power both to generate research and to sub-
mit to the criterion of falsifiability. Speculations from the theory do not easily yield
testable hypotheses and therefore lack both verifiability and falsifiability. Horney’s
theory was based largely on clinical experiences that put her in contact mostly with
neurotic individuals. To her credit, she was reluctant to make specific assumptions
about psychologically healthy individuals. Because her theory deals mostly with
neurotics, it is rated high on its ability to organize knowledge of neurotics but very
low on its capacity to explain what is known about people in general.

As a guide to action, Horney’s theory fares somewhat better. Teachers, thera-
pists, and especially parents can use her assumptions concerning the development of
neurotic trends to provide a warm, safe, and accepting environment for their stu-
dents, patients, or children. Beyond these provisions, however, the theory is not spe-
cific enough to give the practitioner a clear and detailed course of action. On this cri-
terion, the theory receives a low rating.

Is Horney’s theory internally consistent, with clearly defined terms used uni-
formly? In Horney’s book Neurosis and Human Growth (1950), her concepts and
formulations are precise, consistent, and unambiguous. However, when all her works
are examined, a different picture emerges. Through the years, she used terms such as
“neurotic needs” and “neurotic trends” sometimes separately and sometimes inter-
changeably. Also, the terms “basic anxiety” and “basic conflict” were not always
clearly differentiated. These inconsistencies render her entire work somewhat incon-
sistent, but again, her final theory (1950) is a model of lucidity and consistency.

Another criterion of a useful theory is parsimony, and Horney’s final theory, as
expressed in the last chapter of Neurosis and Human Growth (Horney, 1950, Chap.
15), would receive a high mark on this standard. This chapter, which provides a use-
ful and concise introduction to Horney’s theory of neurotic development, is relatively
simple, straightforward, and clearly written.

Concept of Humanity
Horney’s concept of humanity was based almost entirely on her clinical experiences
with neurotic patients; therefore, her view of human personality is strongly colored
by her concept of neurosis. According to Horney, the prime difference between a
healthy person and a neurotic individual is the degree of compulsivity with which
each moves toward, against, or away from people.

The compulsive nature of neurotic trends suggests that Horney’s concept of
humanity is deterministic. However, a healthy person would have a large element

Part II Psychodynamic Theories184

of free choice. Even a neurotic individual, through psychotherapy and hard work,
can wrest some control over those intrapsychic conflicts. For this reason, Horney’s
psychoanalytic social theory is rated slightly higher on free choice than on deter-
minism.

On the same basis, Horney’s theory is somewhat more optimistic than pes-
simistic. Horney believed that people possess inherent curative powers that lead
them toward self-realization. If basic anxiety (the feeling of being alone and help-
less in a potentially hostile world) can be avoided, people will feel safe and secure
in their interpersonal relations and consequently will develop healthy personalities.

My own belief is that man has the capacity as well as the desire to develop his
potentialities and become a decent human being, and that these deteriorate if his
relationship to others and hence to himself is, and continues to be, disturbed. I
believe that man can change and go on changing as long as he lives. (Horney,
1945, p. 19)

On the dimension of causality versus teleology, Horney adopted a middle po-
sition. She stated that the natural goal for people is self-realization, but she also
believed that childhood experiences can block that movement. “The past in some
way or other is always contained in the present” (Horney, 1939, p. 153). Included
in people’s past experiences, however, is the formation of a philosophy of life and
a set of values that give both their present and their future some direction

Although Horney adopted a middle stance regarding conscious versus uncon-
scious motivation, she believed that most people have only limited awareness of
their motives. Neurotics, especially, have little understanding of themselves and do
not see that their behaviors guarantee the continuation of their neuroses. They
mislabel their personal characteristics, couching them in socially acceptable terms,
while remaining largely unaware of their basic conflict, their self-hate, their neu-
rotic pride and neurotic claims, and their need for a vindictive triumph.

Horney’s concept of personality strongly emphasized social influences more
than biological ones. Psychological differences between men and women, for ex-
ample, are due more to cultural and societal expectations than to anatomy. To Hor-
ney, the Oedipus complex and penis envy are not inevitable consequences of biol-
ogy but rather are shaped by social forces. Horney did not neglect biological factors
completely, but her main emphasis was on social influences.

Because Horney’s theory looks almost exclusively at neuroses, it tends to
highlight similarities among people more than uniqueness. Not all neurotics are
alike, of course, and Horney described three basic types—the helpless, the hostile,
and the detached. However, she placed little emphasis on individual differences
within each of these categories.

Key Terms and Concepts

• Horney insisted that social and cultural influences were more important
than biological ones.

• Children who lack warmth and affection fail to meet their needs for safety
and satisfaction.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories184

Chapter 6 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory 185

• These feelings of isolation and helplessness trigger basic anxiety, or
feelings of isolation and helplessness in a potentially hostile world.

• The inability of people to use different tactics in their relationships with
others generates basic conflict: that is, the incompatible tendency to move
toward, against, and away from people.

• Horney called the tendencies to move toward, against, or away from people
the three neurotic trends.

• Healthy people solve their basic conflict by using all three neurotic trends,
whereas neurotics compulsively adopt only one of these trends.

• The three neurotic trends (moving toward, against, or away from people)
are a combination of 10 neurotic trends that Horney had earlier identified.

• Both healthy and neurotic people experience intrapsychic conflicts that
have become part of their belief system. The two major intrapsychic
conflicts are the idealized self-image and self-hatred.

• The idealized self-image results in neurotics’ attempts to build a godlike
picture of themselves.

• Self-hatred is the tendency for neurotics to hate and despise their real self.
• Any psychological differences between men and women are due to cultural

and social expectations and not to biology.
• The goal of Horneyian psychotherapy is to bring about growth toward

actualization of the real self.

Psychodynamic
Theories
C h a p t e r 2

Freud

Psychoanalysis

16

C h a p t e r 3 Adler
Individual Psychology 64

C h a p t e r 4 Jung
Analytical Psychology 97

C h a p t e r 5 Klein
Object Relations Theory 135

C h a p t e r 6 Horney
Psychoanalytic Social Theory 162

C h a p t e r 7 Fromm
Humanistic Psychoanalysis 186

C h a p t e r 8 Sullivan
Interpersonal Theory 212

C h a p t e r 9 Erikson
Post-Freudian Theory 242

15

PA R T T W O

Freud: Psychoanalysis

B Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory
B Biography of Sigmund Freud
B Levels of Mental Life

Unconscious

Preconscious

Conscious

B Provinces of the Mind
The

Id

The

Ego

The Superego

B Dynamics of Personality
Drives

Sex

Aggression

Anxiety

B Defense Mechanisms
Repression

Reaction Formation

Displacement

Fixation

Regression

Projection

Introjection

Sublimation

B Stages of Development
Infantile Period

Oral Phase

Anal Phase

Phallic Phase

Male Oedipus Complex

Female Oedipus Complex

Latency Period

Freud

Genital Period

Maturity

B Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud’s Early Therapeutic Technique

Freud’s Later Therapeutic Technique

Dream Analysis

Freudian Slips

B Related Research
Unconscious Mental Processing

Pleasure and the Id: Inhibition and the Ego

Repression, Inhibition, and Defense Mechanisms

Research on Dreams

B Critique of Freud
Did Freud Understand Women?

Was Freud a Scientist?

B Concept of Humanity
B

Key Terms and Concepts

C H A P T E R 2

16

From ancient history to the present time, people have searched for some magicpanacea or potion to lessen pain or to enhance performance. One such search
was conducted by a young, ambitious physician who came to believe that he had dis-
covered a drug that had all sorts of wonderful properties. Hearing that the drug had
been used successfully to energize soldiers suffering from near exhaustion, this
physician decided to try it on patients, colleagues, and friends. If the drug worked as
well as he expected, he might gain the fame to which he aspired.

After learning of the drug’s successful use in heart disease, nervous exhaus-
tion, addiction to alcohol and morphine, and several other psychological and physi-
ological problems, the doctor decided to try the drug on himself. He was quite
pleased with the results. To him, the drug had a pleasant aroma and an unusual ef-
fect on the lips and mouth. More importantly, however, was the drug’s therapeutic ef-
fect on his serious depression. In a letter to his fiancée whom he had not seen in a
year, he reported that during his last severe depression, he had taken small quantities
of the drug with marvelous results. He wrote that the next time he saw her he would
be like a wild man, feeling the effects of the drug. He also told his fiancée that he
would give her small amounts of the drug, ostensibly to make her strong and to help
her gain weight.

The young doctor wrote a pamphlet extolling the benefits of the drug, but he
had not yet completed the necessary experiments on the drug’s value as an analgesic.
Impatient to be near his fiancée, he delayed completion of his experiments and went
off to see her. During that visit, a colleague—and not he—completed the experi-
ments, published the results, and gained the recognition the young doctor had hoped
for himself.

These events took place in 1884; the drug was cocaine; the young doctor was
Sigmund Freud.

Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud, of course, was fortunate that his name did not become indelibly tied to co-
caine. Instead, his name has become associated with psychoanalysis, the most fa-
mous of all personality theories.

What makes Freud’s theory so interesting? First, the twin cornerstones of psy-
choanalysis, sex and aggression, are two subjects of continuing popularity. Second,
the theory was spread beyond its Viennese origins by an ardent and dedicated group
of followers, many of whom romanticized Freud as a nearly mythological and lonely
hero. Third, Freud’s brilliant command of language enabled him to present his theo-
ries in a stimulating and exciting manner.

Freud’s understanding of human personality was based on his experiences with
patients, his analysis of his own dreams, and his vast readings in the various sciences
and humanities. These experiences provided the basic data for the evolution of his
theories. To him, theory followed observation, and his concept of personality under-
went constant revisions during the last 50 years of his life. Evolutionary though it
was, Freud insisted that psychoanalysis could not be subjected to eclecticism, and
disciples who deviated from his basic ideas soon found themselves personally and
professionally ostracized by Freud.

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 17

Although Freud regarded himself primarily as a scientist, his definition of sci-
ence would be somewhat different from that held by most psychologists today. Freud
relied more on deductive reasoning than on rigorous research methods, and he made
observations subjectively and on a relatively small sample of patients, most of whom
were from the upper-middle and upper classes. He did not quantify his data, nor did
he make observations under controlled conditions. He utilized the case study ap-
proach almost exclusively, typically formulating hypotheses after the facts of the
case were known.

Biography of Sigmund Freud
Sigismund (Sigmund) Freud was born either on March 6 or May 6, 1856, in
Freiberg, Moravia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. (Scholars disagree on
his birth date—the first date was but 8 months after the marriage of his parents.)
Freud was the firstborn child of Jacob and Amalie Nathanson Freud, although his fa-
ther had two grown sons, Emanuel and Philipp, from a previous marriage. Jacob and
Amalie Freud had seven other children within 10 years, but Sigmund remained the
favorite of his young, indulgent mother, which may have partially contributed to his
lifelong self-confidence (E. Jones, 1953). A scholarly, serious-minded youth, Freud
did not have a close friendship with any of his younger siblings. He did, however,
enjoy a warm, indulgent relationship with his mother, leading him in later years to
observe that the mother/son relationship was the most perfect, the most free from
ambivalence of all human relationships (Freud, 1933/1964).

When Sigmund was three, the two Freud families left Freiberg. Emanuel’s
family and Philipp moved to England, and the Jacob Freud family moved first to
Leipzig and then to Vienna. The Austrian capital remained Sigmund Freud’s home
for nearly 80 years, until 1938 when the Nazi invasion forced him to emigrate to
London, where he died on September 23, 1939.

When Freud was about a year and a half old, his mother gave birth to a second
son, Julius, an event that was to have a significant impact on Freud’s psychic
development. Sigmund was filled with hostility toward his younger brother and
harbored an unconscious wish for his death. When Julius died at 6 months of age,
Sigmund was left with feelings of guilt at having caused his brother’s death. When
Freud reached middle age, he began to understand that his wish did not actually
cause his brother’s death and that children often have a death wish for a younger
sibling. This discovery purged Freud of the guilt he had carried into adulthood and,
by his own analysis, contributed to his later psychic development (Freud,
1900/1953).

Freud was drawn into medicine, not because he loved medical practice, but be-
cause he was intensely curious about human nature (Ellenberger, 1970). He entered
the University of Vienna Medical School with no intention of practicing medicine.
Instead, he preferred teaching and doing research in physiology, which he continued
even after he graduated from the university’s Physiological Institute.

Freud might have continued this work indefinitely had it not been for two fac-
tors. First, he believed (probably with some justification) that, as a Jew, his opportu-
nities for academic advancement would be limited. Second, his father, who helped
finance his medical school expense, became less able to provide monetary aid. Re-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories18

luctantly, Freud turned from his laboratory to the practice of medicine. He worked
for 3 years in the General Hospital of Vienna, becoming familiar with the practice of
various branches of medicine, including psychiatry and nervous diseases (Freud,
1925/1959).

In 1885, he received a traveling grant from the University of Vienna and de-
cided to study in Paris with the famous French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. He
spent 4 months with Charcot, from whom he learned the hypnotic technique for
treating hysteria, a disorder typically characterized by paralysis or the improper
functioning of certain parts of the body. Through hypnosis, Freud became convinced
of a psychogenic and sexual origin of hysterical symptoms.

While still a medical student, Freud developed a close professional association
and a personal friendship with Josef Breuer, a well-known Viennese physician 14
years older than Freud and a man of considerable scientific reputation (Ferris, 1997).
Breuer taught Freud about catharsis, the process of removing hysterical symptoms
through “talking them out.” While using catharsis, Freud gradually and laboriously
discovered the free association technique, which soon replaced hypnosis as his prin-
cipal therapeutic technique.

From as early as adolescence, Freud literally dreamed of making a monumen-
tal discovery and achieving fame (Newton, 1995). On several occasions during the
1880s and 1890s he believed he was on the verge of such a discovery. His first op-
portunity to gain recognition came in 1884–1885 and involved his experiments with
cocaine, which we discussed in the opening vignette.

Freud’s second opportunity for achieving some measure of fame came in 1886
after he returned from Paris, where he had learned about male hysteria from Char-
cot. He assumed that this knowledge would gain him respect and recognition from
the Imperial Society of Physicians of Vienna, whom he mistakenly believed would
be impressed by the young Dr. Freud’s knowledge of male hysteria. Early physicians

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 19

Sigmund Freud with his daughter, Anna, who was a psychoanalyst in her own right.

had believed that hysteria was strictly a female disorder because the very word had
the same origins as uterus and was the result of a “wandering womb,” with the uterus
traveling throughout women’s bodies and causing various parts to malfunction. How-
ever, by 1886, when Freud presented a paper on male hysteria to the Society, most
physicians present were already familiar with the illness and knew that it could also
be a male disorder. Because originality was expected and because Freud’s paper was
a rehash of what was already known, the Viennese physicians did not respond well
to the presentation. Also, Freud’s constant praise of Charcot, a Frenchman, cooled
the Viennese physicians to his talk. Unfortunately, in his autobiographical study,
Freud (1925/1959) told a very different story, claiming that his lecture was not well
received because members of the learned society could not fathom the concept of
male hysteria. Freud’s account of this incident, now known to be in error, was nev-
ertheless perpetuated for years, and as Sulloway (1992) argued, it is but one of many
fictions created by Freud and his followers to mythologize psychoanalysis and to
make a lonely hero of its founder.

Disappointed in his attempts to gain fame and afflicted with feelings (both jus-
tified and otherwise) of professional opposition due to his defense of cocaine and his
belief in the sexual origins of neuroses, Freud felt the need to join with a more re-
spected colleague. He turned to Breuer, with whom he had worked while still a med-
ical student and with whom he enjoyed a continuing personal and professional rela-
tionship. Breuer had discussed in detail with Freud the case of Anna O, a young
woman Freud had never met, but whom Breuer had spent many hours treating for
hysteria several years earlier. Because of his rebuff by the Imperial Society of Physi-
cians and his desire to establish a reputation for himself, Freud urged Breuer to col-
laborate with him in publishing an account of Anna O and several other cases of hys-
teria. Breuer, however, was not as eager as the younger and more revolutionary Freud
to publish a full treatise on hysteria built on only a few case studies. He also could
not accept Freud’s notion that childhood sexual experiences were the source of adult
hysteria. Finally, and with some reluctance, Breuer agreed to publish with Freud
Studies on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1895/1955). In this book, Freud introduced the
term “psychical analysis,” and during the following year, he began calling his ap-
proach “psycho-analysis.”

At about the time Studies on Hysteria was published, Freud and Breuer had a
professional disagreement and became estranged personally. Freud then turned to his
friend Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin physician who served as a sounding board for Freud’s
newly developing ideas. Freud’s letters to Fliess (Freud, 1985) constitute a firsthand
account of the beginnings of psychoanalysis and reveal the embryonic stage of
Freudian theory. Freud and Fliess had become friends in 1887, but their relationship
became more intimate following Freud’s break with Breuer.

During the late 1890s, Freud suffered both professional isolation and personal
crises. He had begun to analyze his own dreams, and after the death of his father in
1896, he initiated the practice of analyzing himself daily. Although his self-analysis
was a lifetime labor, it was especially difficult for him during the late 1890s. During
this period, Freud regarded himself as his own best patient. In August of 1897, he
wrote to Fliess, “the chief patient I am preoccupied with is myself. . . . The analysis
is more difficult than any other. It is, in fact what paralyzes my psychic strength”
(Freud, 1985, p. 261).

Part II Psychodynamic Theories20

A second personal crisis was his realization that he was now middle-aged and
had yet to achieve the fame he so passionately desired. During this time he had suf-
fered yet another disappointment in his attempt to make a major scientific contribu-
tion. Again he believed himself to be on the brink of an important breakthrough with
his “discovery” that neuroses have their etiology in a child’s seduction by a parent.
Freud likened this finding to the discovery of the source of the Nile. However, in
1897 he abandoned the seduction theory and once again had to postpone the discov-
ery that would propel him to greatness.

Why did Freud abandon his once-treasured seduction theory? In a letter dated
September 21, 1897, to Wilhelm Fliess, he gave four reasons why he could no longer
believe in his seduction theory. First, he said, the seduction theory had not enabled
him to successfully treat even a single patient. Second, a great number of fathers, in-
cluding his own, would have to be accused of sexual perversion because hysteria was
quite common even among Freud’s siblings. Third, Freud believed that the uncon-
scious mind could probably not distinguish reality from fiction, a belief that later
evolved into the Oedipus complex. And fourth, he found that the unconscious mem-
ories of advanced psychotic patients almost never revealed early childhood sexual
experiences (Freud, 1985). After abandoning his seduction theory and with no Oedi-
pus complex to replace it, Freud sank even more deeply into his midlife crisis.

Freud’s official biographer, Ernest Jones (1953, 1955, 1957), believed that
Freud suffered from a severe psychoneurosis during the late 1890s, although Max
Schur (1972), Freud’s personal physician during the final decade of his life, con-
tended that his illness was due to a cardiac lesion, aggravated by addiction to nico-
tine. Peter Gay (1988) suggested that during the time immediately after his father’s
death, Freud “relived his oedipal conflicts with peculiar ferocity” (p. 141). But Henri
Ellenberger (1970) described this period in Freud’s life as a time of “creative illness,”
a condition characterized by depression, neurosis, psychosomatic ailments, and an
intense preoccupation with some form of creative activity. In any event, at midlife,
Freud was suffering from self-doubts, depression, and an obsession with his own
death.

Despite these difficulties, Freud completed his greatest work, Interpretation of
Dreams (1900/1953), during this period. This book, finished in 1899, was an out-
growth of his self-analysis, much of which he had revealed to his friend Wilhelm
Fliess. The book contained many of Freud’s own dreams, some disguised behind fic-
titious names.

Almost immediately after the publication of Interpretation of Dreams, his
friendship with Fliess began to cool, eventually to rupture in 1903. This breakup par-
alleled Freud’s earlier estrangement from Breuer, which took place almost immedi-
ately after they had published Studies on Hysteria together. It was also a harbinger
of his breaks with Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and several other close associates. Why
did Freud have difficulties with so many former friends? Freud himself answered this
question, stating that “it is not the scientific differences that are so important; it is
usually some other kind of animosity, jealousy or revenge, that gives the impulse to
enmity. The scientific differences come later” (Wortis, 1954, p. 163).

Although Interpretation of Dreams did not create the instant international stir
Freud had hoped, it eventually gained for him the fame and recognition he had
sought. In the 5-year period following its publication, Freud, now filled with renewed

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 21

self-confidence, wrote several important works that helped solidify the foundation of
psychoanalysis, including On Dreams (1901/1953), written because Interpretation
of Dreams had failed to capture much interest; Psychopathology of Everyday Life
(1901/1960), which introduced the world to Freudian slips; Three Essays on the The-
ory of Sexuality (1905/1953b), which established sex as the cornerstone of psycho-
analysis; and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905/1960), which pro-
posed that jokes, like dreams and Freudian slips, have an unconscious meaning.
These publications helped Freud attain some local prominence in scientific and med-
ical circles.

In 1902, Freud invited a small group of somewhat younger Viennese physi-
cians to meet in his home to discuss psychological issues. Then, in the fall of that
year, these five men—Freud, Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Stekel, Max Kahane, and Rudolf
Reitler—formed the Wednesday Psychological Society, with Freud as discussion
leader. In 1908, this organization adopted a more formal name—the Vienna Psycho-
analytic Society.

In 1910, Freud and his followers founded the International Psychoanalytic As-
sociation with Carl Jung of Zürich as president. Freud was attracted to Jung because
of his keen intellect and also because he was neither Jewish nor Viennese. Between
1902 and 1906, all 17 of Freud’s disciples had been Jewish (Kurzweil, 1989), and
Freud was interested in giving psychoanalysis a more cosmopolitan flavor. Although
Jung was a welcome addition to the Freudian circle and had been designated as the
“Crown Prince” and “the man of the future,” he, like Adler and Stekel before him,
eventually quarreled bitterly with Freud and left the psychoanalytic movement. The
seeds of disagreement between Jung and Freud were probably sown when the two
men, along with Sandor Ferenczi, traveled to the United States in 1909 to deliver a
series of lectures at Clark University near Boston. To pass the time during their trav-
els, Freud and Jung interpreted each other’s dreams, a potentially explosive practice
that eventually led to the end of their relationship in 1913 (McGuire, 1974).

The years of World War I were difficult for Freud. He was cut off from com-
munication with his faithful followers, his psychoanalytic practice dwindled, his
home was sometimes without heat, and he and his family had little food. After the
war, despite advancing years and pain suffered from 33 operations for cancer of the
mouth, he made important revisions in his theory. The most significant of these were
the elevation of aggression to a level equal to that of the sexual drive, the inclusion
of repression as one of the defenses of the ego; and his attempt to clarify the female
Oedipus complex, which he was never able to completely accomplish.

What personal qualities did Freud possess? A more complete insight into his
personality can be found in Breger (2000), Clark (1980), Ellenberger (1970), Ferris
(1997), Gay (1988), Handlbauer (1998), Isbister (1985), E. Jones (1953, 1955,
1957), Newton (1995), Noland (1999), Roazen (1993, 1995, 2001), Silverstein
(2003), Sulloway (1992), Vitz (1988), and dozens of other books on Freud’s life.
Above all, Freud was a sensitive, passionate person who had the capacity for inti-
mate, almost secretive friendships. Most of these deeply emotional relationships
came to an unhappy end, and Freud often felt persecuted by his former friends and
regarded them as enemies. He seemed to have needed both types of relationship. In
Interpretation of Dreams, Freud both explained and predicted this succession of in-
terpersonal ruptures: “My emotional life has always insisted that I should have an in-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories22

timate friend and a hated enemy. I have always been able to provide myself afresh
with both” (Freud, 1900/1953, p. 483). Until he was well past 50, all these relation-
ships were with men. Interestingly, Freud, the man who seemed to be constantly
thinking of sex, had a very infrequent sex life himself. After Anna, his youngest child
was born in 1895, Freud, not yet 40 years old, had no sexual intercourse for several
years. Much of his sparse sexual life stemmed from his belief that use of a condom,
coitus interruptus, as well as masturbation were unhealthy sexual practices. Because
Freud wanted no more children after Anna was born, sexual abstinence was his only
alternative (Breger, 2000; Freud, 1985).

In addition to balancing his emotional life between an intimate friend and a
hated enemy, Freud possessed an outstanding talent as a writer, a gift that helped him
become a leading contributor to 20th-century thought. He was a master of the Ger-
man tongue and knew several other languages. Although he never won the coveted
Nobel prize for science, he was awarded the Goethe prize for literature in 1930.

Freud also possessed intense intellectual curiosity; unusual moral courage
(demonstrated by his daily self-analysis); extremely ambivalent feelings toward his
father and other father figures; a tendency to hold grudges disproportionate to the al-
leged offense; a burning ambition, especially during his earlier years; strong feelings
of isolation even while surrounded by many followers; and an intense and somewhat
irrational dislike of America and Americans, an attitude that became more intense
after his trip to the United States in 1909.

Why did Freud have such a disdain for Americans? Perhaps the most impor-
tant reason is that he rightly believed Americans would trivialize psychoanalysis by
trying to make it popular. In addition, he had several experiences during his trip to
the United States that were foreign to a proper bourgeois Viennese gentleman. Even
before he embarked on the George Washington, he saw his name misspelled as
“Freund” on the passenger list (Ferris, 1997). A number of other events—some of which
seem almost humorous—made Freud’s visit more unpleasant than it might have
been. First, Freud experienced chronic indigestion and diarrhea throughout his visit,
probably because the drinking water did not agree with him. In addition, he found it
both peculiar and problematic that American cities did not provide public restrooms
on street corners, and with his chronic indigestion he was frequently in search of a
public lavatory. Also, several Americans addressed him as Doc or Sigmund while
challenging him to defend his theories, and one person tried—unsuccessfully, of
course—to prevent him from smoking a cigar in a nonsmoking area. Moreover, when
Freud, Ferenczi, and Jung went to a private camp in western Massachusetts, they
were greeted by a barrage of flags of Imperial Germany, despite the fact that none of
them was German and each had reasons to dislike Germany. Also at camp, Freud,
along with the others, sat on the ground while the host grilled steaks over charcoal,
a custom Freud deemed to be both savage and uncouth (Roazen, 1993).

Levels of Mental Life
Freud’s greatest contribution to personality theory is his exploration of the uncon-
scious and his insistence that people are motivated primarily by drives of which they
have little or no awareness. To Freud, mental life is divided into two levels, the un-
conscious and the conscious. The unconscious, in turn, has two different levels, the

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 23

unconscious proper and the preconscious. In Freudian psychology the three levels
of mental life are used to designate both a process and a location. The existence as a
specific location, of course, is merely hypothetical and has no real existence within
the body. Yet, Freud spoke of the unconscious as well as unconscious processes.

Unconscious
The unconscious contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our
awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions.
Although we may be conscious of our overt behaviors, we often are not aware of the
mental processes that lie behind them. For example, a man may know that he is at-
tracted to a woman but may not fully understand all the reasons for the attraction,
some of which may even seem irrational.

Because the unconscious is not available to the conscious mind, how can one
know if it really exists? Freud felt that its existence could be proved only indirectly.
To him the unconscious is the explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of
the tongue, and certain kinds of forgetting, called repression. Dreams serve as a par-
ticularly rich source of unconscious material. For example, Freud believed that child-
hood experiences can appear in adult dreams even though the dreamer has no con-
scious recollection of these experiences.

Unconscious processes often enter into consciousness but only after being dis-
guised or distorted enough to elude censorship. Freud (1917/1963) used the analogy
of a guardian or censor blocking the passage between the unconscious and precon-
scious and preventing undesirable anxiety-producing memories from entering
awareness. To enter the conscious level of the mind, these unconscious images first
must be sufficiently disguised to slip past the primary censor, and then they must
elude a final censor that watches the passageway between the preconscious and the
conscious. By the time these memories enter our conscious mind, we no longer rec-
ognize them for what they are; instead, we see them as relatively pleasant, non-
threatening experiences. In most cases, these images have strong sexual or aggres-
sive motifs, because childhood sexual and aggressive behaviors are frequently
punished or suppressed. Punishment and suppression often create feelings of anxi-
ety, and the anxiety in turn stimulates repression, that is, the forcing of unwanted,
anxiety-ridden experiences into the unconscious as a defense against the pain of that
anxiety.

Not all unconscious processes, however, spring from repression of childhood
events. Freud believed that a portion of our unconscious originates from the experi-
ences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us through hundreds of gen-
erations of repetition. He called these inherited unconscious images our phyloge-
netic endowment (Freud, 1917/1963, 1933/1964). Freud’s notion of phylogenetic
endowment is quite similar to Carl Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious (see Chap-
ter 4). However, one important difference exists between the two concepts. Whereas
Jung placed primary emphasis on the collective unconscious, Freud relied on the no-
tion of inherited dispositions only as a last resort. That is, when explanations built on
individual experiences were not adequate, Freud would turn to the idea of collec-
tively inherited experiences to fill in the gaps left by individual experiences. Later we
will see that Freud used the concept of phylogenetic endowment to explain several
important concepts, such as the Oedipus complex and castration anxiety.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories24

Unconscious drives may appear in consciousness, but only after undergoing
certain transformations. A person may express either erotic or hostile urges, for ex-
ample, by teasing or joking with another person. The original drive (sex or aggres-
sion) is thus disguised and hidden from the conscious minds of both persons. The un-
conscious of the first person, however, has directly influenced the unconscious of the
second. Both people gain some satisfaction of either sexual or aggressive urges, but
neither is conscious of the underlying motive behind the teasing or joking. Thus the
unconscious mind of one person can communicate with the unconscious of another
without either person being aware of the process.

Unconscious, of course, does not mean inactive or dormant. Forces in the un-
conscious constantly strive to become conscious, and many of them succeed, al-
though they may no longer appear in their original form. Unconscious ideas can and
do motivate people. For example, a son’s hostility toward his father may masquerade
itself in the form of ostentatious affection. In an undisguised form, the hostility
would create too much anxiety for the son. His unconscious mind, therefore, moti-
vates him to express hostility indirectly through an exaggerated show of love and
flattery. Because the disguise must successfully deceive the person, it often takes an
opposite form from the original feelings, but it is almost always overblown and os-
tentatious. (This mechanism, called a reaction formation, is discussed later in the
section titled Defense Mechanisms.)

Preconscious
The preconscious level of the mind contains all those elements that are not conscious
but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty (Freud,
1933/1964).

The contents of the preconscious come from two sources, the first of which is
conscious perception. What a person perceives is conscious for only a transitory pe-
riod; it quickly passes into the preconscious when the focus of attention shifts to an-
other idea. These ideas that alternate easily between being conscious and precon-
scious are largely free from anxiety and in reality are much more similar to the
conscious images than to unconscious urges.

The second source of preconscious images is the unconscious. Freud believed
that ideas can slip past the vigilant censor and enter into the preconscious in a dis-
guised form. Some of these images never become conscious because if we recog-
nized them as derivatives of the unconscious, we would experience increased levels
of anxiety, which would activate the final censor to repress these anxiety-loaded im-
ages, forcing them back into the unconscious. Other images from the unconscious
do gain admission to consciousness, but only because their true nature is cleverly
disguised through the dream process, a slip of the tongue, or an elaborate defensive
measure.

Conscious
Consciousness, which plays a relatively minor role in psychoanalytic theory, can be
defined as those mental elements in awareness at any given point in time. It is the
only level of mental life directly available to us. Ideas can reach consciousness from
two different directions. The first is from the perceptual conscious system, which is

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 25

turned toward the outer world and acts as a medium for the perception of external
stimuli. In other words, what we perceive through our sense organs, if not too threat-
ening, enters into consciousness (Freud, 1933/1964).

The second source of conscious elements is from within the mental structure
and includes nonthreatening ideas from the preconscious as well as menacing but
well-disguised images from the unconscious. As we have seen, these latter images
escaped into the preconscious by cloaking themselves as harmless elements and
evading the primary censor. Once in the preconscious, they avoid a final censor and
come under the eye of consciousness. By the time they reach the conscious system,
these images are greatly distorted and camouflaged, often taking the form of defen-
sive behaviors or dream elements.

In summary, Freud (1917/1963, pp. 295–296) compared the unconscious to a
large entrance hall in which many diverse, energetic, and disreputable people are
milling about, crowding one another, and striving incessantly to escape to a smaller
adjoining reception room. However, a watchful guard protects the threshold between

Part II Psychodynamic Theories26

FIGURE 2.1 Levels of Mental Life.

King

Reception
room

Anteroom

Screen

Eye of consciousness

Final censorship

Preconscious

Censorship

Unconscious

Doorkeeper

the large entrance hall and the small reception room. This guard has two methods of
preventing undesirables from escaping from the entrance hall—either turn them
back at the door or throw out those people who earlier had clandestinely slipped into
the reception room. The effect in either case is the same; the menacing, disorderly
people are prevented from coming into view of an important guest who is seated at
the far end of the reception room behind a screen. The meaning of the analogy is ob-
vious. The people in the entrance hall represent unconscious images. The small re-
ception room is the preconscious and its inhabitants represent preconscious ideas.
People in the reception room (preconscious) may or may not come into view of the
important guest who, of course, represents the eye of consciousness. The doorkeeper
who guards the threshold between the two rooms is the primary censor that prevents
unconscious images from becoming preconscious and renders preconscious images
unconscious by throwing them back. The screen that guards the important guest is
the final censor, and it prevents many, but not all, preconscious elements from reach-
ing consciousness. The analogy is presented graphically in Figure 2.1.

Provinces of the Mind
For nearly 2 decades, Freud’s only model of the mind was the topographic one we
have just outlined, and his only portrayal of psychic strife was the conflict between
conscious and unconscious forces. Then, during the 1920s, Freud (1923/1961a) in-
troduced a three-part structural model. This division of the mind into three provinces
did not supplant the topographic model, but it helped Freud explain mental images
according to their functions or purposes.

To Freud, the most primitive part of the mind was das Es, or the “it,” which is
almost always translated into English as id; a second division was das Ich, or the “I,”
translated as ego; and a final province was das Uber-Ich, or the “over-I,” which is
rendered into English as superego. These provinces or regions have no territorial ex-
istence, of course, but are merely hypothetical constructs. They interact with the
three levels of mental life so that the ego cuts across the various topographic levels
and has conscious, preconscious, and unconscious components, whereas the super-
ego is both preconscious and unconscious and the id is completely unconscious. Fig-
ure 2.2 shows the relationship between the provinces of the mind and the levels of
mental life.

The Id
At the core of personality and completely unconscious is the psychical region called
the id, a term derived from the impersonal pronoun meaning “the it,” or the not-yet-
owned component of personality. The id has no contact with reality, yet it strives con-
stantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires. Because its sole function is to
seek pleasure, we say that the id serves the pleasure principle.

A newborn infant is the personification of an id unencumbered by restrictions
of ego and superego. The infant seeks gratification of needs without regard for what
is possible (that is, demands of the ego) or what is proper (that is, restraints of the
superego). Instead, it sucks when the nipple is either present or absent and gains
pleasure in either situation. Although the infant receives life-sustaining food only by

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 27

sucking a nurturing nipple, it continues to suck because its id is not in contact with
reality. The infant fails to realize that thumb-sucking behavior cannot sustain life.
Because the id has no direct contact with reality, it is not altered by the passage of
time or by the experiences of the person. Childhood wish impulses remain un-
changed in the id for decades (Freud, 1933/1964).

Besides being unrealistic and pleasure seeking, the id is illogical and can si-
multaneously entertain incompatible ideas. For example, a woman may show con-
scious love for her mother while unconsciously wishing to destroy her. These op-
posing desires are possible because the id has no morality; that is, it cannot make
value judgments or distinguish between good and evil. However, the id is not im-
moral, merely amoral. All of the id’s energy is spent for one purpose—to seek plea-
sure without regard for what is proper or just (Freud, 1923/1961a, 1933/1964).

In review, the id is primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness, un-
changeable, amoral, illogical, unorganized, and filled with energy received from
basic drives and discharged for the satisfaction of the pleasure principle.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories28

FIGURE 2.2 Levels of Mental Life and Provinces of the Mind.

Eye of consciousness
Final censorship
Preconscious
Censorship
Unconscious
Id
Ego

Superego
Open to

somatic influences

As the region that houses basic drives (primary motivates), the id operates
through the primary process. Because it blindly seeks to satisfy the pleasure prin-
ciple, its survival is dependent on the development of a secondary process to bring
it into contact with the external world. This secondary process functions through the
ego.

The Ego
The ego, or I, is the only region of the mind in contact with reality. It grows out of
the id during infancy and becomes a person’s sole source of communication with the
external world. It is governed by the reality principle, which it tries to substitute for
the pleasure principle of the id. As the sole region of the mind in contact with the ex-
ternal world, the ego becomes the decision-making or executive branch of personal-
ity. However, because it is partly conscious, partly preconscious, and partly uncon-
scious, the ego can make decisions on each of these three levels. For instance, a
woman’s ego may consciously motivate her to choose excessively neat, well-tailored
clothes because she feels comfortable when well dressed. At the same time, she may
be only dimly (i.e., preconsciously) aware of previous experiences of being rewarded
for choosing nice clothes. In addition, she may be unconsciously motivated to be ex-
cessively neat and orderly due to early childhood experiences of toilet training. Thus,
her decision to wear neat clothes can take place in all three levels of mental life.

When performing its cognitive and intellectual functions, the ego must take
into consideration the incompatible but equally unrealistic demands of the id and the
superego. In addition to these two tyrants, the ego must serve a third master—the ex-
ternal world. Thus, the ego constantly tries to reconcile the blind, irrational claims of
the id and the superego with the realistic demands of the external world. Finding it-
self surrounded on three sides by divergent and hostile forces, the ego reacts in a pre-
dictable manner—it becomes anxious. It then uses repression and other defense
mechanisms to defend itself against this anxiety (Freud, 1926/1959a).

According to Freud (1933/1964), the ego becomes differentiated from the id
when infants learn to distinguish themselves from the outer world. While the id re-
mains unchanged, the ego continues to develop strategies for handling the id’s unre-
alistic and unrelenting demands for pleasure. At times the ego can control the pow-
erful, pleasure-seeking id, but at other times it loses control. In comparing the ego to
the id, Freud used the analogy of a person on horseback. The rider checks and in-
hibits the greater strength of the horse but is ultimately at the mercy of the animal.
Similarly, the ego must check and inhibit id impulses, but it is more or less constantly
at the mercy of the stronger but more poorly organized id. The ego has no strength
of its own but borrows energy from the id. In spite of this dependence on the id, the
ego sometimes comes close to gaining complete control, for instance, during the
prime of life of a psychologically mature person.

As children begin to experience parental rewards and punishments, they learn
what to do in order to gain pleasure and avoid pain. At this young age, pleasure and
pain are ego functions because children have not yet developed a conscience and
ego-ideal: that is, a superego. As children reach the age of 5 or 6 years, they identify
with their parents and begin to learn what they should and should not do. This is the
origin of the superego.

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 29

The Superego
In Freudian psychology, the superego, or above-I, represents the moral and ideal as-
pects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles as op-
posed to the pleasure principle of the id and the realistic principle of the ego. The
superego grows out of the ego, and like the ego, it has no energy of its own. How-
ever, the superego differs from the ego in one important respect—it has no contact
with the outside world and therefore is unrealistic in its demands for perfection
(Freud, 1923/1961a).

The superego has two subsystems, the conscience and the ego-ideal. Freud did
not clearly distinguish between these two functions, but, in general, the conscience
results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what
we should not do, whereas the ego-ideal develops from experiences with rewards for
proper behavior and tells us what we should do. A primitive conscience comes into
existence when a child conforms to parental standards out of fear of loss of love or
approval. Later, during the Oedipal phase of development, these ideals are internal-
ized through identification with the mother and father. (We discuss the Oedipus com-
plex in a later section titled Stages of Development.)

A well-developed superego acts to control sexual and aggressive impulses
through the process of repression. It cannot produce repressions by itself, but it can
order the ego to do so. The superego watches closely over the ego, judging its actions
and intentions. Guilt is the result when the ego acts—or even intends to act—con-
trary to the moral standards of the superego. Feelings of inferiority arise when the
ego is unable to meet the superego’s standards of perfection. Guilt, then, is a func-
tion of the conscience, whereas inferiority feelings stem from the ego-ideal (Freud,
1933/1964).

The superego is not concerned with the happiness of the ego. It strives blindly
and unrealistically toward perfection. It is unrealistic in the sense that it does not take

Part II Psychodynamic Theories30

FIGURE 2.3 The Relationship among Id, Ego, and Superego in Three Hypothetical
Persons.

A pleasure-seeking person
dominated by the id

A guilt-ridden or inferior-
feeling person dominated
by the superego

A psychologically healthy
person dominated by
the ego

Id Ego Superego

into consideration the difficulties or impossibilities faced by the ego in carrying out
its orders. Not all its demands, of course, are impossible to fulfill, just as not all de-
mands of parents and other authority figures are impossible to fulfill. The superego,
however, is like the id in that it is completely ignorant of, and unconcerned with, the
practicability of its requirements.

Freud (1933/1964) pointed out that the divisions among the different regions
of the mind are not sharp and well defined. The development of the three divisions
varies widely in different individuals. For some people, the superego does not grow
after childhood; for others, the superego may dominate the personality at the cost of
guilt and inferiority feelings. For yet others, the ego and superego may take turns
controlling personality, which results in extreme fluctuations of mood and alternat-
ing cycles of self-confidence and self-deprecation. In the healthy individual, the id
and superego are integrated into a smooth functioning ego and operate in harmony
and with a minimum of conflict. Figure 2.3 shows the relationships among id, ego,
and superego in three hypothetical persons. For the first person, the id dominates a
weak ego and a feeble superego, preventing the ego from counterbalancing its in-
cessant demands of the id and leaving the person nearly constantly striving for plea-
sure regardless of what is possible or proper. The second person, with strong feelings
of either guilt or inferiority and a weak ego, will experience many conflicts because
the ego cannot arbitrate the strong but opposing demands of the superego and the id.
The third person, with a strong ego that has incorporated many of the demands of
both the id and the superego, is psychologically healthy and in control of both the
pleasure principle and the moralistic principle.

Dynamics of Personality
Levels of mental life and provinces of the mind refer to the structure or composition
of personality; but personalities also do something. Thus, Freud postulated a dy-
namic, or motivational principle, to explain the driving forces behind people’s ac-
tions. To Freud, people are motivated to seek pleasure and to reduce tension and anx-
iety. This motivation is derived from psychical and physical energy that springs from
their basic drives.

Drives
Freud used the German word Trieb to refer to a drive or a stimulus within the per-
son. Freud’s official translators rendered this term as instinct, but more accurately the
word should be “drive” or “impulse.” Drives operate as a constant motivational
force. As an internal stimulus, drives differ from external stimuli in that they cannot
be avoided through flight.

According to Freud (1933/1964), the various drives can all be grouped under
two major headings: sex or Eros and aggression, distraction, or Thanatos. These
drives originate in the id, but they come under the control of the ego. Each drive has
its own form of psychic energy: Freud used the word libido for the sex drive, but en-
ergy from the aggressive drive remains nameless.

Every basic drive is characterized by an impetus, a source, an aim, and an ob-
ject. A drive’s impetus is the amount of force it exerts; its source is the region of the

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 31

body in a state of excitation or tension; its aim is to seek pleasure by removing that
excitation or reducing the tension; and its object is the person or thing that serves as
the means through which the aim is satisfied (Freud, 1915/1957a).

Sex
The aim of the sexual drive is pleasure, but this pleasure is not limited to genital sat-
isfaction. Freud believed that the entire body is invested with libido. Besides the gen-
itals, the mouth and anus are especially capable of producing sexual pleasure and are
called erogenous zones. The ultimate aim of the sexual drive (reduction of sexual
tension) cannot be changed, but the path by which the aim is reached can be varied.
It can take either an active or a passive form, or it can be temporarily or permanently
inhibited (Freud, 1915/1957a). Because the path is flexible and because sexual pleas-
ure stems from organs other than the genitals, much behavior originally motivated
by Eros is difficult to recognize as sexual behavior. To Freud, however, all pleasura-
ble activity is traceable to the sexual drive.

The flexibility of the sexual object or person can bring about a further disguise
of Eros. The erotic object can easily be transformed or displaced. Libido can be with-
drawn from one person and placed in a state of free-floating tension, or it can be rein-
vested in another person, including the self. For example, an infant prematurely
forced to give up the nipple as a sexual object may substitute the thumb as an object
of oral pleasure.

Sex can take many forms, including narcissism, love, sadism, and masochism.
The latter two also possess generous components of the aggressive drive.

Infants are primarily self-centered, with their libido invested almost exclu-
sively on their own ego. This condition, which is universal, is known as primary
narcissism. As the ego develops, children usually give up much of their primary nar-
cissism and develop a greater interest in other people. In Freud’s language, narcis-
sistic libido is then transformed into object libido. During puberty, however, adoles-
cents often redirect their libido back to the ego and become preoccupied with
personal appearance and other self-interests. This pronounced secondary narcis-
sism is not universal, but a moderate degree of self-love is common to nearly every-
one (Freud, 1914/1957).

A second manifestation of Eros is love, which develops when people invest
their libido on an object or person other than themselves. Children’s first sexual in-
terest is the person who cares for them, generally the mother. During infancy chil-
dren of either sex experience sexual love for the mother. Overt sexual love for mem-
bers of one’s family, however, ordinarily is repressed, which brings a second type of
love into existence. Freud called this second kind of love aim-inhibited because the
original aim of reducing sexual tension is inhibited or repressed. The kind of love
people feel for their siblings or parents is generally aim-inhibited.

Obviously, love and narcissism are closely interrelated. Narcissism involves
love of self, whereas love is often accompanied by narcissistic tendencies, as when
people love someone who serves as an ideal or model of what they would like to be.

Two other drives that are also intertwined are sadism and masochism. Sadism
is the need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person.
Carried to an extreme, it is considered a sexual perversion, but in moderation,
sadism is a common need and exists to some extent in all sexual relationships. It is

Part II Psychodynamic Theories32

perverted when the sexual aim of erotic pleasure becomes secondary to the destruc-
tive aim (Freud, 1933/1964).

Masochism, like sadism, is a common need, but it becomes a perversion when
Eros becomes subservient to the destructive drive. Masochists experience sexual
pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted either by themselves or by oth-
ers. Because masochists can provide self-inflicted pain, they do not depend on an-
other person for the satisfaction of masochistic needs. In contrast, sadists must seek
and find another person on whom to inflict pain or humiliation. In this respect, they
are more dependent than masochists on other people.

Aggression
Partially as a result of his unhappy experiences during World War I and partially as
a consequence of the death of his beloved daughter Sophie, Freud (1920/1955a)
wrote Beyond the Pleasure Principle, a book that elevated aggression to the level of
the sexual drive. As he did with many of his other concepts, Freud set forth his ideas
tentatively and with some caution. With time, however, aggression, like several other
tentatively proposed concepts, became dogma.

The aim of the destructive drive, according to Freud, is to return the organism
to an inorganic state. Because the ultimate inorganic condition is death, the final aim
of the aggressive drive is self-destruction. As with the sexual drive, aggression is
flexible and can take a number of forms, such as teasing, gossip, sarcasm, humilia-
tion. humor, and the enjoyment of other people’s suffering. The aggressive tendency
is present in everyone and is the explanation for wars, atrocities, and religious per-
secution.

The aggressive drive also explains the need for the barriers that people have
erected to check aggression. For example, commandments such as “Love thy neigh-
bor as thyself ” are necessary, Freud believed, to inhibit the strong, though usually
unconscious, drive to inflict injury on others. These precepts are actually reaction
formations. They involve the repression of strong hostile impulses and the overt and
obvious expression of the opposite tendency.

Throughout our lifetime, life and death impulses constantly struggle against
one another for ascendancy, but at the same time, both must bow to the reality prin-
ciple, which represents the claims of the outer world. These demands of the real
world prevent a direct, covert, and unopposed fulfillment of either sex or aggression.
They frequently create anxiety, which relegates many sexual and aggressive desires
to the realm of the unconscious.

Anxiety
Sex and aggression share the center of Freudian dynamic theory with the concept of
anxiety. In defining anxiety, Freud (1933/1964) emphasized that it is a felt, affective,
unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against
impending danger. The unpleasantness is often vague and hard to pinpoint, but the
anxiety itself is always felt.

Only the ego can produce or feel anxiety, but the id, superego, and external
world each are involved in one of three kinds of anxiety—neurotic, moral, and real-
istic. The ego’s dependence on the id results in neurotic anxiety; its dependence on

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 33

the superego produces moral anxiety; and its dependence on the outer world leads to
realistic anxiety.

Neurotic anxiety is defined as apprehension about an unknown danger. The
feeling itself exists in the ego, but it originates from id impulses. People may expe-
rience neurotic anxiety in the presence of a teacher, employer, or some other author-
ity figure because they previously experienced unconscious feelings of destruction
against one or both parents. During childhood, these feelings of hostility are often
accompanied by fear of punishment, and this fear becomes generalized into uncon-
scious neurotic anxiety.

A second type of anxiety, moral anxiety, stems from the conflict between the
ego and the superego. After children establish a superego—usually by the age of 5
or 6—they may experience anxiety as an outgrowth of the conflict between realistic
needs and the dictates of their superego. Moral anxiety, for example, would result
from sexual temptations if a child believes that yielding to the temptation would be
morally wrong. It may also result from the failure to behave consistently with what
they regard as morally right, for example, failing to care for aging parents.

A third category of anxiety, realistic anxiety, is closely related to fear. It is de-
fined as an unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger. For example,
we may experience realistic anxiety while driving in heavy, fast-moving traffic in an
unfamiliar city, a situation fraught with real, objective danger. However, realistic
anxiety is different from fear in that it does not involve a specific fearful object. We
would experience fear, for example, if our motor vehicle suddenly began sliding out
of control on an icy highway.

These three types of anxiety are seldom clear-cut or easily separated. They
often exist in combination, as when fear of water, a real danger, becomes dispropor-
tionate to the situation and hence precipitates neurotic anxiety as well as realistic
anxiety. This situation indicates that an unknown danger is connected with the ex-
ternal one.

Anxiety serves as an ego-preserving mechanism because it signals us that
some danger is at hand (Freud, 1933/1964). For example, an anxiety dream signals
our censor of an impending danger, which allows us to better disguise the dream im-
ages. Anxiety allows the constantly vigilant ego to be alert for signs of threat and
danger. The signal of impending danger stimulates us to mobilize for either flight or
defense.

Anxiety is also self-regulating because it precipitates repression, which in turn
reduces the pain of anxiety (Freud, 1933/1964). If the ego had no recourse to defen-
sive behavior, the anxiety would become intolerable. Defensive behaviors, therefore,
serve a useful function by protecting the ego against the pain of anxiety.

Defense Mechanisms
Freud first elaborated on the idea of defense mechanisms in 1926 (Freud,
1926/1959a), and his daughter Anna further refined and organized the concept (A.
Freud, 1946). Although defense mechanisms are normal and universally used, when
carried to an extreme they lead to compulsive, repetitive, and neurotic behavior. Be-
cause we must expend psychic energy to establish and maintain defense mecha-
nisms, the more defensive we are, the less psychic energy we have left to satisfy id

Part II Psychodynamic Theories34

impulses. This, of course, is precisely the ego’s purpose in establishing defense
mechanisms—to avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive implosives and to
defend itself against the anxiety that accompanies them (Freud, 1926/1959a).

The principal defense mechanisms identified by Freud include repression, re-
action formation, displacement, fixation, regression, projection, introjection, and
sublimation.

Repression
The most basic defense mechanism, because it is involved in each of the others, is
repression. Whenever the ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it protects it-
self by repressing those impulses; that is, it forces threatening feelings into the un-
conscious (Freud, 1926/1959a). In many cases the repression is then perpetuated for
a lifetime. For example, a young girl may permanently repress her hostility for a
younger sister because her hateful feelings create too much anxiety.

No society permits a complete and uninhibited expression of sex and aggres-
sion. When children have their hostile or sexual behaviors punished or otherwise
suppressed, they learn to be anxious whenever they experience these impulses. Al-
though this anxiety seldom leads to a complete repression of aggressive and sexual
drives, it often results in their partial repression.

What happens to these impulses after they have become unconscious? Freud
(1933/1964) believed that several possibilities exist. First, the impulses may remain
unchanged in the unconscious. Second, they could force their way into conscious-
ness in an unaltered form, in which case they would create more anxiety than the per-
son could handle, and the person would be overwhelmed with anxiety. A third and
much more common fate of repressed drives is that they are expressed in displaced
or disguised forms. The disguise, of course, must be clever enough to deceive the
ego. Repressed drives may be disguised as physical symptoms, for example, sexual
impotency in a man troubled by sexual guilt. The impotency prevents the man from
having to deal with the guilt and anxiety that would result from normal enjoyable
sexual activity. Repressed drives may also find an outlet in dreams, slips of the
tongue, or one of the other defense mechanisms.

Reaction Formation
One of the ways in which a repressed impulse may become conscious is through
adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form. This defense mecha-
nism is called a reaction formation. Reactive behavior can be identified by its ex-
aggerated character and by its obsessive and compulsive form (Freud, 1926/1959a).
An example of a reaction formation can be seen in a young woman who deeply re-
sents and hates her mother. Because she knows that society demands affection to-
ward parents, such conscious hatred for her mother would produce too much anxi-
ety. To avoid painful anxiety, the young woman concentrates on the opposite
impulse—love. Her “love” for her mother, however, is not genuine. It is showy, ex-
aggerated, and overdone. Other people may easily see the true nature of this love, but
the woman must deceive herself and cling to her reaction formation, which helps
conceal the anxiety-arousing truth that she unconsciously hates her mother.

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 35

Displacement
Freud (1926/1959a) believed that reaction formations are limited to a single object;
for example, people with reactive love shower affection only on the person toward
whom they feel unconscious hatred. In displacement, however, people can redirect
their unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects so that the original im-
pulse is disguised or concealed. For example, a woman who is angry at her room-
mate may displace her anger onto her employees, her pet cat, or a stuffed animal. She
remains friendly to her roommate, but unlike the workings of a reaction formation,
she does not exaggerate or overdo her friendliness.

Throughout his writings, Freud used the term “displacement” in several ways.
In our discussion of the sexual drive, for example, we saw that the sexual object can
be displaced or transformed onto a variety of other objects, including one’s self.
Freud (1926/1959a) also used displacement to refer to the replacement of one neu-
rotic symptom for another; for example, a compulsive urge to masturbate may be re-
placed by compulsive hand washing. Displacement also is involved in dream forma-
tion, as when the dreamer’s destructive urges toward a parent are placed onto a dog
or wolf. In this event, a dream about a dog being hit by a car might reflect the
dreamer’s unconscious wish to see the parent destroyed. (We discuss dream forma-
tion more completely in the section on dream analysis.)

Fixation
Psychical growth normally proceeds in a somewhat continuous fashion through the
various stages of development. The process of psychologically growing up, however,
is not without stressful and anxious moments. When the prospect of taking the next
step becomes too anxiety provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of remaining
at the present, more comfortable psychological stage. Such a defense is called fixa-
tion. Technically, fixation is the permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier,
more primitive stage of development (Freud, 1917/1963). Like other defense mech-
anisms, fixations are universal. People who continually derive pleasure from eating,
smoking, or talking may have an oral fixation, whereas those who are obsessed with
neatness and orderliness may possess an anal fixation.

Regression
Once the libido has passed a developmental stage, it may, during times of stress and
anxiety, revert back to that earlier stage. Such a reversion is known as regression
(Freud, 1917/1963). Regressions are quite common and are readily visible in chil-
dren. For example, a completely weaned child may regress to demanding a bottle or
nipple when a baby brother or sister is born. The attention given to the new baby
poses a threat to the older child. Regressions are also frequent in older children and
in adults. A common way for adults to react to anxiety-producing situations is to re-
vert to earlier, safer, more secure patterns of behavior and to invest their libido onto
more primitive and familiar objects. Under extreme stress one adult may adopt the
fetal position, another may return home to mother, and still another may react by re-
maining all day in bed, well covered from the cold and threatening world. Regressive
behavior is similar to fixated behavior in that it is rigid and infantile. Regressions,

Part II Psychodynamic Theories36

however, are usually temporary, whereas fixations demand a more or less permanent
expenditure of psychic energy.

Projection
When an internal impulse provokes too much anxiety, the ego may reduce that anx-
iety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an external object, usually another per-
son. This is the defense mechanism of projection, which can be defined as seeing in
others unacceptable feelings or tendencies that actually reside in one’s own uncon-
scious (Freud, 1915/1957b). For example, a man may consistently interpret the ac-
tions of older women as attempted seductions. Consciously, the thought of sexual in-
tercourse with older women may be intensely repugnant to him, but buried in his
unconscious is a strong erotic attraction to these women. In this example, the young
man deludes himself into believing that he has no sexual feelings for older women.
Although this projection erases most of his anxiety and guilt, it permits him to main-
tain a sexual interest in women who remind him of his mother.

An extreme type of projection is paranoia, a mental disorder characterized by
powerful delusions of jealousy and persecution. Paranoia is not an inevitable out-
come of projection but simply a severe variety of it. According to Freud (1922/1955),
a crucial distinction between projection and paranoia is that paranoia is always char-
acterized by repressed homosexual feelings toward the persecutor. Freud believed
that the persecutor is inevitably a former friend of the same sex, although sometimes
people may transfer their delusions onto a person of the opposite sex. When homo-
sexual impulses become too powerful, persecuted paranoiacs defend themselves by
reversing these feelings and then projecting them onto their original object. For men,
the transformation proceeds as follows. Instead of saying, “I love him,” the paranoid
person says, “I hate him.” Because this also produces too much anxiety, he says, “He
hates me.” At this point, the person has disclaimed all responsibility and can say, “I
like him fine, but he’s got it in for me.” The central mechanism in all paranoia is pro-
jection with accompanying delusions of jealousy and persecution.

Introjection
Whereas projection involves placing an unwanted impulse onto an external object,
introjection is a defense mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities
of another person into their own ego. For example, an adolescent may introject or
adopt the mannerisms, values, or lifestyle of a movie star. Such an introjection gives
the adolescent an inflated sense of self-worth and keeps feelings of inferiority to a
minimum. People introject characteristics that they see as valuable and that will per-
mit them to feel better about themselves.

Freud (1926/1959a) saw the resolution of the Oedipus complex as the prototype
of introjection. During the Oedipal period, the young child introjects the authority
and values of one or both parents—an introjection that sets into motion the begin-
ning of the superego. When children introject what they perceive to be their parents’
values, they are relieved from the work of evaluating and choosing their own beliefs
and standards of conduct. As children advance through the latency period of devel-
opment (approximately ages 6 to 12), their superego becomes more personalized;

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 37

that is, it moves away from a rigid identification with parents. Nevertheless, people
of any age can reduce the anxiety associated with feelings of inadequacy by adopt-
ing or introjecting the values, beliefs, and mannerisms of other people.

Sublimation
Each of these defense mechanisms serves the individual by protecting the ego from
anxiety, but each is of dubious value from society’s viewpoint. According to Freud
(1917/1963), one mechanism—sublimation—helps both the individual and the so-
cial group. Sublimation is the repression of the genital aim of Eros by substituting
a cultural or social aim. The sublimated aim is expressed most obviously in creative
cultural accomplishments such as art, music, and literature, but more subtly, it is part
of all human relationships and all social pursuits. Freud (1914/1953) believed that
the art of Michelangelo, who found an indirect outlet for his libido in painting and
sculpting, was an excellent example of sublimation. In most people, sublimations
combine with direct expression of Eros and result in a kind of balance between so-
cial accomplishments and personal pleasures. Most of us are capable of sublimating
a part of our libido in the service of higher cultural values, while at the same time
retaining sufficient amounts of the sexual drive to pursue individual erotic pleasure.

In summary, all defense mechanisms protect the ego against anxiety. They
are universal in that everyone engages in defensive behavior to some degree.
Each defense mechanism combines with repression, and each can be carried to
the point of psychopathology. Normally, however, defense mechanisms are benefi-
cial to the individual and harmless to society. In addition, one defense mechanism—
sublimation—usually benefits both the individual and society.

Stages of Development
Although Freud had little firsthand experience with children (including his own), his
developmental theory is almost exclusively a discussion of early childhood. To
Freud, the first 4 or 5 years of life, or the infantile stage, are the most crucial for per-
sonality formation. This stage is followed by a 6- or 7-year period of latency during
which time little or no sexual growth takes place. Then at puberty, a renaissance of
sexual life occurs, and the genital stage is ushered in. Psychosexual development
eventually culminates in maturity.

Infantile Period
One of Freud’s (1905/1953b, 1923/1961b) most important assumptions is that in-
fants possess a sexual life and go through a period of pregenital sexual development
during the first 4 or 5 years after birth. At the time Freud originally wrote about in-
fantile sexuality, the concept, though not new, was met with some resistance. Today,
however, nearly all close observers accept the idea that children show an interest in
the genitals, delight in sexual pleasure, and manifest sexual excitement. Childhood
sexuality differs from adult sexuality in that it is not capable of reproduction and is
exclusively autoerotic. With both children and adults, however, the sexual impulses

Part II Psychodynamic Theories38

can be satisfied through organs other than the genitals. The mouth and anus are par-
ticularly sensitive to erogenous stimulation (Freud, 1933/1964).

Freud (1917/1963) divided the infantile stage into three phases according to
which of the three primary erogenous zones is undergoing the most salient develop-
ment. The oral phase begins first and is followed in order by the anal phase and the
phallic phase. The three infantile stages overlap, with one another and each contin-
ues after the onset of later stages.

Oral Phase
Because the mouth is the first organ to provide an infant with pleasure, Freud’s first
infantile stage of development is the oral phase. Infants obtain life-sustaining nour-
ishment through the oral cavity, but beyond that, they also gain pleasure through the
act of sucking.

The sexual aim of early oral activity is to incorporate or receive into one’s
body the object-choice, that is, the nipple. During this oral-receptive phase, infants
feel no ambivalence toward the pleasurable object and their needs are usually satis-
fied with a minimum of frustration and anxiety. As they grow older, however, they
are more likely to experience feelings of frustration and anxiety as a result of sched-
uled feedings, increased time lapses between feedings, and eventual weaning. These
anxieties are generally accompanied by feelings of ambivalence toward their love ob-
ject (mother), and by the increased ability of their budding ego to defend itself
against the environment and against anxiety (Freud, 1933/1964).

Infants’ defense against the environment is greatly aided by the emergence of
teeth. At this point, they pass into a second oral phase, which Freud (1933/1964)
called the oral-sadistic period. During this phase, infants respond to others through

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 39

Infants satisfy oral needs one way or another.

biting, cooing, closing their mouth, smiling, and crying. Their first autoerotic expe-
rience is thumb sucking, a defense against anxiety that satisfies their sexual but not
their nutritional needs.

As children grow older, the mouth continues to be an erogenous zone, and by
the time they become adults, they are capable of gratifying their oral needs in a va-
riety of ways, including sucking candy, chewing gum, biting pencils, overeating,
smoking cigarettes, pipes and cigars, and making biting, sarcastic remarks.

Anal Phase
The aggressive drive, which during the first year of life takes the form of oral sadism,
reaches fuller development during the second year when the anus emerges as a sex-
ually pleasurable zone. Because this period is characterized by satisfaction gained
through aggressive behavior and through the excretory function, Freud (1933/1964)
called it the sadistic-anal phase or, more briefly, the anal phase of development. This
phase is divided into two subphases, the early anal and the late anal.

During the early anal period, children receive satisfaction by destroying or
losing objects. At this time, the destructive nature of the sadistic drive is stronger
than the erotic one, and children often behave aggressively toward their parents for
frustrating them with toilet training.

Then, when children enter the late anal period, they sometimes take a friendly
interest toward their feces, an interest that stems from the erotic pleasure of defecat-
ing. Frequently, children will present their feces to the parents as a valued prize
(Freud, 1933/1964). If their behavior is accepted and praised by their parents, then
children are likely to grow into generous and magnanimous adults. However, if their
“gift” is rejected in a punitive fashion, children may adopt another method of ob-
taining anal pleasure—withholding the feces until the pressure becomes both painful
and erotically stimulating. This mode of narcissistic and masochistic pleasure lays
the foundation for the anal character—people who continue to receive erotic satis-
faction by keeping and possessing objects and by arranging them in an excessively
neat and orderly fashion. Freud (1933/1964) hypothesized that people who grow into
anal characters were, as children, overly resistant to toilet training, often holding
back their feces and prolonging the time of training beyond that usually required.
This anal eroticism becomes transformed into the anal triad of orderliness, stingi-
ness, and obstinacy that typifies the adult anal character.

Freud (1933/1964) believed that, for girls, anal eroticism is carried over into
penis envy during the phallic stage and can eventually be expressed by giving birth
to a baby. He also believed that in the unconscious the concepts of penis and baby—
because both are referred to as a “little one”—mean the same thing. Also, feces, be-
cause of its elongated shape and because it has been removed from the body, is in-
distinguishable from baby, and all three concepts—penis, baby, and feces—are
represented by the same symbols in dreams.

During the oral and anal stages, no basic distinction exists between male and
female psychosexual growth. Children of either gender can develop an active or a
passive orientation. The active attitude often is characterized by what Freud
(1933/1964) considered the masculine qualities of dominance and sadism, whereas
the passive orientation is usually marked by the feminine qualities of voyeurism and

Part II Psychodynamic Theories40

masochism. However, either orientation, or any combination of the two, can develop
in both girls and boys.

Phallic Phase
At approximately 3 or 4 years of age, children begin a third stage of infantile devel-
opment—the phallic phase, a time when the genital area becomes the leading
erogenous zone. This stage is marked for the first time by a dichotomy between
male and female development, a distinction that Freud (1925/1961) believed to be
due to the anatomical differences between the sexes. Freud (1924/1961, p. 178) took
Napoleon’s remark that “History is destiny” and changed it to “Anatomy is destiny.”
This dictum underlies Freud’s belief that physical differences between males and fe-
males account for many important psychological differences.

Masturbation, which originated during the oral stage, now enters a second, more
crucial phase. During the phallic stage, masturbation is nearly universal, but because
parents generally suppress these activities, children usually repress their conscious
desire to masturbate by the time their phallic period comes to an end. Just as chil-
dren’s earlier experiences with weaning and toilet training helped shape the founda-
tion of their psychosexual development, so too does their experience with the sup-
pression of masturbation (Freud, 1933/1964). However, their experience with the
Oedipus complex plays an even more crucial role in their personality development.

Male Oedipus Complex Freud (1925/1961) believed that preceding the phallic
stage an infant boy forms an identification with his father; that is, he wants to be his
father. Later he develops a sexual desire for his mother; that is, he wants to have his
mother. These two wishes do not appear mutually contradictory to the underdevel-
oped ego, so they are able to exist side by side for a time. When the boy finally rec-
ognizes their inconsistency, he gives up his identification with his father and retains
the stronger feeling—the desire to have his mother. The boy now sees his father as a
rival for the mother’s love. He desires to do away with his father and possess his
mother in a sexual relationship. This condition of rivalry toward the father and in-
cestuous feelings toward the mother is known as the simple male Oedipus complex.
The term is taken from the Greek tragedy by Sophocles in which Oedipus, King of
Thebes, is destined by fate to kill his father and marry his mother.

Freud (1923/1961a) believed that the bisexual nature of the child (of either
gender) complicates this picture. Before a young boy enters the Oedipus stage, he
develops some amount of a feminine disposition. During the Oedipal period, there-
fore, his feminine nature may lead him to display affection toward his father and ex-
press hostility toward his mother, while at the same time his masculine tendency dis-
poses him toward hostility for father and lust for mother. During this ambivalent
condition, known as the complete Oedipus complex, affection and hostility coexist
because one or both feelings may be unconscious. Freud believed that these feelings
of ambivalence in a boy play a role in the evolution of the castration complex,
which for boys takes the form of castration anxiety or the fear of losing the penis.

To Freud (1905/1953b, 1917/1963, 1923/1961b), the castration complex
begins after a young boy (who has assumed that all other people, including girls,
have genitals like his own) becomes aware of the absence of a penis on girls. This

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 41

awareness becomes the greatest emotional shock of his life. After a period of men-
tal struggle and attempts at denial, the young boy is forced to conclude that the girl
has had her penis cut off. This belief may be reinforced by parental threats to punish
the boy for his sexual behaviors. The boy is then forced to conclude that the little girl
has been punished by having her penis removed because she masturbated or because
she seduced her mother. For the boy, the threat of castration now becomes a dreaded
possibility. Because this castration anxiety cannot long be tolerated, the boy re-
presses his impulses toward sexual activity, including his fantasies of carrying out a
seduction of his mother.

Prior to his sudden experience of castration anxiety, the little boy may have
“seen” the genital area of little girls or his mother, but this sight does not automati-
cally instigate the castration complex. Castration anxiety bursts forth only when the
boy’s ego is mature enough to comprehend the connection between sexual desires
and the removal of the penis.

Freud believed that castration anxiety was present in all boys, even those not
personally threatened with the removal of their penis or the stunting of its growth.
According to Freud (1933/1964), a boy does not need to receive a clear threat of cas-
tration. Any mention of injury or shrinkage in connection with the penis is sufficient
to activate the child’s phylogenetic endowment. Phylogenetic endowment is capable
of filling the gaps of our individual experiences with the inherited experiences of our
ancestors. Ancient man’s fear of castration supports the individual child’s experi-
ences and results in universal castration anxiety. Freud stated: “It is not a question of
whether castration is really carried out; what is decisive is that the danger threatens
from the outside and that the child believes in it.” He went on to say that

hints at . . . punishment must regularly find a phylogenetic reinforcement in him.
It is our suspicion that during the human family’s primaeval period castration used
actually to be carried out by a jealous and cruel father upon growing boys, and
that circumcision, which so frequently plays a part in puberty rites among
primitive peoples, is a clearly recognizable relic of it. (pp. 86–87)

Once his Oedipus complex is dissolved or repressed, the boy surrenders his in-
cestuous desires, changes them into feelings of tender love, and begins to develop a
primitive superego. He may identify with either the father or the mother, depending
on the strength of his feminine disposition. Normally identification is with the father,
but it is not the same as pre-Oedipal identification. The boy no longer wants to be his
father; instead, he uses his father as a model for determining right and wrong be-
havior. He introjects or incorporates his father’s authority into his own ego, thereby
sowing the seeds of a mature superego. The budding superego takes over his father’s
prohibitions against incest and ensures the continued repression of the Oedipus
complex (Freud, 1933/1964).

Female Oedipus Complex The phallic phase takes a more complicated path for
girls than for boys, and these differences are due to anatomical differences between
the sexes (Freud, 1925/1961). Like boys, pre-Oedipal girls assume that all other chil-
dren have genitals similar to their own. Soon they discover that boys not only pos-
sess different genital equipment, but apparently something extra. Girls then become
envious of this appendage, feel cheated, and desire to have a penis. This experience

Part II Psychodynamic Theories42

of penis envy is a powerful force in the formation of girls’ personality. Unlike cas-
tration anxiety in boys, which is quickly repressed, penis envy may last for years in
one form or another. Freud (1933/1964) believed that penis envy is often expressed
as a wish to be a boy or a desire to have a man. Almost universally, it is carried over
into a wish to have a baby, and eventually it may find expression in the act of giving
birth to a baby, especially a boy.

Preceding the castration complex, a girl establishes an identification with her
mother similar to that developed by a boy; that is, she fantasizes being seduced by
her mother. These incestuous feelings, according to Freud (1933/1964), are later
turned into hostility when the girl holds her mother responsible for bringing her into
the world without a penis. Her libido is then turned toward her father, who can sat-
isfy her wish for a penis by giving her a baby, an object that to her has become a sub-
stitute for the phallus. The desire for sexual intercourse with the father and accom-
panying feelings of hostility for the mother are known as the simple female Oedipus
complex. Incidentally, Freud (1920/1955b, 1931/1961) objected to the term Electra
complex, sometimes used by others when referring to the female Oedipus complex,
because it suggests a direct parallel between male and female development during
the phallic stage. Freud believed that no such parallel exists and that differences in
anatomy determine different courses in male and female sexual development after
the phallic stage.

Not all girls, however, transfer their sexual interest onto their father and de-
velop hostility toward their mother. Freud (1931/1961, 1933/1964) suggested that
when pre-Oedipal girls acknowledge their castration and recognize their inferiority
to boys, they will rebel in one of three ways. First, they may give up their sexuality—
both the feminine and the masculine dispositions—and develop an intense hostility
toward their mother; second, they may cling defiantly to their masculinity, hoping for
a penis and fantasizing being a man; and third, they may develop normally: that is,
they may take their father as a sexual choice and undergo the simple Oedipus com-
plex. A girl’s choice is influenced in part by her inherent bisexuality and the degree
of masculinity she developed during the pre-Oedipal period.

The simple female Oedipus complex is resolved when a girl gives up mastur-
batory activity, surrenders her sexual desire for her father, and identifies once again
with her mother. However, the female Oedipus complex is usually broken up more
slowly and less completely than is the male’s. Because the superego is built from the
relics of the shattered Oedipus complex, Freud (1924/1961, 1933/1964) believed that
the girl’s superego is usually weaker, more flexible, and less severe than the boy’s.
The reason the girl’s superego is not as strict as the boy’s is traceable to the differ-
ence between the sexes during their Oedipal histories. For boys, castration anxiety
follows the Oedipus complex, breaks it up nearly completely, and renders unneces-
sary the continued expenditure of psychic energy on its remnants. Once the Oedipus
complex is shattered, energy used to maintain it is free to establish a superego. For
girls, however, the Oedipus complex follows the castration complex (penis envy),
and because girls do not experience a threat of castration, they experience no trau-
matic sudden shock. The female Oedipus complex is only incompletely resolved by
the girl’s gradual realization that she may lose the love of her mother and that sexual
intercourse with her father is not forthcoming. Her libido thus remains partially ex-
pended to maintain the castration complex and its relics, thereby blocking some

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 43

psychic energy that might otherwise be used to build a strong superego (Freud,
(1931/1961).

In summary, the female and male phallic stages take quite different routes.
First, the castration complex for girls takes the form of penis envy—not castration
anxiety. Second, penis envy precedes the female Oedipus complex, whereas for boys
the opposite is true; that is, the castration anxiety follows the male Oedipus complex.
Third, because penis envy takes place prior to the female Oedipus complex, little
girls do not experience a traumatic event comparable to boys’ castration anxiety.
Fourth, because girls do not experience this traumatic event, the female Oedipus
complex is more slowly and less completely dissolved than the male Oedipus
complex.

The simple male and female Oedipus complexes are summarized in Table 2.1.
Freud presented his views on the female Oedipus complex more tentatively

than he did his ideas regarding the male phallic stage. Although he framed these
views on femininity in a tentative and provisional manner, he soon began to
vigorously defend them. When some of his followers objected to his harsh view
of women, Freud became even more adamant in his position and insisted that
psychological differences between men and women could not be erased by culture
because they were the inevitable consequences of anatomical differences between
the sexes (Freud, 1925/1961). This rigid public stance on feminine development
has led some writers (Brannon, 2005; Breger, 2000; Chodorow, 1989, 1991, 1994;
Irigaray, 1986; Krausz, 1994) to criticize him as being sexist and uncomplimentary
to women.

Despite his steadfast public position, Freud privately was uncertain that his
views on women represented a final answer. One year after his pronouncement that
“anatomy is destiny,” he expressed some doubts, admitting that his understanding of
girls and women was incomplete. “We know less about the sexual life of little girls
than of boys. But we need not feel ashamed of this distinction; after all, the sexual
life of adult women is a ‘dark continent’ for psychology” (Freud 1926/1959b,
p. 212).

Part II Psychodynamic Theories44

T A B L E 2 . 1

Parallel Paths of the Simple Male and Female Phallic Phases

Male Phallic Phase

1. Oedipus complex (sexual desires for
the mother/hostility for the father)

2. Castration complex in the form of
castration anxiety shatters the
Oedipus complex

3. Identification with the father
4. Strong superego replaces the nearly

completely dissolved Oedipus
complex

Female Phallic Phase

1. Castration complex in the form of
penis envy

2. Oedipus complex develops as an
attempt to obtain a penis (sexual
desires for the father; hostility for
the mother)

3. Gradual realization that the Oedipal
desires are self-defeating

4. Identification with the mother
5. Weak superego replaces the partially

dissolved Oedipus complex

Throughout his career, Freud often proposed theories without much clinical or
experimental evidence to support them. He would later come to see most of these
theories as established facts, even though he possessed no intervening substantiating
evidence. For as long as he lived, however, he remained doubtful of the absolute va-
lidity of his theories on women. Freud once admitted to his friend Marie Bonaparte
that he did not understand women: “The great question that has never been answered
and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into
the feminine soul is ‘What does a woman want?’ ” (E. Jones, 1955, p. 421). Such a
question posed after many years of theorizing suggests that Freud regarded women
not only as quite different from men, but as enigmas, not comprehensible to the male
gender.

Beyond Biography Did Freud misunderstand women? For
information on Freud’s lifelong struggle to understand women, see
our website at www.mhhe.com/feist7

Latency Period
Freud believed that, from the 4th or 5th year until puberty, both boys and girls usu-
ally, but not always, go through a period of dormant psychosexual development. This
latency stage is brought about partly by parents’ attempts to punish or discourage
sexual activity in their young children. If parental suppression is successful, children
will repress their sexual drive and direct their psychic energy toward school, friend-
ships, hobbies, and other nonsexual activities.

However, the latency stage may also have roots in our phylogenetic endow-
ment. Freud (1913/1953, 1926/1951b) suggested that the Oedipus complex and the
subsequent period of sexual latency might be explained by the following hypothesis.
Early in human development, people lived in families headed by a powerful father
who reserved all sexual relationships to himself and who killed or drove away his
sons, whom he saw as a threat to his authority. Then one day the sons joined together,
overwhelmed, killed, and devoured (ate) their father. However, the brothers were in-
dividually too weak to take over their father’s heritage, so they banded together in a
clan or totem and established prohibitions against what they had just done; that is,
they outlawed both killing one’s father and having sexual relations with female mem-
bers of one’s family. Later, when they became fathers, they suppressed sexual activ-
ity in their own children whenever it became noticeable, probably around 3 or 4 years
of age. When suppression became complete, it led to a period of sexual latency. After
this experience was repeated over a period of many generations, it became an active
though unconscious force in an individual’s psychosexual development. Thus, the
prohibition of sexual activity is part of our phylogenetic endowment and needs no
personal experiences of punishment for sexual activities to repress the sexual drive.
Freud (1926/1951b) merely suggested this hypothesis as one possible explanation
for the latency period, and he was careful to point out that it was unsupported by an-
thropological data.

Continued latency is reinforced through constant suppression by parents and
teachers and by internal feelings of shame, guilt, and morality. The sexual drive, of
course, still exists during latency, but its aim has been inhibited. The sublimated
libido now shows itself in social and cultural accomplishments. During this time

WWW

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 45

children form groups or cliques, an impossibility during the infantile period when
the sexual drive was completely autoerotic.

Genital Period
Puberty signals a reawakening of the sexual aim and the beginning of the genital pe-
riod. During puberty, the diphasic sexual life of a person enters a second stage,
which has basic differences from the infantile period (Freud, 1923/1961b). First,
adolescents give up autoeroticism and direct their sexual energy toward another per-
son instead of toward themselves. Second, reproduction is now possible. Third, al-
though penis envy may continue to linger in girls, the vagina finally obtains the same
status for them that the penis had for them during infancy. Parallel to this, boys now
see the female organ as a sought-after object rather than a source of trauma. Fourth,
the entire sexual drive takes on a more complete organization, and the component
drives that had operated somewhat independently during the early infantile period
gain a kind of synthesis during adolescence; thus, the mouth, anus, and other
pleasure-producing areas take an auxiliary position to the genitals, which now attain
supremacy as an erogenous zone.

This synthesis of Eros, the elevated status of the vagina, the reproductive ca-
pacity of the sexual drive, and ability of people to direct their libido outward rather
than onto the self represent the major distinctions between infantile and adult sexu-
ality. In several other ways, however, Eros remains unchanged. It may continue to be
repressed, sublimated; or expressed in masturbation or other sexual acts. The subor-
dinated erogenous zones also continue as vehicles of erotic pleasure. The mouth, for
example, retains many of its infantile activities; a person may discontinue thumb
sucking but may add smoking or prolonged kissing.

Maturity
The genital period begins at puberty and continues throughout the individual’s life-
time. It is a stage attained by everyone who reaches physical maturity. In addition to
the genital stage, Freud alluded to but never fully conceptualized a period of psy-
chological maturity, a stage attained after a person has passed through the earlier de-
velopmental periods in an ideal manner. Unfortunately, psychological maturity sel-
dom happens, because people have too many opportunities to develop pathological
disorders or neurotic predispositions.

Although Freud never fully conceptualized the notion of psychological matu-
rity, we can draw a sketch of psychoanalytically mature individuals. Such people
would have a balance among the structures of the mind, with their ego controlling
their id and superego but at the same time allowing for reasonable desires and de-
mands (see Figure 2.3). Therefore, their id impulses would be expressed honestly
and consciously with no traces of shame or guilt, and their superego would move be-
yond parental identification and control with no remnants of antagonism or incest.
Their ego-ideal would be realistic and congruent with their ego, and in fact, the
boundary between their superego and their ego would become nearly imperceptible.

Consciousness would play a more important role in the behavior of mature
people, who would have only a minimal need to repress sexual and aggressive urges.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories46

Indeed, most of the repressions of psychologically healthy individuals would emerge
in the form of sublimations rather than neurotic symptoms. Because the Oedipus
complex of mature people is completely or nearly completely dissolved, their libido,
which formerly was directed toward parents, would be released to search for both
tender and sensual love. In short, psychologically mature people would come
through the experiences of childhood and adolescence in control of their psychic en-
ergy and with their ego functioning in the center of an ever-expanding world of con-
sciousness.

Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud was an innovative speculator, probably more concerned with theory building
than with treating sick people. He spent much of his time conducting therapy not
only to help patients but to gain the insight into human personality necessary to ex-
pound psychoanalytic theory. This section looks at Freud’s early therapeutic tech-
nique, his later technique, and his views on dreams and unconscious slips.

Freud’s Early Therapeutic Technique
Prior to his use of the rather passive psychotherapeutic technique of free association,
Freud had relied on a much more active approach. In Studies on Hysteria (Breuer &
Freud, 1895/1955), Freud described his technique of extracting repressed childhood
memories:

I placed my hand on the patient’s forehead or took her head between my hands
and said: “You will think of it under the pressure of my hand. At the moment at
which I relax my pressure you will see something in front of you or something
will come into your head. Catch hold of it. It will be what we are looking for.—
Well, what have you seen or what has occurred to you?”

On the first occasions on which I made use of this procedure . . . I myself
was surprised to find that it yielded me the precise results that I needed. (pp.
110–111)

Indeed, such a highly suggestive procedure was very likely to yield the precise re-
sults Freud needed, namely, the confession of a childhood seduction. Moreover,
while using both dream interpretation and hypnosis, Freud told his patients to expect
that scenes of childhood sexual experiences would come forth (Freud, 1896/1962).

In his autobiography written nearly 30 years after he abandoned his seduction
theory, Freud (1925/1959) stated that under the pressure technique, a majority of his
patients reproduced childhood scenes in which they were sexually seduced by some
adult. When he was obliged to recognize that “these scenes of seduction had never
taken place, and that they were only phantasies which my patients had made up or
which I myself had perhaps forced upon them [italics added], I was for some time
completely at a loss” (p. 34). He was at a loss, however, for a very short time.
Within days after his September 21, 1897, letter to Fliess, he concluded that “the
neurotic symptoms were not related directly to actual events but to phantasies. . . . I
had in fact stumbled for the first time upon the Oedipus complex” (Freud, 1925/1959,
p. 34).

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 47

In time, Freud came to realize that his highly suggestive and even coercive tac-
tics may have elicited memories of seduction from his patients and that he lacked
clear evidence that these memories were real. Freud became increasingly convinced
that neurotic symptoms were related to childhood fantasies rather than to material
reality, and he gradually adopted a more passive psychotherapeutic technique.

Freud’s Later Therapeutic Technique
The primary goal of Freud’s later psychoanalytic therapy was to uncover repressed
memories through free association and dream analysis. “Our therapy works by trans-
forming what is unconscious into what is conscious, and it works only in so far as it
is in a position to effect that transformation” (Freud, 1917/1963, p. 280). More
specifically, the purpose of psychoanalysis is “to strengthen the ego, to make it more
independent of the superego, to widen its field of perception and enlarge its organi-
zation, so that it can appropriate fresh portions of the id. Where id was, there ego
shall be” (Freud, 1933/1964, p. 80).

With free association, patients are required to verbalize every thought that
comes to their mind, no matter how irrelevant or repugnant it may appear. The pur-
pose of free association is to arrive at the unconscious by starting with a present con-
scious idea and following it through a train of associations to wherever it leads. The
process is not easy and some patients never master it. For this reason, dream analy-
sis remained a favorite therapeutic technique with Freud. (We discuss dream analy-
sis in the next section.)

In order for analytic treatment to be successful, libido previously expended on
the neurotic symptom must be freed to work in the service of the ego. This takes

Part II Psychodynamic Theories48

Freud’s consulting room.

place in a two-phase procedure. “In the first, all the libido is forced from the symp-
toms into the transference and concentrated there; in the second, the struggle is
waged around this new object and the libido is liberated from it” (Freud, 1917/1963,
p. 455).

The transference situation is vital to psychoanalysis. Transference refers to
the strong sexual or aggressive feelings, positive or negative, that patients develop
toward their analyst during the course of treatment. Transference feelings are un-
earned by the therapist and are merely transferred to her or him from patients’ ear-
lier experiences, usually with their parents. In other words, patients feel toward the
analyst the same way they previously felt toward one or both parents. As long as
these feelings manifest themselves as interest or love, transference does not interfere
with the process of treatment but is a powerful ally to the therapeutic progress. Pos-
itive transference permits patients to more or less relive childhood experiences
within the nonthreatening climate of the analytic treatment. However, negative
transference in the form of hostility must be recognized by the therapist and ex-
plained to patients so that they can overcome any resistance to treatment (Freud,
1905/1953a, 1917/1963). Resistance, which refers to a variety of unconscious re-
sponses used by patients to block their own progress in therapy, can be a positive sign
because it indicates that therapy has advanced beyond superficial material.

Freud (1933/1964) noted several limitations of psychoanalytic treatment. First,
not all old memories can or should be brought into consciousness. Second, treatment
is not as effective with psychoses or with constitutional illnesses as it is with pho-
bias, hysterias, and obsessions. A third limitation, by no means peculiar to psycho-
analysis, is that a patient, once cured, may later develop another psychic problem.
Recognizing these limitations, Freud felt that psychoanalysis could be used in con-
junction with other therapies. However, he repeatedly insisted that it could not be
shortened or modified in any essential way.

Ideally, when analytic treatment is successful, patients no longer suffer from
debilitating symptoms, they use their psychic energy to perform ego functions, and
they have an expanded ego that includes previously repressed experiences. They do
not experience a major personality change, but they do become what they might have
been under the most favorable conditions.

Dream Analysis
Freud used dream analysis to transform the manifest content of dreams to the more
important latent content. The manifest content of a dream is the surface meaning or
the conscious description given by the dreamer, whereas the latent content refers to
its unconscious material.

The basic assumption of Freud’s dream analysis is that nearly all dreams are
wish fulfillments. Some wishes are obvious and are expressed through the manifest
content, as when a person goes to sleep hungry and dreams of eating large quanti-
ties of delicious food. Most wish fulfillments, however, are expressed in the latent
content and only dream interpretation can uncover that wish. An exception to the
rule that dreams are wish fulfillments is found in patients suffering from a traumatic
experience. Dreams of these people follow the principle of repetition compulsion
rather than wish fulfillment. These dreams are frequently found in people with

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 49

posttraumatic stress disorder who repeatedly dream of frightening or traumatic ex-
periences (Freud, 1920/1955a, 1933/1964).

Freud believed that dreams are formed in the unconscious but try to work their
way into the conscious. To become conscious, dreams must slip past both the pri-
mary and the final censors (refer again to Figure 2.1). Even during sleep these
guardians maintain their vigil, forcing unconscious psychic material to adopt a dis-
guised form. The disguise can operate in two basic ways—condensation and dis-
placement.

Condensation refers to the fact that the manifest dream content is not as ex-
tensive as the latent level, indicating that the unconscious material has been abbre-
viated or condensed before appearing on the manifest level. Displacement means
that the dream image is replaced by some other idea only remotely related to it
(Freud, 1900/1953). Condensation and displacement of content both take place
through the use of symbols. Certain images are almost universally represented by
seemingly innocuous figures. For example, the phallus may be symbolized by elon-
gated objects such as sticks, snakes, or knives; the vagina often appears as any small
box, chest, or oven; parents appear in the form of the president, a teacher, or one’s
boss; and castration anxiety can be expressed in dreams of growing bald, losing
teeth, or any act of cutting (Freud, 1900/1953, 1901/1953, 1917/1963).

Dreams can also deceive the dreamer by inhibiting or reversing the dreamer’s
affect. For example, a man with homicidal feelings for his father may dream that his
father has died, but in the manifest dream content, he feels neither joy nor sorrow;
that is, his affect is inhibited. Unpleasant feelings can also be reversed at the mani-
fest dream level. For example, a woman who unconsciously hates her mother and
would unconsciously welcome her extinction may dream of her mother’s death, but
the unconscious joy and hatred she feels is expressed as sorrow and love during the
manifest level of the dream. Thus, she is fooled into believing that hate is love and
that joy is sorrow (Freud, 1900/1953, 1901/1953, 1915/1957a).

After the dream’s latent (unconscious) content has been distorted and its affect
inhibited or reversed, it appears in a manifest form that can be recalled by the
dreamer. The manifest content, which nearly always relates to conscious or precon-
scious experience of the previous day, has little or no psychoanalytic significance;
only the latent content has meaning (Freud, 1900/1953).

In interpreting dreams, Freud (1917/1963) ordinarily followed one of two
methods. The first was to ask patients to relate their dream and all their associations
to it, no matter how unrelated or illogical these associations seemed. Freud believed
that such associations revealed the unconscious wish behind the dream. If the
dreamer was unable to relate association material, Freud used a second method—
dream symbols—to discover the unconscious elements underlying the manifest con-
tent. The purpose of both methods (associations and symbols) was to trace the dream
formation backward until the latent content was reached. Freud (1900/1953, p. 608)
believed that dream interpretation was the most reliable approach to the study of un-
conscious processes and referred to it as the “royal road” to knowledge of the un-
conscious.

Anxiety dreams offer no contradiction to the rule that dreams are wish fulfill-
ments. The explanation is that anxiety belongs to the preconscious system, whereas
the wish belongs to the unconscious. Freud (1900/1953) reported three typical anx-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories50

iety dreams: the embarrassment dream of nakedness, dreams of the death of a
beloved person, and dreams of failing an examination.

In the embarrassment dream of nakedness, the dreamer feels shame or embar-
rassment at being naked or improperly dressed in the presence of strangers. The
spectators usually appear quite indifferent, although the dreamer is very much em-
barrassed. The origin of this dream is the early childhood experience of being naked
in the presence of adults. In the original experience, the child feels no embarrass-
ment but the adults often register disapproval. Freud believed that wish fulfillment is
served in two ways by this dream. First, the indifference of the spectators fulfills the
infantile wish that the witnessing adults refrain from scolding. Second, the fact of
nakedness fulfills the wish to exhibit oneself, a desire usually repressed in adults but
present in young children.

Dreams of the death of a beloved person also originate in childhood and are
wish fulfillments. If a person dreams of the death of a younger person, the uncon-
scious may be expressing the wish for the destruction of a younger brother or sister
who was a hated rival during the infantile period. When the deceased is an older per-
son, the dreamer is fulfilling the Oedipal wish for the death of a parent. If the
dreamer feels anxiety and sorrow during the dream, it is because the affect has been
reversed. Dreams of the death of a parent are typical in adults, but they do not mean
that the dreamer has a present wish for the death of that parent. These dreams were
interpreted by Freud as meaning that, as a child, the dreamer longed for the death of
the parent, but the wish was too threatening to find its way into consciousness. Even
during adulthood the death wish ordinarily does not appear in dreams unless the af-
fect has been changed to sorrow.

A third typical anxiety dream is failing an examination in school. According
to Freud (1900/1953), the dreamer always dreams of failing an examination that has
already been successfully passed, never one that was failed. These dreams usually
occur when the dreamer is anticipating a difficult task. By dreaming of failing an ex-
amination already passed, the ego can reason, “I passed the earlier test that I was
worried about. Now I’m worried about another task, but I’ll pass it too. Therefore, I
need not be anxious over tomorrow’s test.” The wish to be free from worry over a dif-
ficult task is thus fulfilled.

With each of these three typical dreams, Freud had to search for the wish be-
hind the manifest level of the dream. Finding the wish fulfillment required great cre-
ativity. For example, one clever woman told Freud that she had dreamed that her
mother-in-law was coming for a visit. In her waking life, she despised her mother-
in-law and dreaded spending any amount of time with her. To challenge Freud’s no-
tion that dreams are wish fulfillments, she asked him, “Where was the wish?”
Freud’s (1900/1953) explanation was that this woman was aware of Freud’s belief
that a wish lies behind every nontraumatic dream. Thus, by dreaming of spending
time with a hated mother-in-law, the woman fulfilled her wish to spite Freud and to
disprove his wish fulfillment hypothesis!

In summary, Freud believed that dreams are motivated by wish fulfillments.
The latent content of dreams is formed in the unconscious and usually goes back to
childhood experiences, whereas the manifest content often stems from experiences
of the previous day. The interpretation of dreams serves as the “royal road” to knowl-
edge of the unconscious, but dreams should not be interpreted without the dreamer’s

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 51

associations to the dream. Latent material is transformed into manifest content
through the dream work. The dream work achieves its goal by the processes of con-
densation, displacement, and inhibition of affect. The manifest dream may have lit-
tle resemblance to the latent material, but Freud believed that an accurate interpreta-
tion will reveal the hidden connection by tracing the dream work backward until the
unconscious images are revealed.

Freudian Slips
Freud believed that many everyday slips of the tongue or pen, misreading, incorrect
hearing, misplacing objects, and temporarily forgetting names or intentions are not
chance accidents but reveal a person’s unconscious intentions. In writing of these
faulty acts, Freud (1901/1960) used the German Fehlleistung, or “faulty function,”
but James Strachey, one of Freud’s translators, invented the term parapraxes to refer
to what many people now simply call “Freudian slips.”

Parapraxes or unconscious slips are so common that we usually pay little at-
tention to them and deny that they have any underlying significance. Freud, however,
insisted that these faulty acts have meaning; they reveal the unconscious intention of
the person: “They are not chance events but serious mental acts; they have a sense;
they arise from the concurrent actions—or perhaps rather, the mutually opposing ac-
tion—of two different intentions” (Freud, 1917/1963, p. 44). One opposing action
emanates from the unconscious; the other, from the preconscious. Unconscious
slips, therefore, are similar to dreams in that they are a product of both the uncon-
scious and the preconscious, with the unconscious intention being dominant and in-
terfering with and replacing the preconscious one.

The fact that most people strongly deny any meaning behind their parapraxes
was seen by Freud as evidence that the slip, indeed, had relevance to unconscious im-
ages that must remain hidden from consciousness. A young man once walked into a
convenience store, became immediately attracted to the young female clerk, and
asked for a “sex-pack of beer.” When the clerk accused him of improper behavior,
the young man vehemently protested his innocence. Examples such as this can be
extended almost indefinitely. Freud provided many in his book Psychopathology of
Everyday Life (1901/1960), and many of them involved his own faulty acts. One day
after worrying about monetary matters, Freud strolled the tobacco store that he vis-
ited every day. On this particular day, he picked up his usual supply of cigars and left
the store without paying for them. Freud attributed his neglect to earlier thoughts
about budgetary issues. In all Freudian slips, the intentions of the unconscious sup-
plant the weaker intentions of the preconscious, thereby revealing a person’s true
purpose.

Related Research
The scientific status of Freud’s theory is one of the more hotly contested and disputed
questions in all Freudian theory. Was it science or mere armchair speculation? Did
Freud propose testable hypotheses? Are his ideas experimentally verifiable, testable,
or falsifiable?

Part II Psychodynamic Theories52

Karl Popper, the philosopher of science who proposed the criterion of falsifia-
bility, contrasted Freud’s theory with Einstein’s and concluded that the former was
not falsifiable and therefore not science. It would be fair to say that for much of the
20th century, most academic psychologists dismissed Freudian ideas as fanciful
speculations that may have contained insights into human nature but were not science.

During the last 5 to 10 years, the scientific status of Freudian theory has begun
to change, at least among certain circles of cognitive psychologists and neuroscien-
tists. Neuroscience is currently experiencing an explosive growth through its inves-
tigations of brain activity during a variety of cognitive and emotional tasks. Much of
this growth has been due to brain imaging technology afforded by functional mag-
netic resonance imaging (MRI) that maps regions of the brain that are active during
particular tasks. At about the same time, certain groups of cognitive psychologists
began doing research on the importance of nonconscious processing of information
and memory, or what they called “implicit” cognition. John Bargh, one of the leaders
in the field of social-cognitive psychology, reviewed the literature on the “automatic-
ity of being” and concluded that roughly 95% of our behaviors are unconsciously de-
termined (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999). This conclusion is completely consistent with
Freud’s metaphor that consciousness is merely the “tip of the iceberg.”

By the late 1990s, the findings from neuroscience and cognitive psychology
began to converge on many cognitive and affective processes that were very consis-
tent with basic Freudian theory. These commonalties have become the foundation for
a movement started by some cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and psychia-
trists who are convinced that Freud’s theory is one of the more compelling integra-
tive theories—one that could explain many of these findings. In 1999, a group of sci-
entists began a society called Neuro-Psychoanalysis and a scientific journal by the
same name. For the first time, some eminent cognitive and neuroscience psycholo-
gists such as Nobel laureate for physiology, Eric Kandel, along with Joseph LeDoux,
Antonio Damasio, Daniel Schacter, and Vilayanur Ramachandran, were publicly de-
claring the value of Freud’s theory and contending that “psychoanalysis is still the most
coherent and intellectually satisfying view of the mind” (as cited in Solms, 2004,
p. 84). Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio wrote: “I believe we can say that Freud’s in-
sights on the nature of consciousness are consonant with the most advanced contem-
porary neuroscience views” (as cited in Solms & Turnbull, 2002, p. 93). Twenty years
ago, such pronouncements from neuroscientists would have been nearly unthinkable.

Mark Solms is probably the most active person involved in integrating psy-
choanalytic theory and neuroscientific research (Solms 2000, 2004; Solms & Turn-
bull, 2002). He argued, for instance, that the following Freudian concepts have sup-
port from modern neuroscience: unconscious motivation, repression, the pleasure
principle, primitive drives, and dreams (Solms, 2004). Similarly, Kandel (1999) ar-
gued that psychoanalysis and neuroscience together could make useful contributions
in these eight domains: the nature of unconscious mental processes; the nature of
psychological causality; psychological causality and psychopathology; early experi-
ence and the predisposition to mental illness; the preconscious, the unconscious, and
the prefrontal cortex; sexual orientation; psychotherapy and structural changes in the
brain; and psychopharmacology as an adjunct to psychoanalysis.

Although there are some gaps in the evidence (Hobson, 2004), the overlap be-
tween Freud’s theory and neuroscience is sufficient to make at least a suggestive, if

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 53

not compelling, case for their integration. We have reviewed some of the empirical
evidence for unconscious mental processing, the id and the pleasure principle and
the ego and the reality principle, repression and defense mechanisms, and dreams.

Unconscious Mental Processing
Many scientists and philosophers have recognized two different forms of conscious-
ness. First is the state of not being aware or awake, and second is the state of being
aware. The former is referred to as “core consciousness,” whereas the latter is re-
ferred to as “extended consciousness.” The brain stem, and the ascending activating
system in particular, is the part of the brain most directly associated with core con-
sciousness, or unconsciousness in the sense of not being awake. For instance, comas
come from damage to this region of the brain stem and render a person unconscious.
In contrast, being aware and able to reflect on one’s knowledge and self is more a
function of activity in the prefrontal cortex (the dorsal frontal cortex) (Solms, 2004;
Solms & Turnbull, 2002).

Moreover, a major theme of cognitive psychology over the last 20 years has
been the phenomenon of nonconscious mental processing, or what is referred to as
“implicit,” “nonconscious,” or “automatic” thought and memory (Bargh & Chartrand,
1999; Schacter, 1987). By this, cognitive psychologists are referring to mental
processes that are neither in awareness nor under intentional control, and thereby
come close to Freud’s definition of unconscious. Of course, Freud’s concept of the
unconscious was more dynamic, repressive, and inhibiting, but—as we see next—
cognitive neuroscience is uncovering a similar kind of unconscious.

Pleasure and the Id: Inhibition and the Ego
Findings from many different neuroscientific programs of research have established
that the pleasure-seeking drives have their neurological origins in two brain structures,
namely the brain stem and the limbic system (Solms, 2004; Solms & Turnbull, 2002).
Moreover, the neurotransmitter dopamine is most centrally involved in most pleasure-
seeking behaviors. In Freud’s language, these are the drives and instincts of the id.

In 1923, when Freud modified his view of how the mind works and proposed
the structural view of id, ego, and superego, the ego became a structure that was
mostly unconscious, but whose main function was to inhibit drives. If the part of the
brain that functions to inhibit impulses and drives is damaged, we should see an in-
crease in the id-based pleasure-seeking impulses. That is precisely what happens
when the frontal-limbic system is damaged. Many case studies and more systematic
brain-imaging research have demonstrated the connection between the frontal-limbic
system and impulse regulation (Chow & Cummings, 1999; Pincus, 2001; Raine,
Buchsbaum, & LaCasse, 1997). The first reported and best-known case of this was
the 19th-century railroad worker Phineas Gage. While working on the railroad, an
explosion caused a metal rod to shoot upward and through the bottom of his jaw up
and out the top of his forehead, damaging his frontal lobes. Amazingly, perhaps
because the speed of the rod cauterized brain tissue, Gage never lost consciousness
and survived. Physically (except for loss of brain tissue) he was relatively fine, but
his personality changed. By all accounts, this rather mild-mannered, responsible, and
reliable worker became, in the words of his doctor, “fitful, irreverent, indulging at
times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting

Part II Psychodynamic Theories54

but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts
with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating” (as
cited in Solms & Turnbull, 2002, p. 3). In other words, he became hostile, impulsive,
and not at all concerned with social norms and appropriateness. In Freudian lingo, his
ego no longer could inhibit basic drives and instincts and he became very id-driven.

According to Solms, the underlying theme in the frontal lobe-injured patients
is their inability to stay “reality-bound” (ego) and their propensity to interpret events
much more through “wishes” (id); that is, they create the reality they wanted or
wished for. All of this, according to Solms, provides support for Freud’s ideas con-
cerning the pleasure principle of the id and the reality principle of the ego.

Repression, Inhibition, and Defense Mechanisms
Another core component of Freud’s theory involved the defense mechanisms, espe-
cially repression. The unconscious actively (dynamically) keeps ideas, feelings, and
unpleasant or threatening impulses out of consciousness. The area of defense mech-
anisms remains an active area of study for personality researchers. Some of this re-
search has focused on the use of projection and identification in childhood and ado-
lescence (Cramer, 2007), whereas other work has investigated who is more likely to
be a target of projection (Govorun, Fuegen, & Payne, 2006).

From the neuropsychological perspective, Solms (2004) reports cases that
explore the areas of the brain that may be implicated in the use and perseverance of
defense mechanisms. Specifically, Solms (2004) describes cases demonstrating re-
pression of unpalatable information when damage occurs to the right hemisphere
and, if this damaged region becomes artificially stimulated, the repression goes away;
that is, awareness returns. Additionally, these patients frequently rationalize away un-
welcome facts by fabricating stories. In other words, they employ Freudian wish-
fulfilling defense mechanisms. For instance, one patient, when asked about the scar
on his head, confabulated a story about its being a result of dental surgery or a coro-
nary bypass, both of which he had had years before. Furthermore, when the doctor
asked this patient who he was, the patient would variously respond that he (the doctor)
was either a colleague, a drinking partner, or a teammate from college. All of these
interpretations were more wish than reality.

A study by Howard Shevrin and colleagues (Shevrin, Ghannam, & Libet, 2002)
examined the neurophysiological underpinnings of repression. More specifically, they
addressed the question of whether people with repressive personality styles actually
require longer periods of stimulation for a brief stimulus to be consciously perceived.
Prior research had established that people in general vary from 200 ms to 800 ms in
how long a stimulus needs to be present before being consciously perceived. The
study by Shevrin et al. included six clinical participants between the ages of 51 and
70, all of whom years prior had undergone surgical treatment for motoric problems
(mainly parkinsonism). During these surgeries, a procedure had been performed in
which electrodes stimulated parts of the motor cortex, and the length of time it took
for the stimulus to be consciously perceived was recorded. The results of this proce-
dure showed that these six participants also ranged from 200 ms to 800 ms in how
long they took to consciously perceive the stimulus. For this, four psychological tests
were administered at the patients’ homes and then scored on their degree of repres-
sive tendencies. These tests were the Rorschach Inkblot Test, the Early Memories Test,

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 55

the Vocabulary Test of the WAIS (an IQ test), and the Hysteroid-Obsessoid Question-
naire. The first three tests were rated by three “blind” clinical judges on their degree of
repression, and the fourth test was scored objectively for its degree of repression.

The results showed that the combined ratings from the three judges were sig-
nificantly and positively associated with the time it took for a stimulus to be con-
sciously perceived. Moreover, the objectively scored Hysteroid-Obsessoid Question-
naire confirmed the result. In other words, the more repressive style people have, the
longer it takes them to consciously perceive a stimulus. Neither age nor IQ is related
to the length of time it takes for the stimulus to be perceived. As the authors ac-
knowledge, this finding is but a first step in demonstrating how repression might op-
erate to keep things out of conscious awareness, but it is the first study to report the
neurophysiological underpinnings of repression.

Research on Dreams
In the 1950s, when the phenomenon of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was first
discovered and found to be strongly associated with dreaming, many scientists began
to discount Freud’s theory of dreams, which was based on the idea that dreams have
meaning and are attempts at fulfilling unconscious wishes. Moreover, the REM re-
search showed that only brain-stem regions and not higher cortical regions were in-
volved with REM states. If these cortical structures were not involved in REM sleep
and yet they were where higher level thinking took place, then dreams are simply ran-
dom mental activity and could not have any inherent meaning. From the perspective
of this so-called activation-synthesis theory, meaning is what the waking mind gives
to these more or less random brain activities, but meaning is not inherent in the dream.

Solms’s primary research area is dreams and, based on current dream research,
including his own, he takes issue with each of the assumptions of the activation-
synthesis theory of dreams (Solms, 2000, 2004). Most importantly, Solms argued
that dreaming and REM are not one and the same. First, in about 5% to 30% of the
wakings during REM sleep, patients report no dreams, and during about 5% to 10%
of non-REM wakings patients do report dreaming. So there is no one-to-one corre-
spondence between REM and dreaming. Second, lesions (due to injury or surgery)
to the brain stem do not completely eliminate dreaming, whereas lesions to the fore-
brain regions (in the frontal lobes and parietal-temporal-occipital juncture) have
eliminated dreaming and yet preserved REM sleep.

In addition, dreams appear not to be random in content. Daniel Wegner and col-
leagues (2004) tested one aspect of Freud’s theory of dreams. As Freud wrote in
Interpretation of Dreams, “wishes suppressed during the day assert themselves in
dreams” (1900/1953, p. 590). Wegner and colleagues examined whether this was so
in a group of more than 300 college students. First, participants were instructed right
before bed (they opened the instructions only directly before going to sleep) to think
of two people, one whom they had had a “crush” on and one whom they were “fond
of ” but did not have a crush on.

Next, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: suppression, ex-
pression, and mention. In the suppression condition, students were instructed not to
think about a target person (either the “crush” or the “fond of ” person) for 5 minutes;
in the expression condition, different participants were instructed to think about the

Part II Psychodynamic Theories56

target person during this 5-minute period; and in the mention condition, other partici-
pants were instructed to think about anything at all after noting (mentioning) the target
person’s initials. Moreover, during the 5-minute period when they were either to think
or not think about the target person, they wrote a “stream-of-consciousness” report and
put a check mark on the side of the report every time they thought of the target person.
This was a validity check to establish whether the suppression manipulation technique
worked. It did. When they awoke the next morning, participants reported whether they
dreamed, and if so, how much they dreamed and how much they dreamed of the target
and nontarget people (self-rated dreaming). Lastly, they wrote a report describing the
dream (dream report). The stream-of-consciousness and dream reports were coded by
a rater blind to conditions on frequency of target and nontarget appearances.

Results showed that students dreamed more about the suppressed targets than
nonsuppressed ones; they also dreamed more about the suppressed targets than the
suppressed nontargets. In other words, students were more likely to dream about
people they spend some time thinking about (target), but especially those targets they
actively try not to think about (suppression). Suppressed thoughts, the authors con-
cluded, are likely to “rebound” and appear in dreams. This finding is quite consistent
with Freud’s theory and not consistent with the activation-synthesis theory that REM
sleep provides random activation of brain activity that is devoid of meaning. In the
words of Wegner et al. (2004), “although there remains much to be learned about
how dreams are formed, the finding that suppressed thoughts rebound in dreams pro-
vides a bridge linking an early insight of psychoanalysis to the discoveries of cogni-
tive neuroscience” (p. 236).

However, the current trends in neuropsychoanalytic research neither confirm
nor even mention Freud’s psychosexual stage theory, especially its more controver-
sial elements of Oedipal conflicts, castration anxiety, and penis envy. Instead, neu-
ropsychoanalytic research has focused on those parts of Freud’s theory that appear
to be empirically standing the test of time. The neglect of Freud’s psychosexual stage
theory is somewhat consistent with much post-Freudian and neo-Freudian theorizing
that has either downplayed or abandoned this part of Freud’s theory. So, while many
of Freud’s major ideas—unconscious, pleasure seeking, repression, id, ego, and
dreams—might be garnering neuroscientific support, not all are, and still others are
in need of modification.

One area that has recently received attention is the work of the dream censor
(Boag, 2006). The dream censor, according to Freud (1917/1963), is the mechanism
that converts the latent content of dreams into the more palatable and less frighten-
ing manifest content. Boag (2006) articulates how one conceptualization of the
dream sensor is to think of it as a mechanism that engages in repression and/or inhi-
bition. This conceptualization is helpful if one is interested in empirically testing
Freud’s notions regarding dreams because there is a large amount of neuroscience re-
search on inhibition (Aron & Poldrack, 2005; Praamstra & Seiss, 2005). Specifically,
Boag (2006) proposes that the basal ganglia and amygdala may be key brain struc-
tures responsible for dreams including the conversion of latent content into manifest
content. Arguments such as Boag’s (2006) and those of other scholars in the neu-
ropsychoanalysis field make an out-of-hand dismissal of Freud from a scientific per-
spective more and more difficult as findings from cognitive psychology and neuro-
science accumulate that support basic assumptions of Freud’s theory.

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 57

Critique of Freud
In criticizing Freud, we must first ask two questions: (1) Did Freud understand
women? (2) Was Freud a scientist?

Did Freud Understand Women?
A frequent criticism of Freud is that he did not understand women and that his the-
ory of personality was strongly oriented toward men. There is a large measure of
truth to this criticism, and Freud acknowledged that he lacked a complete under-
standing of the female psyche.

Why didn’t Freud have a better understanding of the feminine psyche? One an-
swer is that he was a product of his times, and society was dominated by men dur-
ing those times. In 19th-century Austria, women were second-class citizens, with few
rights or privileges. They had little opportunity to enter a profession or to be a
member of a professional organization—such as Freud’s Wednesday Psychological
Society.

Thus, during the first quarter century of psychoanalysis, the movement was an
all-men’s club. After World War I, women gradually became attracted to psycho-
analysis and some of these women, such as Marie Bonaparte, Ruth Mack Brunswick,
Helene Deutsch, Melanie Klein, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and Anna Freud, were able to
exercise some influence on Freud. However, they were never able to convince him
that similarities between the genders outweighed differences.

Freud himself was a proper bourgeois Viennese gentleman whose sexual atti-
tudes were fashioned during a time when women were expected to nurture their hus-
bands, manage the household, care for the children, and stay out of their husband’s
business or profession. Freud’s wife, Martha, was no exception to this rule (Gay,
1988).

Freud, as the oldest and most favored child, ruled over his sisters, advising
them on books to read and lecturing to them about the world in general. An incident
with a piano reveals further evidence of Freud’s favored position within his family.
Freud’s sisters enjoyed music and found pleasure in playing a piano. When music
from their piano annoyed Freud, he complained to his parents that he couldn’t con-
centrate on his books. The parents immediately removed the piano from the house,
leaving Freud to understand that the wishes of five girls did not equal the preference
of one boy.

Like many other men of his day, Freud regarded women as the “tender sex,”
suitable for caring for the household and nurturing children but not equal to men in
scientific and scholarly affairs. His love letters to his future wife Martha Bernays are
filled with references to her as “my little girl,” “my little woman,” or “my princess”
(Freud, 1960). Freud undoubtedly would have been surprised to learn that 130 years
later these terms of endearment are seen by many as disparaging to women.

Freud continually grappled with trying to understand women, and his views on
femininity changed several times during his lifetime. As a young student, he ex-
claimed to a friend, “How wise our educators that they pester the beautiful sex so lit-
tle with scientific knowledge” (quoted in Gay, 1988, p. 522).

During the early years of his career, Freud viewed male and female psycho-
sexual growth as mirror images of each other, with different but parallel lines of

Part II Psychodynamic Theories58

development. However, he later proposed the notion that little girls are failed boys
and that adult women are akin to castrated men. Freud originally proposed these
ideas tentatively, but as time passed, he defended them adamantly and refused to
compromise his views. When people criticized his notion of femininity, Freud re-
sponded by adopting an increasingly more rigid stance. By the 1920s, he was insist-
ing that psychological differences between men and women were due to anatomical
differences and could not be explained by different socialization experiences (Freud,
1924/1961). Nevertheless, he always recognized that he did not understand women
as well as he did men. He called them the “dark continent for psychology” (Freud,
1926/1959b, p. 212). In his final statement on the matter, Freud (1933/1964) sug-
gested that “if you want to know more about femininity, enquire from your own ex-
periences of life or turn to the poets” (p. 135).

Although some of Freud’s close associates inhabited the “dark continent” of
womanhood, his most intimate friends were men. Moreover, women such as Marie
Bonaparte, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and Minna Bernays (his sister-in-law), who did
exert some influence on Freud, were mostly cut from a similar pattern. Ernest Jones
(1955) referred to them as intellectual women with a “masculine cast” (p. 421).
These women were quite apart from Freud’s mother and wife, both of whom were
proper Viennese wives and mothers whose primary concerns were for their husbands
and children. Freud’s female colleagues and disciples were selected for their intelli-
gence, emotional strength, and loyalty—the same qualities Freud found attractive in
men. But none of these women could substitute for an intimate male friend. In Au-
gust of 1901, Freud (1985) wrote to his friend Wilhelm Fliess, “In my life, as you
know, woman has never replaced the comrade, the friend” (p. 447).

Why was Freud unable to understand women? Given his upbringing during the
middle of the 19th century, parental acceptance of his domination of his sisters, a
tendency to exaggerate differences between women and men, and his belief that
women inhabited the “dark continent” of humanity, it seems unlikely that Freud pos-
sessed the necessary experiences to understand women. Toward the end of his life,
he still had to ask, “What does a woman want?” (E. Jones, 1955, p. 421). The ques-
tion itself reveals Freud’s gender bias because it assumes that women all want the
same things and that their wants are somehow different from those of men.

Was Freud a Scientist?
A second area of criticism of Freud centers around his status as a scientist. Although
he repeatedly insisted that he was primarily a scientist and that psychoanalysis was
a science, Freud’s definition of science needs some explanation. When he called psy-
choanalysis a science, he was attempting to separate it from a philosophy or an ide-
ology. He was not claiming that it was a natural science. The German language and
culture of Freud’s day made a distinction between a natural science (Naturwis-
senschaften) and a human science (Geisteswissenschaften). Unfortunately, James
Strachey’s translations in the Standard Edition make Freud seem to be a natural sci-
entist. However, other scholars (Federn, 1988; Holder, 1988) believe that Freud
clearly saw himself as a human scientist, that is, a humanist or scholar and not a nat-
ural scientist. In order to render Freud’s works more accurate and more humanistic,
a group of language scholars are currently producing an updated translation of
Freud. (See, for example, Freud, 1905/2002.)

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 59

Bruno Bettelheim (1982, 1983) was also critical of Strachey’s translations. He
contended that the Standard Edition used precise medical concepts and misleading
Greek and Latin terms instead of the ordinary, often ambiguous, German words that
Freud had chosen. Such precision tended to render Freud more scientific and less hu-
manistic than he appears to the German reader. For example, Bettelheim, whose in-
troduction to Freud was in German, believed that Freud saw psychoanalytic therapy
as a spiritual journey into the depths of the soul (translated by Strachey as “mind”)
and not a mechanistic analysis of the mental apparatus.

As a result of Freud’s 19th-century German view of science, many contempo-
rary writers regard his theory-building methods as untenable and rather unscientific
(Breger, 2000; Crews, 1995, 1996; Sulloway, 1992; Webster, 1995). His theories
were not based on experimental investigation but rather on subjective observations
that Freud made of himself and his clinical patients. These patients were not repre-
sentative of people in general but came mostly from the middle and upper classes.

Apart from this widespread popular and professional interest, the question re-
mains: Was Freud scientific? Freud’s (1915/1957a) own description of science per-
mits much room for subjective interpretations and indefinite definitions:

We have often heard it maintained that sciences should be built up on clear and
sharply defined basic concepts. In actual fact no science, not even the most exact,
begins with such definitions. The true beginning of scientific activity consists
rather in describing phenomena and then in proceeding to group, classify and
correlate them. Even at the stage of description it is not possible to avoid applying
certain abstract ideas to the material in hand, ideas derived from somewhere or
other but certainly not from the new observations alone. (p. 117)

Perhaps Freud himself left us with the best description of how he built his the-
ories. In 1900, shortly after the publication of Interpretation of Dreams, he wrote to
his friend Wilhelm Fliess, confessing that “I am actually not at all a man of science,
not an observer, not an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but
a conquistador—an adventurer . . . with all the curiosity, daring, and tenacity char-
acteristic of a man of this sort” (Freud, 1985, p. 398).

Although Freud at times may have seen himself as a conquistador, he also be-
lieved that he was constructing a scientific theory. How well does that theory meet
the six criteria for a useful theory that we identified in Chapter 1?

Despite serious difficulties in testing Freud’s assumptions, researchers have
conducted studies that relate either directly or indirectly to psychoanalytic theory.
Thus, we rate Freudian theory about average in its ability to generate research.

Second, a useful theory should be falsifiable. Because much of the research ev-
idence consistent with Freud’s ideas can also be explained by other models, Freudian
theory is nearly impossible to falsify. A good example of the difficulty of falsifying
psychoanalysis is the story of the woman who dreamed that her mother-in-law was
coming for a visit. The content of his dream could not be a wish fulfillment because
the woman hated her mother-in-law and would not wish for a visit from her. Freud
escaped this conundrum by explaining that the woman had the dream merely to spite
Freud and to prove to him that not all dreams are wish fulfillments. This kind of rea-
soning clearly gives Freudian theory a very low rating on its ability to generate fal-
sifiable hypotheses.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories60

A third criterion of any useful theory is its ability to organize knowledge into
a meaningful framework. Unfortunately, the framework of Freud’s personality the-
ory, with its emphasis on the unconscious, is so loose and flexible that seemingly in-
consistent data can coexist within its boundaries. Compared with other theories of
personality, psychoanalysis ventures more answers to questions concerning why
people behave as they do. But only some of these answers come from scientific in-
vestigations—most are simply logical extensions of Freud’s basic assumptions.
Thus, we rate psychoanalysis as having only moderate ability to organize knowledge.

Fourth, a useful theory should serve as a guide for the solution of practical
problems. Because Freudian theory is unusually comprehensive, many psychoana-
lytically trained practitioners rely on it to find solutions to practical day-to-day prob-
lems. However, psychoanalysis no longer dominates the field of psychotherapy, and
most present-day therapists use other theoretical orientations in their practice. Thus,
we give psychoanalysis a low rating as a guide to the practitioner.

The fifth criterion of a useful theory deals with internal consistency, including
operationally defined terms. Psychoanalysis is an internally consistent theory, if one
remembers that Freud wrote over a period of more than 40 years and gradually al-
tered the meaning of some concepts during that time. However, at any single point
in time, the theory generally possessed internal consistency, although some specific
terms were used with less than scientific rigor.

Does psychoanalysis possess a set of operationally defined terms? Here the
theory definitely falls short. Such terms as id, ego, superego, conscious, precon-
scious, unconscious, oral stage, sadistic-anal stage, phallic stage, Oedipus complex,
latent level of dreams, and many others are not operationally defined; that is, they are
not spelled out in terms of specific operations or behaviors. Researchers must origi-
nate their own particular definition of most psychoanalytic terms.

Sixth, psychoanalysis is not a simple or parsimonious theory, but considering
its comprehensiveness and the complexity of human personality, it is not needlessly
cumbersome.

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 61

Concept of Humanity
In Chapter 1, we outlined several dimensions for a concept of humanity. Where does
Freud’s theory fall on these various dimensions?

The first of these is determinism versus free choice. On this dimension Freud’s
views on the nature of human nature would easily fall toward determinism. Freud
believed that most of our behavior is determined by past events rather than molded
by present goals. Humans have little control over their present actions because
many of their behaviors are rooted in unconscious strivings that lie beyond pres-
ent awareness. Although people usually believe that they are in control of their own
lives, Freud insisted that such beliefs are illusions.

Adult personality is largely determined by childhood experiences—especially
the Oedipus complex—that have left their residue in the unconscious mind. Freud
(1917/1955a) held that humanity in its history has suffered three great blows to

Part II Psychodynamic Theories62

its narcissistic ego. The first was the rediscovery by Copernicus that the earth is
not the center of the universe; the second was Darwin’s discovery that humans are
quite similar to other animals; the third, and most damaging blow of all, was Freud’s
own discovery that we are not in control of our own actions or, as he stated it, “the
ego is not master in its own house” (p. 143).

A second and related issue is pessimism versus optimism. According to Freud,
we come into the world in a basic state of conflict, with life and death forces op-
erating on us from opposing sides. The innate death wish drives us incessantly to-
ward self-destruction or aggression, while the sexual drive causes us to seek blindly
after pleasure. The ego experiences a more or less permanent state of conflict, at-
tempting to balance the contradictory demands of the id and superego while at the
same time making concessions to the external world. Underneath a thin veneer of
civilization, we are savage beasts with a natural tendency to exploit others for sex-
ual and destructive satisfaction. Antisocial behavior lies just underneath the sur-
face of even the most peaceful person, Freud believed. Worse yet, we are not ordi-
narily aware of the reasons for our behavior nor are we conscious of the hatred we
feel for our friends, family, and lovers. For these reasons, psychoanalytic theory is
essentially pessimistic.

A third approach for viewing humanity is the dimension of causality versus
teleology. Freud believed that present behavior is mostly shaped by past causes
rather than by people’s goals for the future. People do not move toward a self-
determined goal; instead, they are helplessly caught in the struggle between Eros
and Thanatos. These two powerful drives force people to compulsively repeat prim-
itive patterns of behavior. As adults, their behavior is one long series of reactions.
People constantly attempt to reduce tension; to relieve anxieties; to repress un-
pleasant experiences; to regress to earlier, more secure stages of development; and
to compulsively repeat behaviors that are familiar and safe. Therefore, we rate
Freud’s theory very high on causality.

On the dimension of conscious versus unconscious, psychoanalytic theory ob-
viously leans heavily in the direction of unconscious motivation. Freud believed
that everything from slips of the tongue to religious experiences is the result of a
deep-rooted desire to satisfy sexual or aggressive drives. These motives make us
slaves to our unconscious. Although we are aware of our actions, Freud believed
that the motivations underlying those actions are deeply embedded in our uncon-
scious and are frequently quite different from what we believe them to be.

A fifth dimension is social versus biological influences. As a physician, Freud’s
medical training disposed him to see human personality from a biological view-
point. Yet Freud (1913/1953, 1985) frequently speculated about the consequences
of prehistoric social units and about the consequences of an individual’s early so-
cial experiences. Because Freud believed that many infantile fantasies and anxieties
are rooted in biology, we rate him low on social influences.

Sixth is the issue of uniqueness versus similarities. On this dimension, psy-
choanalytic theory takes a middle position. Humanity’s evolutionary past gives rise
to a great many similarities among people. Nevertheless, individual experiences, es-
pecially those of early childhood, shape people in a somewhat unique manner and
account for many of the differences among personalities.

Key Terms and Concepts

• Freud identified three levels of mental life—unconscious, preconscious,
and conscious.

• Early childhood experiences that create high levels of anxiety are
repressed into the unconscious, where they may influence behavior,
emotions, and attitudes for years.

• Events that are not associated with anxiety but are merely forgotten make
up the contents of the preconscious.

• Conscious images are those in awareness at any given time.
• Freud recognized three provinces of the mind—id, ego, and superego.
• The id is unconscious, chaotic, out of contact with reality, and in service

of the pleasure principle.
• The ego is the executive of personality, in contact with the real world, and

in service of the reality principle.
• The superego serves the moral and idealistic principles and begins to form

after the Oedipus complex is resolved.
• All motivation can be traced to sexual and aggressive drives. Childhood

behaviors related to sex and aggression are often punished, which leads to
either repression or anxiety.

• To protect itself against anxiety, the ego initiates various defense
mechanisms, the most basic of which is repression.

• Freud outlined three major stages of development—infancy, latency, and a
genital period—but he devoted most attention to the infantile stage.

• The infantile stage is divided into three substages—oral, anal, and phallic,
the last of which is accompanied by the Oedipus complex.

• During the simple Oedipal stage, a child desires sexual union with one
parent while harboring hostility for the other.

• Freud believed that dreams and Freudian slips are disguised means of
expressing unconscious impulses.

Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 63

Adler: Individual
Psychology

B Overview of Individual Psychology

B Biography of Alfred

Adler

B Introduction to Adlerian Theory

B Striving for Success or Superiority

The Final Goal

The Striving Force as Compensation

Striving for Personal Superiority

Striving for

Success

B Subjective Perceptions

Fictionalism

Physical Inferiorities

B Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality

Organ Dialect

Conscious and Unconscious

B Social Interest

Origins of Social Interest

Importance of Social Interest

B Style of Life

B Creative Power

B Abnormal Development

General Description

External Factors in Maladjustment

Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies

Pampered Style of Life

Neglected Style of Life

Safeguarding Tendencies

Excuses

Aggression

Withdrawal

Masculine Protest

Origins of the Masculine Protest

Adler, Freud, and the Masculine Protest

Adler

B Applications of Individual Psychology

Family Constellation

Early Recollections

Dreams

Psychotherapy

B Related Research

Early Recollections and Career Choice

Early Childhood and Health-Related Issues

Early Recollections and Counseling Outcomes

B Critique of Adler

B Concept of Humanity

B

Key Terms and Concepts

64

C H A P T E R 3

In 1937, a young Abraham Maslow was having dinner in a New York restaurantwith a somewhat older colleague. The older man was widely known for his earlier
association with Sigmund Freud, and many people, including Maslow, regarded him
as a disciple of Freud. When Maslow casually asked the older man about being
Freud’s follower, the older man became quite angry, and according to Maslow, he
nearly shouted that

this was a lie and a swindle for which he blamed Freud entirely, whom he then
called names like swindler, sly, schemer. . . . He said that he had never been a
student of Freud or a disciple or a follower. He made it clear from the beginning
that he didn’t agree with Freud and that he had his own opinions. (Maslow, 1962,
p. 125)

Maslow, who had known the older man as an even-tempered, congenial person, was
stunned by his outburst.

The older man, of course, was Alfred Adler, who battled throughout his pro-
fessional life to dispel the notion that he had ever been a follower of Freud. When-
ever reporters and other people would inquire about his early relationship with
Freud, Adler would produce the old faded postcard with Freud’s invitation to Adler
to join Freud and three other physicians to meet at Freud’s home the following Thurs-
day evening. Freud closed the invitation saying, “With hearty greetings as your col-
league” (quoted in Hoffman, 1994, p. 42). This friendly remark gave Adler some
tangible evidence that Freud considered him to be his equal.

However, the warm association between Adler and Freud came to a bitter end,
with both men hurling caustic remarks toward the other. For example, after World
War I, when Freud elevated aggression to a basic human drive, Adler, who had long
since abandoned the concept, commented sarcastically: “I enriched psychoanalysis
by the aggressive drive. I gladly make them a present of it” (quoted in Bottome,
1939, p. 64).

During the acrimonious breakup between the two men, Freud accused Adler of
having paranoid delusions and of using terrorist tactics. He told one of his friends
that the revolt by Adler was that of “an abnormal individual driven mad by ambition”
(quoted in Gay, 1988, p. 223).

Overview of Individual Psychology
Alfred Adler was neither a terrorist nor a person driven mad by ambition. Indeed, his
individual psychology presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily
on the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind. In
addition to Adler’s more optimistic look at people, several other differences made the
relationship between Freud and Adler quite tenuous.

First, Freud reduced all motivation to sex and aggression, whereas Adler saw
people as being motivated mostly by social influences and by their striving for supe-
riority or success; second, Freud assumed that people have little or no choice in shap-
ing their personality, whereas Adler believed that people are largely responsible for
who they are; third, Freud’s assumption that present behavior is caused by past ex-
periences was directly opposed to Adler’s notion that present behavior is shaped by
people’s view of the future; and fourth, in contrast to Freud, who placed very heavy

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 65

emphasis on unconscious components of behavior, Adler believed that psycho-
logically healthy people are usually aware of what they are doing and why they are
doing it.

As we have seen, Adler was an original member of the small clique of physi-
cians who met in Freud’s home on Wednesday evenings to discuss psychological top-
ics. However, when theoretical and personal differences between Adler and Freud
emerged, Adler left the Freud circle and established an opposing theory, which be-
came known as individual psychology.

Biography of Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler was born on February 7, 1870, in Rudolfsheim, a village near Vienna.
His mother, Pauline, was a hard-working homemaker who kept busy with her seven
children. His father, Leopold, was a middle-class Jewish grain merchant from Hun-
gary. As a young boy, Adler was weak and sickly and at age 5, he nearly died of pneu-
monia. He had gone ice-skating with an older boy who abandoned young Alfred.
Cold and shivering, Adler managed to find his way home where he immediately fell
asleep on the living room couch. As Adler gradually gained consciousness, he heard
a doctor say to his parents, “Give yourself no more trouble. The boy is lost” (Hoff-
man, 1994, p. 8). This experience, along with the death of a younger brother, moti-
vated Adler to become a physician.

Adler’s poor health was in sharp contrast to the health of his older brother Sig-
mund. Several of Adler’s earliest memories were concerned with the unhappy com-
petition between his brother’s good health and his own illness. Sigmund Adler, the
childhood rival whom Adler attempted to surpass, remained a worthy opponent, and
in later years he became very successful in business and even helped Alfred finan-
cially. By almost any standard, however, Alfred Adler was much more famous than
Sigmund Adler. Like many secondborn children, however, Alfred continued the ri-
valry with his older brother into middle age. He once told one of his biographers,
Phyllis Bottome (1939, p. 18), “My eldest brother is a good industrious fellow—he
was always ahead of me . . . and he is still ahead of me!”

The lives of Freud and Adler have several interesting parallels. Although both
men came from middle- or lower-middle-class Viennese Jewish parents, neither was
devoutly religious. However, Freud was much more conscious of his Jewishness than
was Adler and often believed himself to be persecuted because of his Jewish back-
ground. On the other hand, Adler never claimed to have been mistreated, and in
1904, while still a member of Freud’s inner circle, he converted to Protestantism. De-
spite this conversion, he held no deep religious convictions, and in fact, one of his
biographers (Rattner, 1983) regarded him as an agnostic.

Like Freud, Adler had a younger brother who died in infancy. This early expe-
rience profoundly affected both men but in vastly different ways. Freud, by his own
account, had wished unconsciously for the death of his rival and when the infant
Julius did in fact die, Freud was filled with guilt and self-reproach, conditions that
continued into his adulthood.

In contrast, Adler would seem to have had a more powerful reason to be trau-
matized by the death of his younger brother Rudolf. At age 4, Adler awoke one

Part II Psychodynamic Theories66

morning to find Rudolf dead in the bed next to his. Rather than being terrified or
feeling guilty, Adler saw this experience, along with his own near death from pneu-
monia, as a challenge to overcome death. Thus, at age 5, he decided that his goal in
life would be to conquer death. Because medicine offered some chance to forestall
death, Adler decided at that early age to become a physician (Hoffman, 1994).

Although Freud was surrounded by a large family, including seven younger
brothers and sisters, two grown half-brothers, and a nephew and niece about his age,
he felt more emotionally attached to his parents, especially his mother, than to these
other family members. In contrast, Adler was more interested in social relationships,
and his siblings and peers played a pivotal role in his childhood development. Per-
sonality differences between Freud and Adler continued throughout adulthood, with
Freud preferring intense one-to-one relationships and Adler feeling more comfort-
able in group situations. These personality differences were also reflected in their
professional organizations. Freud’s Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and International
Psychoanalytic Association were highly structured in pyramid fashion, with an inner
circle of six of Freud’s trusted friends forming a kind of oligarchy at the top. Adler,
by comparison, was more democratic, often meeting with colleagues and friends in
Vienna coffeehouses where they played a piano and sang songs. Adler’s Society for
Individual Psychology, in fact, suffered from a loose organization, and Adler had a
relaxed attitude toward business details that did not enhance his movement (Ellen-
berger, 1970).

Adler attended elementary school with neither difficulty nor distinction. How-
ever, when he entered the Gymnasium in preparation for medical school, he did so
poorly that his father threatened to remove him from school and apprentice him to a
shoemaker (Grey, 1998). As a medical student he once again completed work with
no special honors, probably because his interest in patient care conflicted with his
professors’ interest in precise diagnoses (Hoffman, 1994). When he received his
medical degree near the end of 1895, he had realized his childhood goal of becom-
ing a physician.

Because his father had been born in Hungary, Adler was a Hungarian citizen
and was thus obliged to serve a tour of military duty in the Hungarian army. He ful-
filled that obligation immediately after receiving his medical degree and then re-
turned to Vienna for postgraduate study. (Adler became an Austrian citizen in 1911).
He began private practice as an eye specialist, but gave up that specialization and
turned to psychiatry and general medicine.

Scholars disagree on the first meeting of Adler and Freud (Bottome, 1939; El-
lenberger, 1970; Fiebert, 1997; Handlbauer, 1998), but all agree that in the late fall
of 1902, Freud invited Adler and three other Viennese physicians to attend a meet-
ing in Freud’s home to discuss psychology and neuropathology. This group was
known as the Wednesday Psychological Society until 1908, when it became the Vi-
enna Psychoanalytic Society. Although Freud led these discussion groups, Adler
never considered Freud to be his mentor and believed somewhat naively that he and
others could make contributions to psychoanalysis—contributions that would be ac-
ceptable to Freud. Although Adler was one of the original members of Freud’s inner
circle, the two men never shared a warm personal relationship. Neither man was
quick to recognize theoretical differences even after Adler’s 1907 publication of
Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation (1907/1917), which

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 67

assumed that physical deficiencies—not sex—formed the foundation for human mo-
tivation.

During the next few years, Adler became even more convinced that psycho-
analysis should be much broader than Freud’s view of infantile sexuality. In 1911,
Adler, who was then president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, presented his
views before the group, expressing opposition to the strong sexual proclivities of
psychoanalysis and insisting that the drive for superiority was a more basic motive
than sexuality. Both he and Freud finally recognized that their differences were ir-
reconcilable, and in October of 1911 Adler resigned his presidency and membership
in the Psychoanalytic Society. Along with nine other former members of the
Freudian circle, he formed the Society for Free Psychoanalytic Study, a name that ir-
ritated Freud with its implication that Freudian psychoanalysis was opposed to a free
expression of ideas. Adler, however, soon changed the name of his organization to
the Society for Individual Psychology—a name that clearly indicated he had aban-
doned psychoanalysis.

Like Freud, Adler was affected by events surrounding World War I. Both men
had financial difficulties, and both reluctantly borrowed money from relatives—
Freud from his brother-in-law Edward Bernays and Adler from his brother Sigmund.
Each man also made important changes in his theory. Freud elevated aggression to
the level of sex after viewing the horrors of war, and Adler suggested that social in-
terest and compassion could be the cornerstones of human motivation. The war years
also brought a major disappointment to Adler when his application for an unpaid lec-
ture position at the University of Vienna was turned down. Adler wanted this posi-
tion to gain another forum for spreading his views, but he also desperately desired
to attain the same prestigious position that Freud had held for more than a dozen
years. Adler never attained this position, but after the war he was able to advance
his theories through lecturing, establishing child guidance clinics, and training
teachers.

During the last several years of his life, Adler frequently visited the United
States, where he taught individual psychology at Columbia University and the New
School for Social Research. By 1932, he was a permanent resident of the United
States and held the position of Visiting Professor for Medical Psychology at Long
Island College of Medicine, now Downstate Medical School, State University of New
York. Unlike Freud, who disliked Americans and their superficial understanding of
psychoanalysis, Adler was impressed by Americans and admired their optimism and
open-mindedness. His popularity as a speaker in the United States during the mid-
1930s had few rivals, and he aimed his last several books toward a receptive Amer-
ican market (Hoffman, 1994).

Adler married a fiercely independent Russian woman, Raissa Epstein, in De-
cember of 1897. Raissa was an early feminist and much more political than her hus-
band. In later years, while Adler lived in New York, she remained mostly in Vienna
and worked to promote Marxist-Leninist views that were quite different from Adler’s
notion of individual freedom and responsibility. After several years of requests by
her husband to move to New York, Raissa finally came to stay in New York only a
few months before Adler’s death. Ironically, Raissa, who did not share her husband’s
love for America, continued to live in New York until her own death, nearly a quar-
ter of a century after Adler had died (Hoffman, 1994).

Part II Psychodynamic Theories68

Raissa and Alfred had four children: Alexandra and Kurt, who became psy-
chiatrists and continued their father’s work; Valentine (Vali), who died as a political
prisoner of the Soviet Union in about 1942; and Cornelia (Nelly), who aspired to be
an actress.

Adler’s favorite relaxation was music, but he also maintained an active inter-
est in art and literature. In his work he often borrowed examples from fairy tales, the
Bible, Shakespeare, Goethe, and numerous other literary works. He identified him-
self closely with the common person, and his manner and appearance were consis-
tent with that identification. His patients included a high percentage of people from
the lower and middle classes, a rarity among psychiatrists of his time. His personal
qualities included an optimistic attitude toward the human condition, an intense
competitiveness coupled with friendly congeniality, and a strong belief in the basic
gender equality, which combined with a willingness to forcefully advocate women’s
rights.

From middle childhood until after his 67th birthday, Adler enjoyed robust
health. Then, in the early months of 1937, while concerned with the fate of his
daughter Vali who had disappeared somewhere in Moscow, Adler felt chest pains
while on a speaking tour in the Netherlands. Ignoring the doctor’s advice to rest, he
continued on to Aberdeen, Scotland, where on May 28, 1937, he died of a heart at-
tack. Freud, who was 14 years older than Adler, had outlived his longtime adversary.
On hearing of Adler’s death, Freud (as quoted in E. Jones, 1957) sarcastically re-
marked, “For a Jew boy out of a Viennese suburb a death in Aberdeen is an unheard-
of career in itself and a proof of how far he had got on. The world really rewarded
him richly for his service in having contradicted psychoanalysis” (p. 208).

Introduction to Adlerian Theory
Although Alfred Adler has had a profound effect on such later theorists as Harry
Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, Julian Rotter, Abraham H. Maslow, Carl Rogers, Al-
bert Ellis, Rollo May, and others (Mosak & Maniacci, 1999), his name is less well
known than that of either Freud or Carl Jung. At least three reasons account for this.
First, Adler did not establish a tightly run organization to perpetuate his theories.
Second, he was not a particularly gifted writer, and most of his books were compiled
by a series of editors using Adler’s scattered lectures. Third, many of his views were
incorporated into the works of such later theorists as Maslow, Rogers, and Ellis and
thus are no longer associated with Adler’s name.

Although his writings revealed great insight into the depth and complexities of
human personality, Adler evolved a basically simple and parsimonious theory. To
Adler, people are born with weak, inferior bodies—a condition that leads to feelings
of inferiority and a consequent dependence on other people. Therefore, a feeling of
unity with others (social interest) is inherent in people and the ultimate standard for
psychological health. More specifically, the main tenets of Adlerian theory can be
stated in outline form. The following is adapted from a list that represents the final
statement of individual psychology (Adler, 1964).

1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success
or superiority.

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 69

2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality.
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social

interest.
5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life.
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power.

Striving for Success or Superiority
The first tenet of Adlerian theory is: The one dynamic force behind people’s behav-
ior is the striving for success or superiority.

Adler reduced all motivation to a single drive—the striving for success or su-
periority. Adler’s own childhood was marked by physical deficiencies and strong
feelings of competitiveness with his older brother. Individual psychology holds that
everyone begins life with physical deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority—
feelings that motivate a person to strive for either superiority or success. Psycholog-
ically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority, whereas psychologically
healthy people seek success for all humanity.

Early in his career, Adler believed that aggression was the dynamic power be-
hind all motivation, but he soon became dissatisfied with this term. After rejecting
aggression as a single motivational force, Adler used the term masculine protest,
which implied will to power or a domination of others. However, he soon abandoned
masculine protest as a universal drive while continuing to give it a limited role in his
theory of abnormal development.

Next, Adler called the single dynamic force striving for superiority. In his final
theory, however, he limited striving for superiority to those people who strive for
personal superiority over others and introduced the term striving for success to de-
scribe actions of people who are motivated by highly developed social interest
(Adler, 1956). Regardless of the motivation for striving, each individual is guided by
a final goal.

The Final Goal
According to Adler (1956), people strive toward a final goal of either personal supe-
riority or the goal of success for all humankind. In either case, the final goal is fic-
tional and has no objective existence. Nevertheless, the final goal has great signifi-
cance because it unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible.

Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal, one con-
structed out of the raw materials provided by heredity and environment. However,
the goal is neither genetically nor environmentally determined. Rather, it is the prod-
uct of the creative power, that is, people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and
create their own personality. By the time children reach 4 or 5 years of age, their cre-
ative power has developed to the point that they can set their final goal. Even infants
have an innate drive toward growth, completion, or success. Because infants are
small, incomplete, and weak, they feel inferior and powerless. To compensate for this
deficiency, they set a fictional goal to be big, complete, and strong. Thus, a person’s

Part II Psychodynamic Theories70

final goal reduces the pain of inferiority feelings and points that person in the direc-
tion of either superiority or success.

If children feel neglected or pampered, their goal remains largely unconscious.
Adler (1964) hypothesized that children will compensate for feelings of inferiority
in devious ways that have no apparent relationship to their fictional goal. The goal
of superiority for a pampered girl, for example, may be to make permanent her
parasitic relationship with her mother. As an adult, she may appear dependent
and self-deprecating, and such behavior may seem inconsistent with a goal of supe-
riority. However, it is quite consistent with her unconscious and misunderstood
goal of being a parasite that she set at age 4 or 5, a time when her mother appeared
large and powerful, and attachment to her became a natural means of attaining
superiority.

Conversely, if children experience love and security, they set a goal that is
largely conscious and clearly understood. Psychologically secure children strive to-
ward superiority defined in terms of success and social interest. Although their goal
never becomes completely conscious, these healthy individuals understand and pur-
sue it with a high level of awareness.

In striving for their final goal, people create and pursue many preliminary
goals. These subgoals are often conscious, but the connection between them and the
final goal usually remains unknown. Furthermore, the relationship among prelimi-
nary goals is seldom realized. From the point of view of the final goal, however, they
fit together in a self-consistent pattern. Adler (1956) used the analogy of the play-
wright who builds the characteristics and the subplots of the play according to the
final goal of the drama. When the final scene is known, all dialogue and every sub-
plot acquire new meaning. When an individual’s final goal is known, all actions make
sense and each subgoal takes on new significance.

The Striving Force as Compensation
People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of
inferiority or weakness. Adler (1930) believed that all humans are “blessed” at birth
with small, weak, and inferior bodies. These physical deficiencies ignite feelings of
inferiority only because people, by their nature, possess an innate tendency toward
completion or wholeness. People are continually pushed by the need to overcome in-
feriority feelings and pulled by the desire for completion. The minus and plus situa-
tions exist simultaneously and cannot be separated because they are two dimensions
of a single force.

The striving force itself is innate, but its nature and direction are due both to
feelings of inferiority and to the goal of superiority. Without the innate movement to-
ward perfection, children would never feel inferior; but without feelings of inferior-
ity, they would never set a goal of superiority or success. The goal, then, is set as
compensation for the deficit feeling, but the deficit feeling would not exist unless a
child first possessed a basic tendency toward completion (Adler, 1956).

Although the striving for success is innate, it must be developed. At birth it ex-
ists as potentiality, not actuality; each person must actualize this potential in his or
her own manner. At about age 4 or 5, children begin this process by setting a direc-
tion to the striving force and by establishing a goal either of personal superiority or

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 71

of social success. The goal provides guidelines for motivation, shaping psychologi-
cal development and giving it an aim.

As a creation of the individual, the goal may take any form. It is not necessar-
ily a mirror image of the deficiency, even though it is a compensation for it. For ex-
ample, a person with a weak body will not necessarily become a robust athlete but
instead may become an artist, an actor, or a writer. Success is an individualized con-
cept and all people formulate their own definition of it. Although creative power is
swayed by the forces of heredity and environment, it is ultimately responsible for
people’s personality. Heredity establishes the potentiality, whereas environment con-
tributes to the development of social interest and courage. The forces of nature and
nurture can never deprive a person of the power to set a unique goal or to choose a
unique style of reaching for the goal (Adler, 1956).

In his final theory, Adler identified two general avenues of striving. The first is
the socially nonproductive attempt to gain personal superiority; the second involves
social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone.

Striving for Personal Superiority
Some people strive for superiority with little or no concern for others. Their
goals are personal ones, and their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated
feelings of personal inferiority, or the presence of an inferiority complex. Murder-
ers, thieves, and con artists are obvious examples of people who strive for personal
gain. Some people create clever disguises for their personal striving and may con-
sciously or unconsciously hide their self-centeredness behind the cloak of social
concern. A college teacher, for example, may appear to have a great interest in his
students because he establishes a personal relationship with many of them. By con-
spicuously displaying much sympathy and concern, he encourages vulnerable stu-
dents to talk to him about their personal problems. This teacher possesses a private
intelligence that allows him to believe that he is the most accessible and dedicated
teacher in his college. To a casual observer, he may appear to be motivated by social
interest, but his actions are largely self-serving and motivated by overcompensation
for his exaggerated feelings of personal superiority.

Striving for Success
In contrast to people who strive for personal gain are those psychologically healthy
people who are motivated by social interest and the success of all humankind. These
healthy individuals are concerned with goals beyond themselves, are capable of
helping others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff, and are able to see
others not as opponents but as people with whom they can cooperate for social ben-
efit. Their own success is not gained at the expense of others but is a natural tendency
to move toward completion or perfection.

People who strive for success rather than personal superiority maintain a sense
of self, of course, but they see daily problems from the view of society’s develop-
ment rather than from a strictly personal vantage point. Their sense of personal worth
is tied closely to their contributions to human society. Social progress is more im-
portant to them than personal credit (Adler, 1956).

Part II Psychodynamic Theories72

Subjective Perceptions
Adler’s second tenet is: People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and
personality.

People strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferior-
ity, but the manner in which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjec-
tive perceptions of reality, that is, by their fictions, or expectations of the future.

Fictionalism
Our most important fiction is the goal of superiority or success, a goal we created
early in life and may not clearly understand. This subjective, fictional final goal
guides our style of life, gives unity to our personality. Adler’s ideas on fictionalism
originated with Hans Vaihinger’s book The Philosophy of “As If” (1911/1925). Vai-
hinger believed that fictions are ideas that have no real existence, yet they influence
people as if they really existed. One example of a fiction might be: “Men are supe-
rior to women.” Although this notion is a fiction, many people, both men and women,
act as if it were a reality. A second example might be: “Humans have a free will that
enables them to make choices.” Again, many people act as if they and others have a
free will and are thus responsible for their choices. No one can prove that free will
exists, yet this fiction guides the lives of most of us. People are motivated not by what
is true but by their subjective perceptions of what is true. A third example of a fic-
tion might be a belief in an omnipotent God who rewards good and punishes evil.
Such a belief guides the daily lives of millions of people and helps shape many of
their actions. Whether true or false, fictions have a powerful influence on people’s
lives.

Adler’s emphasis on fictions is consistent with his strongly held teleological
view of motivation. Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of its final pur-
pose or aim. It is opposed to causality, which considers behavior as springing from
a specific cause. Teleology is usually concerned with future goals or ends, whereas
causality ordinarily deals with past experiences that produce some present effect.
Freud’s view of motivation was basically causal; he believed that people are driven
by past events that activate present behavior. In contrast, Adler adopted a teleologi-
cal view, one in which people are motivated by present perceptions of the future. As
fictions, these perceptions need not be conscious or understood. Nevertheless, they
bestow a purpose on all of people’s actions and are responsible for a consistent pat-
tern that runs throughout their life.

Beyond Biography Why did Adler really break with Freud?
For motivations behind the Adler-Freud breakup, see our website
at www.mhhe.com/feist7

Physical Inferiorities
Because people begin life small, weak, and inferior, they develop a fiction or belief
system about how to overcome these physical deficiencies and become big, strong,
and superior. But even after they attain size, strength, and superiority, they may act
as if they are still small, weak, and inferior.

WWW

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 73

Adler (1929/1969) insisted that the whole human race is “blessed” with organ
inferiorities. These physical handicaps have little or no importance by themselves but
become meaningful when they stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority, which
serve as an impetus toward perfection or completion. Some people compensate for
these feelings of inferiority by moving toward psychological health and a useful style
of life, whereas others overcompensate and are motivated to subdue or retreat from
other people.

History provides many examples of people like Demosthenes or Beethoven
overcoming a handicap and making significant contributions to society. Adler him-
self was weak and sickly as a child, and his illness moved him to overcome death by
becoming a physician and by competing with his older brother and with Sigmund
Freud.

Adler (1929/1969) emphasized that physical deficiencies alone do not cause a
particular style of life; they simply provide present motivation for reaching future
goals. Such motivation, like all aspects of personality, is unified and self-consistent.

Unity and Self-Consistency
of Personality
The third tenet of Adlerian theory is: Personality is unified and self-consistent.

In choosing the term individual psychology, Adler wished to stress his belief
that each person is unique and indivisible. Thus, individual psychology insists on the
fundamental unity of personality and the notion that inconsistent behavior does not
exist. Thoughts, feelings, and actions are all directed toward a single goal and serve
a single purpose. When people behave erratically or unpredictably, their behavior
forces other people to be on the defensive, to be watchful so as not to be confused
by capricious actions. Although behaviors may appear inconsistent, when they are
viewed from the perspective of a final goal, they appear as clever but probably un-
conscious attempts to confuse and subordinate other people. This confusing and
seemingly inconsistent behavior gives the erratic person the upper hand in an inter-
personal relationship. Although erratic people are often successful in their attempt to
gain superiority over others, they usually remain unaware of their underlying motive
and may stubbornly reject any suggestion that they desire superiority over other
people.

Adler (1956) recognized several ways in which the entire person operates with
unity and self-consistency. The first of these he called organ jargon, or organ dialect.

Organ Dialect
According to Adler (1956), the whole person strives in a self-consistent fashion to-
ward a single goal, and all separate actions and functions can be understood only as
parts of this goal. The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in iso-
lation; it affects the entire person. In fact, the deficient organ expresses the direction
of the individual’s goal, a condition known as organ dialect. Through organ di-
alect, the body’s organs “speak a language which is usually more expressive and dis-
closes the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do” (Adler, 1956,
p. 223).

Part II Psychodynamic Theories74

One example of organ dialect might be a man suffering from rheumatoid
arthritis in his hands. His stiff and deformed joints voice his whole style of life. It is
as if they cry out, “See my deformity. See my handicap. You can’t expect me to do
manual work.” Without an audible sound, his hands speak of his desire for sympathy
from others.

Adler (1956) presented another example of organ dialect—the case of a very
obedient boy who wet the bed at night to send a message that he does not wish to
obey parental wishes. His behavior is “really a creative expression, for the child is
speaking with his bladder instead of his mouth” (p. 223).

Conscious and Unconscious
A second example of a unified personality is the harmony between conscious and un-
conscious actions. Adler (1956) defined the unconscious as that part of the goal that
is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual. With this
definition, Adler avoided a dichotomy between the unconscious and the conscious,
which he saw as two cooperating parts of the same unified system. Conscious
thoughts are those that are understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in
striving for success, whereas unconscious thoughts are those that are not helpful.

We cannot oppose “consciousness” to “unconsciousness” as if they were
antagonistic halves of an individual’s existence. The conscious life becomes
unconscious as soon as we fail to understand it—and as soon as we understand
an unconscious tendency it has already become conscious. (Adler, 1929/1964,
p. 163)

Whether people’s behaviors lead to a healthy or an unhealthy style of life de-
pends on the degree of social interest that they developed during their childhood
years.

Social Interest
The fourth of Adler’s tenets is: The value of all human activity must be seen from the
viewpoint of social interest.

Social interest is Adler’s somewhat misleading translation of his original Ger-
man term, Gemeinschaftsgefühl. A better translation might be “social feeling” or
“community feeling,” but Gemeinschaftsgefühl actually has a meaning that is not
fully expressed by any English word or phrase. Roughly, it means a feeling of one-
ness with all humanity; it implies membership in the social community of all peo-
ple. A person with well-developed Gemeinschaftsgefühl strives not for personal su-
periority but for perfection for all people in an ideal community. Social interest can
be defined as an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general as well as an em-
pathy for each member of the human community. It manifests itself as cooperation
with others for social advancement rather than for personal gain (Adler, 1964).

Social interest is the natural condition of the human species and the adhesive
that binds society together (Adler, 1927). The natural inferiority of individuals ne-
cessitates their joining together to form a society. Without protection and nourish-
ment from a father or mother, a baby would perish. Without protection from the fam-
ily or clan, our ancestors would have been destroyed by animals that were stronger,

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 75

more ferocious, or endowed with keener senses. Social interest, therefore, is a ne-
cessity for perpetuating the human species.

Origins of Social Interest
Social interest is rooted as potentiality in everyone, but it must be developed before
it can contribute to a useful style of life. It originates from the mother-child rela-
tionship during the early months of infancy. Every person who has survived infancy
was kept alive by a mothering person who possessed some amount of social interest.
Thus, every person has had the seeds of social interest sown during those early
months.

Adler believed that marriage and parenthood is a task for two. However, the
two parents may influence a child’s social interest in somewhat different ways. The
mother’s job is to develop a bond that encourages the child’s mature social interest
and fosters a sense of cooperation. Ideally, she should have a genuine and deep-
rooted love for her child—a love that is centered on the child’s well-being, not on her
own needs or wants. This healthy love relationship develops from a true caring for
her child, her husband, and other people. If the mother has learned to give and re-
ceive love from others, she will have little difficulty broadening her child’s social in-
terest. But if she favors the child over the father, her child may become pampered
and spoiled. Conversely, if she favors her husband or society, the child will feel ne-
glected and unloved.

The father is a second important person in a child’s social environment. He
must demonstrate a caring attitude toward his wife as well as to other people. The
ideal father cooperates on an equal footing with the child’s mother in caring for the
child and treating the child as a human being. According to Adler’s (1956) standards,
a successful father avoids the dual errors of emotional detachment and paternal

Part II Psychodynamic Theories76

Both mother and father can contribute powerfully to the developing social interest of their children.

authoritarianism. These errors may represent two attitudes, but they are often found in
the same father. Both prevent the growth and spread of social interest in a child. A
father’s emotional detachment may influence the child to develop a warped sense of
social interest, a feeling of neglect, and possibly a parasitic attachment to the mother.
A child who experiences paternal detachment creates a goal of personal superiority
rather than one based on social interest. The second error—paternal authoritarian-
ism—may also lead to an unhealthy style of life. A child who sees the father as a
tyrant learns to strive for power and personal superiority.

Adler (1956) believed that the effects of the early social environment are ex-
tremely important. The relationship a child has with the mother and father is so pow-
erful that it smothers the effects of heredity. Adler believed that after age 5, the ef-
fects of heredity become blurred by the powerful influence of the child’s social
environment. By that time, environmental forces have modified or shaped nearly
every aspect of a child’s personality.

Importance of Social Interest
Social interest was Adler’s yardstick for measuring psychological health and is thus
“the sole criterion of human values” (Adler, 1927, p. 167). To Adler, social interest
is the only gauge to be used in judging the worth of a person. As the barometer of
normality, it is the standard to be used in determining the usefulness of a life. To the
degree that people possess social interest, they are psychologically mature. Imma-
ture people lack Gemeinschaftsgefühl, are self-centered, and strive for personal
power and superiority over others. Healthy individuals are genuinely concerned
about people and have a goal of success that encompasses the well-being of all
people.

Social interest is not synonymous with charity and unselfishness. Acts of phi-
lanthropy and kindness may or may not be motivated by Gemeinschaftsgefühl. A
wealthy woman may regularly give large sums of money to the poor and needy, not
because she feels a oneness with them, but, quite to the contrary, because she wishes
to maintain a separateness from them. The gift implies, “You are inferior, I am su-
perior, and this charity is proof of my superiority.” Adler believed that the worth of
all such acts can only be judged against the criterion of social interest.

In summary, people begin life with a basic striving force that is activated by
ever-present physical deficiencies. These organic weaknesses lead inevitably to feel-
ings of inferiority. Thus, all people possess feelings of inferiority, and all set a final
goal at around age 4 or 5. However, psychologically unhealthy individuals develop
exaggerated feelings of inferiority and attempt to compensate by setting a goal of
personal superiority. They are motivated by personal gain rather than by social in-
terest, whereas healthy people are motivated by normal feelings of incompleteness
and high levels of social interest. They strive toward the goal of success, defined in
terms of perfection and completion for everyone. Figure 3.1 illustrates how the in-
nate striving force combines with inevitable physical deficiencies to produce univer-
sal feelings of inferiority, which can be either exaggerated or normal. Exaggerated
feelings of inferiority lead to a neurotic style of life, whereas normal feelings of in-
completion result in a healthy style of life. Whether a person forms a useless style of
life or a socially useful one depends on how that person views these inevitable feel-
ings of inferiority.

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 77

Style of Life
Adler’s fifth tenet is: The self-consistent personality structure develops into a per-
son’s style of life.

Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the flavor of a person’s life. It in-
cludes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the
world. It is the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person’s
creative power. Adler (1956) used a musical analogy to elucidate style of life. The
separate notes of a composition are meaningless without the entire melody, but the
melody takes on added significance when we recognize the composer’s style or
unique manner of expression.

A person’s style of life is fairly well established by age 4 or 5. After that time,
all our actions revolve around our unified style of life. Although the final goal is sin-
gular, style of life need not be narrow or rigid. Psychologically unhealthy individu-
als often lead rather inflexible lives that are marked by an inability to choose new
ways of reacting to their environment. In contrast, psychologically healthy people
behave in diverse and flexible ways with styles of life that are complex, enriched, and
changing. Healthy people see many ways of striving for success and continually seek
to create new options for themselves. Even though their final goal remains constant,
the way in which they perceive it continually changes. Thus, they can choose new
options at any point in life.

People with a healthy, socially useful style of life express their social interest
through action. They actively struggle to solve what Adler regarded as the three
major problems of life—neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation—and they do
so through cooperation, personal courage, and a willingness to make a contribution
to the welfare of another. Adler (1956) believed that people with a socially useful
style of life represent the highest form of humanity in the evolutionary process and
are likely to populate the world of the future.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories78

FIGURE 3.1 Two Basic Methods of Striving toward the Final Goal.

Personal superiority

Personal gain

Exaggerated feelings

Success

Social interest

Normal feelings of incompletion

Feelings of inferiority

Physical deficiencies

Innate striving force

Final goal
dimly perceived

Final goal
clearly perceived

Creative Power
The final tenet of Adlerian theory is: Style of life is molded by people’s creative
power.

Each person, Adler believed, is empowered with the freedom to create her or
his own style of life. Ultimately, all people are responsible for who they are and how
they behave. Their creative power places them in control of their own lives, is re-
sponsible for their final goal, determines their method of striving for that goal, and
contributes to the development of social interest. In short, creative power makes each
person a free individual. Creative power is a dynamic concept implying movement,
and this movement is the most salient characteristic of life. All psychic life involves
movement toward a goal, movement with a direction (Adler, 1964).

Adler (1956) acknowledged the importance of heredity and environment in
forming personality. Except for identical twins, every child is born with a unique ge-
netic makeup and soon comes to have social experiences different from those of any
other human. People, however, are much more than a product of heredity and envi-
ronment. They are creative beings who not only react to their environment but also
act on it and cause it to react to them.

Each person uses heredity and environment as the bricks and mortar to build
personality, but the architectural design reflects that person’s own style. Of primary
importance is not what people have been given, but how they put those materials to
use. The building materials of personality are secondary. We are our own architect
and can build either a useful or a useless style of life. We can choose to construct a
gaudy façade or to expose the essence of the structure. We are not compelled to grow
in the direction of social interest, inasmuch as we have no inner nature that forces us
to be good. Conversely, we have no inherently evil nature from which we must es-
cape. We are who we are because of the use we have made of our bricks and mortar.

Adler (1929/1964) used an interesting analogy, which he called “the law of the
low doorway.” If you are trying to walk through a doorway four feet high, you have
two basic choices. First, you can use your creative power to bend down as you ap-
proach the doorway, thereby successfully solving the problem. This is the manner in
which the psychologically healthy individual solves most of life’s problems. Con-
versely, if you bump your head and fall back, you must still solve the problem cor-
rectly or continue bumping your head. Neurotics often choose to bump their head on
the realities of life. When approaching the low doorway, you are neither compelled
to stoop nor forced to bump your head. You have a creative power that permits you
to follow either course.

Abnormal Development
Adler believed that people are what they make of themselves. The creative power en-
dows humans, within certain limits, with the freedom to be either psychologically
healthy or unhealthy and to follow either a useful or useless style of life.

General Description
According to Adler (1956), the one factor underlying all types of maladjustments
is underdeveloped social interest. Besides lacking social interest, neurotics tend to
(1) set their goals too high, (2) live in their own private world, and (3) have a rigid

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 79

and dogmatic style of life. These three characteristics follow inevitably from a lack of
social interest. In short, people become failures in life because they are overconcerned
with themselves and care little about others. Maladjusted people set extravagant
goals as an overcompensation for exaggerated feelings of inferiority. These lofty
goals lead to dogmatic behavior, and the higher the goal, the more rigid the striving.
To compensate for deeply rooted feelings of inadequacy and basic insecurity, these
individuals narrow their perspective and strive compulsively and rigidly for unreal-
istic goals.

The exaggerated and unrealistic nature of neurotics’ goals sets them apart from
the community of other people. They approach the problems of friendship, sex, and
occupation from a personal angle that precludes successful solutions. Their view of
the world is not in focus with that of other individuals and they possess what Adler
(1956) called “private meaning” (p. 156). These people find everyday living to be
hard work, requiring great effort. Adler (1929/1964) used an analogy to describe
how these people go through life.

In a certain popular music hall, the “strong” man comes on and lifts an enormous
weight with care and intense difficulty. Then, during the hearty applause of the
audience, a child comes in and gives away the fraud by carrying the dummy
weight off with one hand. There are plenty of neurotics who swindle us with such
weights, and who are adepts at appearing overburdened. They could really dance
with the load under which they stagger. (p. 91)

External Factors in Maladjustment
Why do some people create maladjustments? Adler (1964) recognized three con-
tributing factors, any one of which is sufficient to contribute to abnormality: (1) ex-
aggerated physical deficiencies, (2) a pampered style of life, and (3) a neglected style
of life.

Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
Exaggerated physical deficiencies, whether congenital or the result of injury or dis-
ease, are not sufficient to lead to maladjustment. They must be accompanied by ac-
centuated feelings of inferiority. These subjective feelings may be greatly encour-
aged by a defective body, but they are the progeny of the creative power.

Each person comes into the world “blessed” with physical deficiencies, and
these deficiencies lead to feelings of inferiority. People with exaggerated physical
deficiencies sometimes develop exaggerated feelings of inferiority because they
overcompensate for their inadequacy. They tend to be overly concerned with them-
selves and lack consideration for others. They feel as if they are living in enemy
country, fear defeat more than they desire success, and are convinced that life’s major
problems can be solved only in a selfish manner (Adler, 1927).

Pampered Style of Life
A pampered style of life lies at the heart of most neuroses. Pampered people have
weak social interest but a strong desire to perpetuate the pampered, parasitic rela-
tionship they originally had with one or both of their parents. They expect others to

Part II Psychodynamic Theories80

look after them, overprotect them, and satisfy their needs. They are characterized by
extreme discouragement, indecisiveness, oversensitivity, impatience, and exagger-
ated emotion, especially anxiety. They see the world with private vision and believe
that they are entitled to be first in everything (Adler, 1927, 1964).

Pampered children have not received too much love; rather, they feel unloved.
Their parents have demonstrated a lack of love by doing too much for them and by
treating them as if they were incapable of solving their own problems. Because these
children feel pampered and spoiled, they develop a pampered style of life. Pampered
children may also feel neglected. Having been protected by a doting parent, they are
fearful when separated from that parent. Whenever they must fend for themselves,
they feel left out, mistreated, and neglected. These experiences add to the pampered
child’s stockpile of inferiority feelings.

Neglected Style of Life
The third external factor contributing to maladjustment is neglect. Children who feel
unloved and unwanted are likely to borrow heavily from these feelings in creating a
neglected style of life. Neglect is a relative concept. No one feels totally neglected
or completely unwanted. The fact that a child survived infancy is proof that some-
one cared for that child and that the seed of social interest has been planted (Adler,
1927).

Abused and mistreated children develop little social interest and tend to create
a neglected style of life. They have little confidence in themselves and tend to over-
estimate difficulties connected with life’s major problems. They are distrustful of
other people and are unable to cooperate for the common welfare. They see society
as enemy country, feel alienated from all other people, and experience a strong sense
of envy toward the success of others. Neglected children have many of the charac-
teristics of pampered ones, but generally they are more suspicious and more likely
to be dangerous to others (Adler, 1927).

Safeguarding Tendencies
Adler believed that people create patterns of behavior to protect their exaggerated
sense of self-esteem against public disgrace. These protective devices, called safe-
guarding tendencies, enable people to hide their inflated self-image and to maintain
their current style of life.

Adler’s concept of safeguarding tendencies can be compared to Freud’s con-
cept of defense mechanisms. Basic to both is the idea that symptoms are formed as
a protection against anxiety. However, there are important differences between the
two concepts. Freudian defense mechanisms operate unconsciously to protect the
ego against anxiety, whereas Adlerian safeguarding tendencies are largely conscious
and shield a person’s fragile self-esteem from public disgrace. Also, Freud’s defense
mechanisms are common to everyone, but Adler (1956) discussed safeguarding ten-
dencies only with reference to the construction of neurotic symptoms. Excuses, ag-
gression, and withdrawal are three common safeguarding tendencies, each designed
to protect a person’s present style of life and to maintain a fictional, elevated feeling
of self-importance (Adler, 1964).

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 81

Excuses
The most common of the safeguarding tendencies are excuses, which are typically
expressed in the “Yes, but” or “If only” format. In the “Yes, but” excuse, people first
state what they claim they would like to do—something that sounds good to others—
then they follow with an excuse. A woman might say, “Yes, I would like to go to col-
lege, but my children demand too much of my attention.” An executive explains,
“Yes, I agree with your proposal, but company policy will not allow it.”

The “If only” statement is the same excuse phrased in a different way. “If only
my husband were more supportive, I would have advanced faster in my profession.”
“If only I did not have this physical deficiency, I could compete successfully for a
job.” These excuses protect a weak—but artificially inflated—sense of self-worth
and deceive people into believing that they are more superior than they really are
(Adler, 1956).

Aggression
Another common safeguarding tendency is aggression. Adler (1956) held that some
people use aggression to safeguard their exaggerated superiority complex, that is, to
protect their fragile self-esteem. Safeguarding through aggression may take the form
of depreciation, accusation, or self-accusation.

Depreciation is the tendency to undervalue other people’s achievements and
to overvalue one’s own. This safeguarding tendency is evident in such aggressive be-
haviors as criticism and gossip. “The only reason Kenneth got the job I applied for
is because he is an African American.” “If you look closely, you’ll notice that Jill
works hardest at avoiding work.” The intention behind each act of depreciation is to
belittle another so that the person, by comparison, will be placed in a favorable light.

Accusation, the second form of an aggressive safeguarding device, is the ten-
dency to blame others for one’s failures and to seek revenge, thereby safeguarding
one’s own tenuous self-esteem. “I wanted to be an artist, but my parents forced me
to go to medical school. Now I have a job that makes me miserable.” Adler (1956)
believed that there is an element of aggressive accusation in all unhealthy lifestyles.
Unhealthy people invariably act to cause the people around them to suffer more than
they do.

The third form of neurotic aggression, self-accusation, is marked by self-
torture and guilt. Some people use self-torture, including masochism, depression,
and suicide, as means of hurting people who are close to them. Guilt is often
aggressive, self-accusatory behavior. “I feel distressed because I wasn’t nicer to my
grandmother while she was still living. Now, it’s too late.”

Self-accusation is the converse of depreciation, although both are aimed to-
ward gaining personal superiority. With depreciation, people who feel inferior de-
value others to make themselves look good. With self-accusation, people devalue
themselves in order to inflict suffering on others while protecting their own magni-
fied feelings of self-esteem (Adler, 1956).

Withdrawal
Personality development can be halted when people run away from difficulties. Adler
referred to this tendency as withdrawal, or safeguarding through distance. Some
people unconsciously escape life’s problems by setting up a distance between them-
selves and those problems.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories82

Adler (1956) recognized four modes of safeguarding through withdrawal:
(1) moving backward, (2) standing still, (3) hesitating, and (3) constructing obstacles.

Moving backward is the tendency to safeguard one’s fictional goal of superi-
ority by psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life. Moving backward
is similar to Freud’s concept of regression in that both involve attempts to return to
earlier, more comfortable phases of life. Whereas regression takes place uncon-
sciously and protects people against anxiety-filled experiences, moving backward
may sometimes be conscious and is directed at maintaining an inflated goal of supe-
riority. Moving backward is designed to elicit sympathy, the deleterious attitude of-
fered so generously to pampered children.

Psychological distance can also be created by standing still. This withdrawal
tendency is similar to moving backward but, in general, it is not as severe. People
who stand still simply do not move in any direction; thus, they avoid all responsibil-
ity by ensuring themselves against any threat of failure. They safeguard their fic-
tional aspirations because they never do anything to prove that they cannot accom-
plish their goals. A person who never applies to graduate school can never be denied
entrance; a child who shies away from other children will not be rejected by them.
By doing nothing, people safeguard their self-esteem and protect themselves against
failure.

Closely related to standing still is hesitating. Some people hesitate or vacillate
when faced with difficult problems. Their procrastinations eventually give them the
excuse “It’s too late now.” Adler believed that most compulsive behaviors are at-
tempts to waste time. Compulsive hand washing, retracing one’s steps, behaving in
an obsessive orderly manner, destroying work already begun, and leaving work un-
finished are examples of hesitation. Although hesitating may appear to other people
to be self-defeating, it allows neurotic individuals to preserve their inflated sense of
self-esteem.

The least severe of the withdrawal safeguarding tendencies is constructing
obstacles. Some people build a straw house to show that they can knock it down. By
overcoming the obstacle, they protect their self-esteem and their prestige. If they fail
to hurdle the barrier, they can always resort to an excuse.

In summary, safeguarding tendencies are found in nearly everyone, but when
they become overly rigid, they lead to self-defeating behaviors. Overly sensitive peo-
ple create safeguarding tendencies to buffer their fear of disgrace, to eliminate their
exaggerated inferiority feelings, and to attain self-esteem. However, safeguarding
tendencies are self-defeating because their built-in goals of self-interest and personal
superiority actually block them from securing authentic feelings of self-esteem.
Many people fail to realize that their self-esteem would be better safeguarded if they
gave up their self-interest and developed a genuine caring for other people. Adler’s
idea of safeguarding tendencies and Freud’s notion of defense mechanisms are com-
pared in Table 3.1.

Masculine Protest
In contrast to Freud, Adler (1930, 1956) believed that the psychic life of women is
essentially the same as that of men and that a male-dominated society is not natural
but rather an artificial product of historical development. According to Adler, cul-
tural and social practices—not anatomy—influence many men and women to

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 83

overemphasize the importance of being manly, a condition he called the masculine
protest.

Origins of the Masculine Protest
In many societies, both men and women place an inferior value on being a woman.
Boys are frequently taught early that being masculine means being courageous,
strong, and dominant. The epitome of success for boys is to win, to be powerful, to
be on top. In contrast, girls often learn to be passive and to accept an inferior posi-
tion in society.

Some women fight against their feminine roles, developing a masculine orien-
tation and becoming assertive and competitive; others revolt by adopting a passive
role, becoming exceedingly helpless and obedient; still others become resigned to
the belief that they are inferior human beings, acknowledging men’s privileged posi-
tion by shifting responsibilities to them. Each of these modes of adjustment results
from cultural and social influences, not from inherent psychic difference between the
two genders.

Adler, Freud, and the Masculine Protest
In the previous chapter we saw that Freud (1924/1961) believed that “anatomy is
destiny” (p. 178), and that he regarded women as the “ ‘dark continent’ for psychol-
ogy” (Freud 1926/1959b, p. 212). Moreover, near the end of his life, he was still ask-
ing, “What does a woman want?” (E. Jones, 1955, p. 421). According to Adler, these
attitudes toward women would be evidence of a person with a strong masculine

Part II Psychodynamic Theories84

T A B L E 3 . 1

Comparison of Safeguarding Tendencies with Defense Mechanisms

Adler’s Safeguarding Tendencies

1. Limited mostly to the construction
of a neurotic style of life

2. Protect the person’s fragile self-
esteem from public disgrace

3. Can be partly conscious
4. Common types include:

A. excuses
B. aggression

(1) depreciation
(2) accusation
(3) self-accusation

C. withdrawal
(1) moving backward
(2) standing still
(3) hesitating
(4) constructing obstacles

Freud’s Defense Mechanisms

1. Found in everyone
2. Protect the ego from the pain of

anxiety
3. Operate only on an unconscious

level
4. Common types include:

A. repression
B. reaction formation
C. displacement
D. fixation
E . regression
F . projection
G. introjection
H. sublimation

protest. In contrast to Freud’s views on women, Adler assumed that women—be-
cause they have the same physiological and psychological needs as men—want more
or less the same things that men want.

These opposing views on femininity were magnified in the women Freud and
Adler chose to marry. Martha Bernays Freud was a subservient housewife dedicated
to her children and husband, but she had no interest in her husband’s professional
work. In contrast, Raissa Epstein Adler was an intensely independent woman who
abhorred the traditional domestic role, preferring a politically active career.

During the early years of their marriage, Raissa and Alfred Adler had some-
what compatible political views, but in time, these views diverged. Alfred became
more of a capitalist, advocating personal responsibility, while Raissa became in-
volved in the dangerous Communist politics of her native Russia. Such indepen-
dence pleased Adler, who was as much a feminist as his strong-willed wife.

Applications of Individual Psychology
We have divided the practical applications of individual psychology into four areas:
(1) family constellation, (2) early recollections, (3) dreams, and (4) psychotherapy.

Family Constellation
In therapy, Adler almost always asked patients about their family constellation, that
is, their birth order, the gender of their siblings, and the age spread between them.
Although people’s perception of the situation into which they were born is more im-
portant than numerical rank, Adler did form some general hypotheses about birth
order.

Firstborn children, according to Adler (1931), are likely to have intensified
feelings of power and superiority, high anxiety, and overprotective tendencies. (Re-
call that Freud was his mother’s firstborn child.) Firstborn children occupy a unique
position, being an only child for a time and then experiencing a traumatic dethrone-
ment when a younger sibling is born. This event dramatically changes the situation
and the child’s view of the world.

If firstborn children are age 3 or older when a baby brother or sister is born,
they incorporate this dethronement into a previously established style of life. If they
have already developed a self-centered style of life, they likely will feel hostility and
resentment toward the new baby, but if they have formed a cooperating style, they
will eventually adopt this same attitude toward the new sibling. If firstborn children
are less than 3 years old, their hostility and resentment will be largely unconscious,
which makes these attitudes more resistant to change in later life.

According to Adler, secondborn children (such as himself ) begin life in a bet-
ter situation for developing cooperation and social interest. To some extent, the per-
sonalities of secondborn children are shaped by their perception of the older child’s
attitude toward them. If this attitude is one of extreme hostility and vengeance, the
second child may become highly competitive or overly discouraged. The typical sec-
ond child, however, does not develop in either of these two directions. Instead, the
secondborn child matures toward moderate competitiveness, having a healthy desire
to overtake the older rival. If some success is achieved, the child is likely to develop

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 85

a revolutionary attitude and feel that any authority can be challenged. Again, chil-
dren’s interpretations are more important than their chronological position.

Youngest children, Adler believed, are often the most pampered and, conse-
quently, run a high risk of being problem children. They are likely to have strong
feelings of inferiority and to lack a sense of independence. Nevertheless, they pos-
sess many advantages. They are often highly motivated to exceed older siblings and
to become the fastest runner, the best musician, the most skilled athlete, or the most
ambitious student.

Only children are in a unique position of competing, not against brothers and
sisters, but against father and mother. Living in an adult world, they often develop an
exaggerated sense of superiority and an inflated self-concept. Adler (1931) stated
that only children may lack well-developed feelings of cooperation and social inter-
est, possess a parasitic attitude, and expect other people to pamper and protect them.
Typical positive and negative traits of oldest, second, youngest, and only children are
shown in Table 3.2.

Early Recollections
To gain an understanding of patients’ personality, Adler would ask them to reveal
their early recollections (ERs). Although he believed that the recalled memories
yield clues for understanding patients’ style of life, he did not consider these mem-
ories to have a causal effect. Whether the recalled experiences correspond with ob-
jective reality or are complete fantasies is of no importance. People reconstruct the

Part II Psychodynamic Theories86

Siblings may feel superior or inferior and may adopt different attitudes toward the world depending in
part on their order of birth.

events to make them consistent with a theme or pattern that runs throughout their
lives.

Adler (1929/1969, 1931) insisted that early recollections are always consistent
with people’s present style of life and that their subjective account of these experi-
ences yields clues to understanding both their final goal and their present style of
life. One of Adler’s earliest recollections was of the great contrast between his
brother Sigmund’s good health and his own sickly condition. As an adult, Adler re-
ported that

One of my earliest recollections is of sitting on a beach . . . bandaged up on
account of rickets, with my healthier elder brother sitting opposite me. He could
run, jump, and move about quite effortlessly, while for me movement of any sort
was a strain. . . . Everyone went to great pains to help me. (Bottome, 1957, p. 30)

If Adler’s assumption that early recollections are a valid indicator of a person’s
style of life, then this memory should yield clues about Adler’s adult style of life.

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 87

T A B L E 3 . 2

Adler’s View of Some Possible Traits by Birth Order

Positive Traits Negative Traits

Oldest Child

Second Child

Highly anxious
Exaggerated feelings of power
Unconscious hostility
Fights for acceptance
Must always be “right,” whereas

others are always “wrong”
Highly critical of others
Uncooperative

Nurturing and protective of others
Good organizer

Highly motivated
Cooperative
Moderately competitive

Highly competitive
Easily discouraged

Realistically ambitious Pampered style of life
Dependent on others
Wants to excel in everything
Unrealistically ambitious

Socially mature Exaggerated feelings of superiority
Low feelings of cooperation
Inflated sense of self
Pampered style of life

Youngest Child

Only Child

First, it tells us that he must have seen himself as an underdog, competing valiantly
against a powerful foe. However, this early recollection also indicates that he be-
lieved he had the help of others. Receiving aid from other people would have given
Adler the confidence to compete against such a powerful rival. This confidence cou-
pled with a competitive attitude likely carried over to his relationship with Sigmund
Freud, making that association tenuous from the beginning.

Adler (1929/1964) presented another example of the relationship between
early recollections and style of life. During therapy an outwardly successful man
who greatly distrusted women reported the following early memory: “I was going
with my mother and little brother to market. Suddenly it began to rain and my mother
took me in her arms, and then, remembering that I was the older, she put me down
and took up my younger brother” (p. 123). Adler saw that this recollection related di-
rectly to the man’s current distrust of women. Having initially gained a favorite po-
sition with his mother, he eventually lost it to his younger brother. Although others
may claim to love him, they will soon withdraw their love. Note that Adler did not
believe that the early childhood experiences caused the man’s current distrust of
women, but rather that his current distrustful style of life shapes and colors his early
recollections.

Adler believed that highly anxious patients will often project their current style
of life onto their memory of childhood experiences by recalling fearful and anxiety-
producing events, such as being in a motor vehicle crash, losing parents either
temporarily or permanently, or being bullied by other children. In contrast, self-
confident people tend to recall memories that include pleasant relations with other
people. In either case the early experience does not determine the style of life. Adler
believed that the opposite was true; that is, recollections of early experiences are
simply shaped by present style of life.

Dreams
Although dreams cannot foretell the future, they can provide clues for solving future
problems. Nevertheless, the dreamer frequently does not wish to solve the problem
in a productive manner. Adler (1956) reported the dream of a 35-year-old man who
was considering marriage. In the dream, the man “crossed the border between Aus-
tria and Hungary, and they wanted to imprison me” (p. 361). Adler interpreted this
dream to mean that the dreamer wants to come to a standstill because he would be
defeated if he went on. In other words, the man wanted to limit his scope of activity
and had no deep desire to change his marital status. He did not wish to be “impris-
oned” by marriage. Any interpretation of this or any dream must be tentative and
open to reinterpretation. Adler (1956) applied the golden rule of individual psychol-
ogy to dream work, namely, “Everything can be different” (p. 363). If one interpre-
tation doesn’t feel right, try another.

Immediately before Adler’s first trip to the United States in 1926, he had a
vivid and anxious dream that related directly to his desire to spread his individual
psychology to a new world and to free himself from the constraints of Freud and Vi-
enna. The night before he was to depart for America, Adler dreamed that he was on
board the ship when

suddenly it capsized and sunk. All of Adler’s worldly possessions were on it and
were destroyed by the raging waves. Hurled into the ocean, Adler was forced to

Part II Psychodynamic Theories88

swim for his life. Alone he thrashed and struggled through the choppy water. But
through the force of will and determination, he finally reached land in safety.
(Hoffman, 1994, p. 151)

Adler interpreted this dream to mean that he had to muster the courage to venture
into a new world and to break from old worldly possessions.

Although Adler believed that he could easily interpret this dream, he con-
tended that most dreams are self-deceptions and not easily understood by the
dreamer. Dreams are disguised to deceive the dreamer, making self-interpretation
difficult. The more an individual’s goal is inconsistent with reality, the more likely
that person’s dreams will be used for self-deception. For example, a man may have
the goal of reaching the top, being above, or becoming an important military figure.
If he also possesses a dependent style of life, his ambitious goal may be expressed
in dreams of being lifted onto another person’s shoulders or being shot from a can-
non. The dream unveils the style of life, but it fools the dreamer by presenting him
with an unrealistic, exaggerated sense of power and accomplishment. In contrast, a
more courageous and independent person with similar lofty ambitions may dream of
unaided flying or reaching a goal without help, much as Adler had done when he
dreamed of escaping from a sinking ship.

Psychotherapy
Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology results from lack of courage, exag-
gerated feelings of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest. Thus, the chief
purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferi-
ority, and encourage social interest. This task, however, is not easy because patients
struggle to hold on to their existing, comfortable view of themselves. To overcome
this resistance to change, Adler would sometimes ask patients, “What would you do
if I cured you immediately?” Such a question usually forced patients to examine
their goals and to see that responsibility for their current misery rests with them.

Adler often used the motto “Everybody can accomplish everything.” Except
for certain limitations set by heredity, he strongly believed this maxim and repeat-
edly emphasized that what people do with what they have is more important than
what they have (Adler, 1925/1968, 1956). Through the use of humor and warmth,
Adler tried to increase the patient’s courage, self-esteem, and social interest. He be-
lieved that a warm, nurturing attitude by the therapist encourages patients to expand
their social interest to each of the three problems of life: sexual love, friendship, and
occupation.

Adler innovated a unique method of therapy with problem children by treating
them in front of an audience of parents, teachers, and health professionals. When
children receive therapy in public, they more readily understand that their problems
are community problems. Adler (1964) believed that this procedure would enhance
children’s social interest by allowing them to feel that they belong to a community
of concerned adults. Adler was careful not to blame the parents for a child’s misbe-
havior. Instead, he worked to win the parents’ confidence and to persuade them to
change their attitudes toward the child.

Although Adler was quite active in setting the goal and direction of psy-
chotherapy, he maintained a friendly and permissive attitude toward the patient. He
established himself as a congenial coworker, refrained from moralistic preaching,

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 89

and placed great value on the human relationship. By cooperating with their thera-
pists, patients establish contact with another person. The therapeutic relationship
awakens their social interest in the same manner that children gain social interest
from their parents. Once awakened, the patients’ social interest must spread to fam-
ily, friends, and people outside the therapeutic relationship (Adler, 1956).

Related Research
Adlerian theory continues to generate a moderate amount of research on such topics
as career choice, eating disorders, binge drinking, and other important issues. Each
of these topics can provide a potentially rich source for understanding various Adler-
ian concepts.

Early Recollections and Career Choice
Do early recollections predict career choice among young students? Adler believed
that career choices reflect a person’s personality. “If ever I am called on for voca-
tional guidance, I always ask the individual what he was interested in during his first
years. His memories of this period show conclusively what he has trained himself for
most continuously” (Adler, 1958, as quoted in Kasler & Nevo, 2005, p. 221). Re-
searchers inspired by Adler therefore predicted that the kind of career one chooses
as an adult is often reflected in one’s earliest recollections.

In order to test this hypothesis, Jon Kasler and Ofra Nevo (2005) gathered ear-
liest memories from 130 participants. These recollections were then coded by two
judges on the kind of career the memory reflected. The recollections were classified
using Holland’s (1973) vocational interest types, namely Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (see Table 3.3 for description of
these interest types). For example, an early recollection that reflects a social career
interest later in life was: “I went to nursery school for the first time in my life at the
age of four or five. I don’t remember my feelings that day but I went with my mother
and the moment I arrived I met my first friend, a boy by the name of P. I remember
a clear picture of P playing on the railings and somehow I joined him. I had fun all
day” (Kasler & Nevo, 2005, p. 226). This early recollection centers around social in-
teraction and relationships. An example of an early recollection that reflects a real-
istic career interest was: “When I was a little boy, I used to like to take things apart,
especially electrical appliances. One day I wanted to find out what was inside the tel-
evision, so I decided to take a knife and break it open. Because I was so small I didn’t
have the strength and anyway my father caught me and yelled at me” (Kasler &
Nevo, 2005, p. 225).

Career interest of participants was assessed by a self-report measure, the Self-
Directed Search (SDS) questionnaire (Holland, 1973). The SDS measures vocational
interests, which were independently categorized into the same six Holland types that
early recollections were placed into. The researchers therefore had early recollec-
tions and adult career interests both classified into the six career types, and they
wanted to examine whether early recollections matched career interest.

Kasler and Nevo (2005) found that early recollections in childhood did match
career type as an adult, at least for the three career types that were well represented

Part II Psychodynamic Theories90

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 91

T A B L E 3 . 3

Qualities of Holland’s Six Career Types: Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and

Conventional

Realistic

• Likes to work with animals, tools, or machines; generally avoids social activities like
teaching, healing, and informing others;

• Has good skills in working with tools, mechanical or electrical drawings, machines, or
plants and animals;

• Values practical things you can see, touch, and use like plants and animals, tools,
equipment, or machines; and

• Sees self as practical, mechanical, and realistic.

Investigative

• Likes to study and solve math or science problems; generally avoids leading, selling,
or persuading people;

• Is good at understanding and solving science and math problems;
• Values science; and
• Sees self as precise, scientific, and intellectual.

Artistic

• Likes to do creative activities like art, drama, crafts, dance, music, or creative writing;
generally avoids highly ordered or repetitive activities;

• Has good artistic abilities—in creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art;
• Values the creative arts—like drama, music, art, or the works of creative writers; and
• Sees self as expressive, original, and independent.

Social

• Likes to do things to help people—like teaching, nursing, or giving first aid, providing
information; generally avoids using machines, tools, or animals to achieve a goal;

• Is good at teaching, counseling, nursing, or giving information;
• Values helping people and solving social problems; and
• Sees self as helpful, friendly, and trustworthy.

Enterprising

• Likes to lead and persuade people, and to sell things and ideas; generally avoids
activities that require careful observation and scientific, analytical thinking;

• Is good at leading people and selling things or ideas;
• Values success in politics, leadership, or business; and
• Sees self as energetic, ambitious, and sociable.

Conventional

• Likes to work with numbers, records, or machines in a set, orderly way; generally
avoids ambiguous, unstructured activities;

• Is good at working with written records and numbers in a systematic, orderly way;
• Values success in business; and
• Sees self as orderly, and good at following a set plan.

in their sample (Realistic, Artistic, and Social). The general direction of a participant’s
career path could be identified from themes seen in early recollections. These vignettes
are consistent with Alder’s view of early recollections and demonstrate how style of
life may relate to occupational choice.

Early Childhood and Health-Related Issues
Psychologists have been studying health-related issues for a number of years, but
only recently have these topics become of interest to Adlerian psychologists. As it
turns out, Adler’s theory of inferiority, superiority, and social feeling can be applied
to explain health-related behaviors such as eating disorders and binge drinking.

According to Susan Belangee (2006), dieting, overeating, and bulimia can be
viewed as common ways of expressing inferiority feelings. Belangee cites a report
by Lowes and Tiggeman (2003), who looked at body satisfaction in 135 children 5 to
8 years old and found that 59% of them wanted to be thinner. Other research found
that 35% of young dieters progressed to pathological dieting. Adlerian psychologists
have recognized this progression and have seen it as a means of compensating for in-
feriority or a sense of worthlessness. In other words, the eating disorder and its striv-
ing toward superiority are an unhealthy means of compensating for inferiority. More-
over, eating disorders suggest that a person’s Gemeinschaftsgefühl, or social feeling,
is out of whack. Rather than being focused on helping others and feeling compas-
sion for others, persons with eating disorders are very much focused on their own
lives and difficulties (Belangee, 2007).

Adlerian theory can also shed light on another health-related behavior—binge
drinking. Although heavy drinking among college students has a long and destruc-
tive history, this pattern of alcohol consumption has increased in recent years with
male students being more likely than female students to engage in excessive drink-
ing over a relatively short period of time (Brannon & Feist, 2007). College men and
women between the ages of 18 and 30 have the highest risk for heavy drinking. How-
ever, drinking rates among these students have not been analyzed according to birth
order, gender of siblings, ethnicity, and other Adlerian topics.

Recently, however, Teresa Laird and Andrea Shelton (2006) examined the issue
of binge drinking and birth order among men and women attending college. These
researchers found significant differences among students with regard to family dy-
namics, alcohol consumption, and drinking patterns. That is, the youngest children
in a family were more likely to binge drink, whereas older children demonstrated
more drinking restraint. The authors explained this association using Adlerian theory:
Youngest children are more dependent upon others, and when people who are de-
pendent are stressed, they are more likely to cope by heavy drinking.

Early Recollections and Counseling Outcomes
If early recollections are fictional constructions amenable to present shifts in a person’s
style of life, then early recollections should change as style of life changes. This
hypothesis is difficult to test because researchers would need to (1) measure early
recollections, (2) assess current style of life, (3) bring about changes in style of life,

Part II Psychodynamic Theories92

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 93

and (4) reassess early recollections. If changes in early recollections tend to track
changes in personality variables, then ERs could be used as criteria for measures of
psychotherapy outcomes.

Some evidence exists that early recollections do change through the course of
counseling. For example, Gary Savill and Daniel Eckstein (1987) obtained early rec-
ollections and mental status of psychiatric patients both before and after counseling
and compared them to ERs and mental status of a matched group of control partici-
pants. They found significant changes in both mental status and early recollections
for the counseling group but not for the controls. Consistent with Adlerian theory,
this finding indicates that when counseling is successful, patients change their early
recollections.

Similarly, Jane Statton and Bobbie Wilborn (1991) looked at the three earliest
recollections of 5- to 12-year-old children after each of 10 weekly counseling ses-
sions and compared them with the early recollections of a control group of children
that did not receive counseling. The researchers found that the counseling group
showed greater changes in the theme, character, setting, amount of detail, and level
of affect of their early memories. In addition, they reported one dramatic example of
how early recollections can change as style of life changes. One young child recalled
that

my uncle and dad took me fishing. They were fishing and my uncle got his line
hung on a tree stump in the water. He yanked on the pole and the hook came back
and hooked me in the head. . . . I waited for them to pull it out of my head. (p. 341)

After counseling, the child recast this passive early recollection in a more active
light.

I went fishing when I was about 5. . . . I caught a fish . . . and my uncle threw his
line out and he got it hung on a tree stump and he yanked it back and the hook
came back and got me in the head. . . . I pulled it out. (p. 344)

This research is intriguing because it suggests that early recollections may
change as a result of psychotherapy or some other life-altering experience. These
results tend to support Adler’s teleological approach to personality; namely, early
childhood experiences are less important than the adult’s view of those experiences.

Critique of Adler
Adler’s theory, like that of Freud, produced many concepts that do not easily lend
themselves to either verification or falsification. For example, although research has
consistently shown a relationship between early childhood recollections and a per-
son’s present style of life (Clark, 2002), these results do not verify Adler’s notion that
present style of life shapes one’s early recollections. An alternate, causal explanation
is also possible; that is, early experiences may cause present style of life. Thus, one
of Adler’s most important concepts—the assumption that present style of life deter-
mines early memories rather than vice versa—is difficult to either verify or falsify.

Another function of a useful theory is to generate research, and on this
criterion we rate Adler’s theory above average. Much of the research suggested by

individual psychology has investigated early recollections, social interest, and style
of life. Arthur J. Clark (2002), for example, cites evidence showing that early recol-
lections relate to myriad personality factors, including dimensions or personality
clinical disorders, vocational choice, explanatory style, and psychotherapy processes
and outcomes. In addition, Adler’s theory has encouraged researchers to construct
several social interest scales, for example, the Social Interest Scale (Crandall, 1975,
1981), the Social Interest Index (Greever, Tseng, & Friedland, 1973), and the Sulli-
man Scale of Social Interest (Sulliman, 1973). Research activity on these scales and
on birth order, early recollections, and style of life gives Adlerian theory a moderate
to high rating on its ability to generate research.

How well does Adlerian theory organize knowledge into a meaningful frame-
work? In general, individual psychology is sufficiently broad to encompass possible
explanations for much of what is known about human behavior and development.
Even seemingly self-defeating and inconsistent behaviors can be fit into the frame-
work of striving for superiority. Adler’s practical view of life’s problems allows us to
rate his theory high on its ability to make sense out of what we know about human
behavior.

We also rate Adlerian theory high on its ability to guide action. The theory
serves the psychotherapist, the teacher, and the parent with guidelines for the solu-
tion to practical problems in a variety of settings. Adlerian practitioners gather in-
formation through reports on birth order, dreams, early recollections, childhood dif-
ficulties, and physical deficiencies. They then use this information to understand a
person’s style of life and to apply those specific techniques that will both increase
that person’s individual responsibility and broaden his or her freedom of choice.

Is individual psychology internally consistent? Does it include a set of opera-
tionally defined terms? Although Adlerian theory is a model for self-consistency, it
suffers from a lack of precise operational definitions. Terms such as goal of superi-
ority and creative power have no scientific definition. Nowhere in Adler’s works are
they operationally defined, and the potential researcher will look in vain for precise
definitions that lend themselves to rigorous study. The term creative power is an es-
pecially illusory one. Just what is this magical force that takes the raw materials of
heredity and environment and molds a unique personality? How does the creative
power transform itself into specific actions or operations needed by the scientist to
carry out an investigation? Unfortunately, individual psychology is somewhat philo-
sophical—even moralistic—and does not provide answers to these questions.

The concept of creative power is a very appealing one. Probably most people
prefer to believe that they are composed of something more than the interactions of
heredity and environment. Many people intuitively feel that they have some agent
(soul, ego, self, creative power) within them that allows them to make choices and to
create their style of life. As inviting as it is, however, the concept of creative power
is simply a fiction and cannot be scientifically studied. Due to lack of operational
definitions, therefore, we rate individual psychology low on internal consistency.

The final criterion of a useful theory is simplicity, or parsimony. On this stan-
dard we rate individual psychology about average. Although Adler’s awkward and
unorganized writings distract from the theory’s rating on parsimony, the work of
Ansbacher and Ansbacher (Adler, 1956, 1964) has made individual psychology
more parsimonious.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories94

Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 95

Concept of Humanity
Adler believed that people are basically self-determined and that they shape their
personalities from the meaning they give to their experiences. The building mate-
rial of personality is provided by heredity and environment, but the creative power
shapes this material and puts it to use. Adler frequently emphasized that the use
that people make of their abilities is more important than the quantity of those
abilities. Heredity endows people with certain abilities and environment gives them
some opportunity to enhance those abilities, but we are ultimately responsible for
the use they make of these abilities.

Adler also believed that people’s interpretations of experiences are more im-
portant than the experiences themselves. Neither the past nor the future deter-
mines present behavior. Instead, people are motivated by their present perceptions
of the past and their present expectations of the future. These perceptions do not
necessarily correspond with reality, and as Adler (1956) stated, “meanings are not
determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to
situations” (p. 208).

People are forward moving, motivated by future goals rather than by innate
instincts or causal forces. These future goals are often rigid and unrealistic,
but people’s personal freedom allows them to reshape their goals and thereby
change their lives. People create their personalities and are capable of altering
them by learning new attitudes. These attitudes encompass an understanding
that change can occur, that no other person or circumstance is responsible for
what a person is, and that personal goals must be subordinated to social
interest.

Although our final goal is relatively fixed during early childhood, we remain
free to change our style of life at any time. Because the goal is fictional and un-
conscious, we can set and pursue temporary goals. These momentary goals are not
rigidly circumscribed by the final goal but are created by us merely as partial solu-
tions. Adler (1927) expressed this idea as follows: “We must understand that the
reactions of the human soul are not final and absolute: Every response is but a par-
tial response, valid temporarily, but in no way to be considered a final solution of
a problem” (p. 24). In other words, even though our final goal is set during child-
hood, we are capable of change at any point in life. However, Adler maintained that
not all our choices are conscious and that style of life is created through both con-
scious and unconscious choices.

Adler believed that ultimately people are responsible for their own personal-
ities. People’s creative power is capable of transforming feelings of inadequacy into
either social interest or into the self-centered goal of personal superiority. This ca-
pacity means that people remain free to choose between psychological health and
neuroticism. Adler regarded self-centeredness as pathological and established so-
cial interest as the standard of psychological maturity. Healthy people have a high
level of social interest, but throughout their lives, they remain free to accept or re-
ject normality and to become what they will.

Key Terms and Concepts

• People begin life with both an innate striving force and physical
deficiencies, which combine to produce feelings of inferiority.

• These feelings stimulate people to set a goal of overcoming their
inferiority.

• People who see themselves as having more than their share of physical
deficiencies or who experience a pampered or neglected style of life
overcompensate for these deficiencies and are likely to have exaggerated
feelings of inferiority, strive for personal gain, and set unrealistically high
goals.

• People with normal feelings of inferiority compensate for these feelings by
cooperating with others and developing a high level of social interest.

• Social interest, or a deep concern for the welfare of other people, is the
sole criterion by which human actions should be judged.

• The three major problems of life—neighborly love, work, and sexual
love—can only be solved through social interest.

• All behaviors, even those that appear to be incompatible, are consistent
with a person’s final goal.

• Human behavior is shaped neither by past events nor by objective reality,
but rather by people’s subjective perception of a situation.

• Heredity and environment provide the building material of personality, but
people’s creative power is responsible for their style of life.

• All people, but especially neurotics, make use of various safeguarding
tendencies—such as excuses, aggression, and withdrawal—as conscious or
unconscious attempts to protect inflated feelings of superiority against
public disgrace.

• The masculine protest—the belief that men are superior to women—is a
fiction that lies at the root of many neuroses, both for men and for women.

• Adlerian therapy uses birth order, early recollections, and dreams to foster
courage, self-esteem, and social interest.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories96

On the six dimensions of a concept of humanity listed in Chapter 1, we rate
Adler very high on free choice and optimism; very low on causality; moderate on un-
conscious influences; and high on social factors and on the uniqueness of individu-
als. In summary, Adler held that people are self-determining social creatures, for-
ward moving and motivated by present fictions to strive toward perfection for
themselves and society.

Jung: Analytical
Psychology

B Overview of Analytical Psychology
B Biography of

C

arl

Jung

B Levels of the Psyche

Conscious

Persona

l Unconscious

Collective Unconscious

Archetypes

Persona

Shadow

Anima

Animus

Great Mother

Wise Old Man

Hero

Self

B Dynamics of Personality
Causality and Teleology

Progression and Regression

B Psychological Types
Attitudes

Introversion

Extraversion

Functions

Thinking

Feeling

Sensing

Intuiting

B Development of Personality
Stages of Development

Childhood

Youth

Jung

Middle Life

Old Age

Self-Realization

B Jung’s Methods of Investigation
Word Association Test

Dream Analysis

Active Imagination

Psychotherapy

B Related Research
Personality Type and Investing Money

Personality Type and Interest in and Attrition From
Engineering

B Critique of Jung
B Concept of Humanity
B

Key Terms and Concepts

97

C H A P T E R 4

The middle-aged doctor sat at his desk in deep contemplation and concern. A 6-year relationship with an older friend and mentor had recently ended on bitter
terms, and the doctor felt frustrated and uncertain of his future. He no longer had
confidence in his manner of treating patients and had begun to simply allow them to
talk, not offering any specific advice or treatment.

For some months the doctor had been having bizarre, inexplicable dreams and
seeing strange, mysterious visions. None of this seemed to make sense to him. He
felt lost and disoriented—unsure whether or not the work he had been trained to do
was indeed science.

A moderately gifted artist, he had begun to illustrate his dreams and visions with
little or no comprehension of what the finished product might mean. He had also
been writing down his fantasies without really trying to understand them.

On this particular day, he began to ponder: “What am I really doing?” He
doubted if his work was science but was uncertain about what it was. Suddenly, to
his astonishment, he heard a clear, distinct feminine voice from within him say, “It
is art.” He recognized the voice as that of a gifted female patient who had strong,
positive feelings for him. He protested to the voice that his work was not art, but no
answer was immediately forthcoming. Then, returning to his writing, he again heard
the voice say, “That is art.” When he tried to argue with the voice, no answer came.
He reasoned that the “woman from within” had no speech center so he suggested that
she use his. This she did, and a lengthy conversation followed.

The middle-aged doctor who talked to the “woman from within” was Carl Gus-
tav Jung, and the time was the winter of 1913–1914. Jung had been an early admirer
and friend of Sigmund Freud, but when theoretical differences arose, their personal
relationship broke up, leaving Jung with bitter feelings and a deep sense of loss.

The above story is but one of many strange and bizarre occurrences experienced
by Jung during his midlife “confrontation with the unconscious.” An interesting ac-
count of his unusual journey into the recesses of his psyche is found in Jung’s auto-
biography Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Jung, 1961).

Overview of Analytical Psychology
An early colleague of Freud, Carl Gustav Jung broke from orthodox psychoanalysis
to establish a separate theory of personality called analytical psychology, which
rests on the assumption that occult phenomena can and do influence the lives of
everyone. Jung believed that each of us is motivated not only by repressed experi-
ences but also by certain emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ances-
tors. These inherited images make up what Jung called the collective unconscious.
The collective unconscious includes those elements that we have never experienced
individually but which have come down to us from our ancestors.

Some elements of the collective unconscious become highly developed and are
called archetypes. The most inclusive archetype is the notion of self-realization,
which can be achieved only by attaining a balance between various opposing forces
of personality. Thus, Jung’s theory is a compendium of opposites. People are both in-
troverted and extraverted; rational and irrational; male and female; conscious and
unconscious; and pushed by past events while being pulled by future expectations.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories98

This chapter looks with some detail into the long and colorful life of Carl Jung
and uses fragments from his life history to illustrate his concepts and theories. Jung’s
notion of a collective unconscious makes his theory one of the most intriguing of all
conceptions of personality.

Biography of Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was born on July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, a town on Lake Constance
in Switzerland. His paternal grandfather, the elder Carl Gustav Jung, was a promi-
nent physician in Basel and one of the best-known men of that city. A local rumor
suggested that the elder Carl Jung was the illegitimate son of the great German poet
Goethe. Although the elder Jung never acknowledged the rumor, the younger Jung,
at least sometimes, believed himself to be the great-grandson of Goethe (Ellen-
berger, 1970).

Both of Jung’s parents were the youngest of 13 children, a situation that may
have contributed to some of the difficulties they had in their marriage. Jung’s father,
Johann Paul Jung, was a minister in the Swiss Reformed Church, and his mother,
Emilie Preiswerk Jung, was the daughter of a theologian. In fact, eight of Jung’s ma-
ternal uncles and two of his paternal uncles were pastors, so both religion and med-
icine were prevalent in his family. Jung’s mother’s family had a tradition of spiritu-
alism and mysticism, and his maternal grandfather, Samuel Preiswerk, was a believer
in the occult and often talked to the dead. He kept an empty chair for the ghost of his
first wife and had regular and intimate conversations with her. Quite understandably,
these practices greatly annoyed his second wife.

Jung’s parents had three children, a son born before Carl but who lived only 3
days and a daughter 9 years younger than Carl. Thus, Jung’s early life was that of an
only child.

Jung (1961) described his father as a sentimental idealist with strong doubts
about his religious faith. He saw his mother as having two separate dispositions. On
one hand, she was realistic, practical, and warmhearted, but on the other, she was un-
stable, mystical, clairvoyant, archaic, and ruthless. An emotional and sensitive child,
Jung identified more with this second side of his mother, which he called her No. 2
or night personality (Alexander, 1990). At age 3 years, Jung was separated from his
mother, who had to be hospitalized for several months, and this separation deeply
troubled young Carl. For a long time after, he felt distrustful whenever the word
“love” was mentioned. Years later he still associated “woman” with unreliability,
whereas the word “father” meant reliable—but powerless (Jung, 1961).

Before Jung’s fourth birthday, his family moved to a suburb of Basel. It is from
this period that his earliest dream stems. This dream, which was to have a profound
effect on his later life and on his concept of a collective unconscious, will be de-
scribed later.

During his school years, Jung gradually became aware of two separate aspects
of his self, and he called these his No. 1 and No. 2 personalities. At first he saw both
personalities as parts of his own personal world, but during adolescence he became
aware of the No. 2 personality as a reflection of something other than himself—an
old man long since dead. At that time Jung did not fully comprehend these separate
powers, but in later years he recognized that No. 2 personality had been in touch with

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 99

feelings and intuitions that No. 1 personality did not perceive. In Memories, Dreams,
Reflections, Jung (1961) wrote of his No. 2 personality:

I experienced him and his influence in a curiously unreflective manner; when he
was present, No. 1 personality paled to the point of nonexistence, and when the
ego that became increasingly identical with No. 1 personality dominated the
scene, the old man, if remembered at all, seemed a remote and unreal dream.
(p. 68

)

Between his 16th and 19th years, Jung’s No. 1 personality emerged as more domi-
nant and gradually “repressed the world of intuitive premonitions” (Jung, 1961, p.
68). As his conscious, everyday personality prevailed, he could concentrate on
school and career. In Jung’s own theory of attitudes, his No. 1 personality was ex-
traverted and in tune to the objective world, whereas his No. 2 personality was in-
troverted and directed inward toward his subjective world. Thus, during his early
school years, Jung was mostly introverted, but when the time came to prepare for a
profession and meet other objective responsibilities, he became more extraverted, an
attitude that prevailed until he experienced a midlife crisis and entered a period of
extreme introversion.

Jung’s first choice of a profession was archeology, but he was also interested
in philology, history, philosophy, and the natural sciences. Despite a somewhat aris-
tocratic background, Jung had limited financial resources (Noll, 1994). Forced by
lack of money to attend a school near home, he enrolled in Basel University, a school
without an archeology teacher. Having to select another field of study, Jung chose
natural science because he twice dreamed of making important discoveries in the
natural world (Jung, 1961). His choice of a career eventually narrowed to medicine.
That choice was narrowed further when he learned that psychiatry deals with sub-
jective phenomena (Singer, 1994).

While Jung was in his first year of medical school, his father died, leaving him
in care of his mother and sister. Also while still in medical school, Jung began to at-
tend a series of seances with relatives from the Preiswerk family, including his first
cousin Helene Preiswerk, who claimed she could communicate with dead people.
Jung attended these seances mostly as a family member, but later, when he wrote his
medical dissertation on the occult phenomenon, he reported that these seances had
been controlled experiments (McLynn, 1996).

After completing his medical degree from Basel University in 1900, Jung be-
came a psychiatric assistant to Eugene Bleuler at Burghöltzli Mental Hospital in
Zürich, possibly the most prestigious psychiatric teaching hospital in the world at
that time. During 1902–1903, Jung studied for 6 months in Paris with Pierre Janet,
successor to Charcot. When he returned to Switzerland in 1903, he married Emma
Rauschenbach, a young sophisticated woman from a wealthy Swiss family. Two
years later, while continuing his duties at the hospital, he began teaching at the Uni-
versity of Zürich and seeing patients in his private practice.

Jung had read Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900/1953) soon after
it appeared, but he was not much impressed with it (Singer, 1994). When he reread
the book a few years later, he had a better understanding of Freud’s ideas and was
moved to begin interpreting his own dreams. In 1906, Jung and Freud began a steady
correspondence (see McGuire & McGlashan, 1994, for the Freud/Jung letters). The

Part II Psychodynamic Theories100

following year, Freud invited Carl and Emma Jung to Vienna. Immediately, both
Freud and Jung developed a strong mutual respect and affection for one another,
talking during their first meeting for 13 straight hours and well into the early morn-
ing hours. During this marathon conversation, Martha Freud and Emma Jung busied
themselves with polite conversation (Ferris, 1997).

Freud believed that Jung was the ideal person to be his successor. Unlike other
men in Freud’s circle of friends and followers, Jung was neither Jewish nor Viennese.
In addition, Freud had warm personal feelings for Jung and regarded him as a man
of great intellect. These qualifications prompted Freud to select Jung as the first pres-
ident of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

In 1909, G. Stanley Hall, the president of Clark University and one of the first
psychologists in the United States, invited Jung and Freud to deliver a series of
lectures at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Together with Sándor
Ferenczi, another psychoanalyst, the two men journeyed to America, the first of
Jung’s nine visits to the United States (Bair, 2003). During their 7-week trip and
while they were in daily contact, an underlying tension between Jung and Freud
slowly began to simmer. This personal tension was not diminished when the two
now-famous psychoanalysts began to interpret each other’s dreams, a pastime likely
to strain any relationship.

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung (1961) claimed that Freud was un-
willing to reveal details of his personal life—details Jung needed in order to inter-
pret one of Freud’s dreams. According to Jung’s account, when asked for intimate de-
tails, Freud protested, “But I cannot risk my authority!” (Jung, 1961, p. 158). At that
moment, Jung concluded, Freud indeed had lost his authority. “That sentence burned
itself into my memory, and in it the end of our relationship was already foreshad-
owed” (p. 158).

Jung also asserted that, during the trip to America, Freud was unable to inter-
pret Jung’s dreams, especially one that seemed to contain rich material from Jung’s
collective unconscious. Later, we discuss this dream in more detail, but here we
merely present those aspects of the dream that may relate to some of the lifelong
problems Jung had with women. In this dream, Jung and his family were living on
the second floor of his house when he decided to explore hitherto unknown levels of
his house. At the bottom level of his dwelling, he came upon a cave where he found
“two human skulls, very old and half disintegrated” (p. 159).

After Jung described the dream, Freud became interested in the two skulls, but
not as collective unconscious material. Instead, he insisted that Jung associate the
skulls to some wish. Whom did Jung wish dead? Not yet completely trusting his own
judgment and knowing what Freud expected, Jung answered, “My wife and my
sister-in-law—after all, I had to name someone whose death was worth the wishing!”

“I was newly married at the time and knew perfectly well that there was noth-
ing within myself which pointed to such wishes” (Jung, 1961, pp. 159–160).

Although Jung’s interpretation of this dream may be more accurate than
Freud’s, it is quite possible that Jung did indeed wish for the death of his wife. At
that time, Jung was not “newly married” but had been married for nearly 7 years, and
for the previous 5 of those years he was deeply involved in an intimate relationship
with a former patient named Sabina Spielrein. Frank McLynn (1996) claimed that
Jung’s “mother complex” caused him to harbor animosity toward his wife, but a

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 101

more likely explanation is that Jung needed more than one woman to satisfy the two
aspects of his personality.

However, the two women who shared Jung’s life for nearly 40 years were his
wife Emma and another former patient named Antonia (Toni) Wolff (Bair, 2003).
Emma Jung seemed to have related better to Jung’s No. 1 personality while Toni
Wolff was more in touch with his No. 2 personality. The three-way relationship was
not always amiable, but Emma Jung realized that Toni Wolff could do more for Carl
than she (or anyone else) could, and she remained grateful to Wolff (Dunne, 2000).

Although Jung and Wolff made no attempt to hide their relationship, the name
Toni Wolff does not appear in Jung’s posthumously published autobiography, Mem-
ories, Dreams, Reflections. Alan Elms (1994) discovered that Jung had written a
whole chapter on Toni Wolff, a chapter that was never published. The absence of
Wolff’s name in Jung’s autobiography is probably due to the lifelong resentments
Jung’s children had toward her. They remembered when she had carried on openly
with their father, and as adults with some veto power over what appeared in their fa-
ther’s autobiography, they were not in a generous mood to perpetuate knowledge of
the affair.

In any event, little doubt exists that Jung needed women other than his wife.
In a letter to Freud dated January 30, 1910, Jung wrote: “The prerequisite for a good
marriage, it seems to me, is the license to be unfaithful” (McGuire, 1974, p. 289).

Almost immediately after Jung and Freud returned from their trip to the United
States, personal as well as theoretical differences became more intense as their
friendship cooled. In 1913, they terminated their personal correspondence and the
following year, Jung resigned the presidency and shortly afterward withdrew his
membership in the International Psychoanalytic Association.

Jung’s break with Freud may have been related to events not discussed in Mem-
ories, Dreams, Reflections (Jung, 1961). In 1907, Jung wrote to Freud of his “bound-
less admiration” for him and confessed that his veneration “has something of the
character of a ‘religious’ crush” and that it had an “undeniable erotic undertone”
(McGuire, 1974, p. 95). Jung continued his confession, saying: “This abominable
feeling comes from the fact that as a boy I was the victim of a sexual assault by a
man I once worshipped” (p. 95). Jung was actually 18 years old at the time of the
sexual assault and saw the older man as a fatherly friend in whom he could confide
nearly everything. Alan Elms (1994) contended that Jung’s erotic feelings toward
Freud—coupled with his early experience of the sexual assault by an older man he
once worshipped—may have been one of the major reasons why Jung eventually
broke from Freud. Elms further suggested that Jung’s rejection of Freud’s sexual the-
ories may have stemmed from his ambivalent sexual feelings toward Freud.

The years immediately following the break with Freud were filled with loneli-
ness and self-analysis for Jung. From December of 1913 until 1917, he underwent
the most profound and dangerous experience of his life—a trip through the under-
ground of his own unconscious psyche. Marvin Goldwert (1992) referred to this
time in Jung’s life as a period of “creative illness,” a term Henri Ellenberger (1970)
had used to describe Freud in the years immediately following his father’s death.
Jung’s period of “creative illness” was similar to Freud’s self-analysis. Both men
began their search for self while in their late 30s or early 40s: Freud, as a reaction to
the death of his father; Jung, as a result of his split with his spiritual father, Freud.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories102

Both underwent a period of loneliness and isolation and both were deeply changed
by the experience.

Although Jung’s journey into the unconscious was dangerous and painful, it
was also necessary and fruitful. By using dream interpretation and active imagina-
tion to force himself through his underground journey, Jung eventually was able to
create his unique theory of personality.

During this period he wrote down his dreams, drew pictures of them, told him-
self stories, and then followed these stories wherever they moved. Through these pro-
cedures he became acquainted with his personal unconscious. (See Jung, 1979, and
Dunne, 2000, for a collection of many of his paintings during this period.) Prolong-
ing the method and going more deeply, he came upon the contents of the collective
unconscious—the archetypes. He heard his anima speak to him in a clear feminine
voice; he discovered his shadow, the evil side of his personality; he spoke with the
wise old man and the great mother archetypes; and finally, near the end of his jour-
ney, he achieved a kind of psychological rebirth called individuation (Jung, 1961).

Although Jung traveled widely in his study of personality, he remained a citi-
zen of Switzerland, residing in Küsnacht, near Zürich. He and his wife, who was also
an analyst, had five children, four girls and a boy. Jung was a Christian, but did not
attend church. His hobbies included wood carving, stone cutting, and sailing his boat
on Lake Constance. He also maintained an active interest in alchemy, archeology,
gnosticism, Eastern philosophies, history, religion, mythology, and ethnology.

In 1944, he became professor of medical psychology at the University of
Basel, but poor health forced him to resign his position the following year. After his
wife died in 1955, he was mostly alone, the “wise old man of Küsnacht.” He died
June 6, 1961, in Zürich, a few weeks short of his 86th birthday. At the time of his
death, Jung’s reputation was worldwide, extending beyond psychology to include
philosophy, religion, and popular culture (Brome, 1978).

Levels of the Psyche
Jung, like Freud, based his personality theory on the assumption that the mind, or
psyche, has both a conscious and an unconscious level. Unlike Freud, however, Jung
strongly asserted that the most important portion of the unconscious springs not
from personal experiences of the individual but from the distant past of human exis-
tence, a concept Jung called the collective unconscious. Of lesser importance to Jun-
gian theory are the conscious and the personal unconscious.

Conscious
According to Jung, conscious images are those that are sensed by the ego, whereas
unconscious elements have no relationship with the ego. Jung’s notion of the ego is
more restrictive than Freud’s. Jung saw the ego as the center of consciousness, but
not the core of personality. Ego is not the whole personality, but must be completed
by the more comprehensive self, the center of personality that is largely unconscious.
In a psychologically healthy person, the ego takes a secondary position to the un-
conscious self (Jung, 1951/1959a). Thus, consciousness plays a relatively minor role
in analytical psychology, and an overemphasis on expanding one’s conscious psyche

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 103

can lead to psychological imbalance. Healthy individuals are in contact with their
conscious world, but they also allow themselves to experience their unconscious self
and thus to achieve individuation, a concept we discuss in the section titled Self-
Realization.

Personal Unconscious
The personal unconscious embraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally per-
ceived experiences of one particular individual. It contains repressed infantile mem-
ories and impulses, forgotten events, and experiences originally perceived below the
threshold of our consciousness. Our personal unconscious is formed by our individ-
ual experiences and is therefore unique to each of us. Some images in the personal
unconscious can be recalled easily, some remembered with difficulty, and still others
are beyond the reach of consciousness. Jung’s concept of the personal unconscious
differs little from Freud’s view of the unconscious and preconscious combined (Jung,
1931/1960b).

Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes. A complex is an
emotionally toned conglomeration of associated ideas. For example, a person’s ex-
periences with Mother may become grouped around an emotional core so that the
person’s mother, or even the word “mother,” sparks an emotional response that
blocks the smooth flow of thought. Complexes are largely personal, but they may
also be partly derived from humanity’s collective experience. In our example, the
mother complex comes not only from one’s personal relationship with mother but
also from the entire species’ experiences with mother. In addition, the mother com-
plex is partly formed by a person’s conscious image of mother. Thus, complexes may
be partly conscious and may stem from both the personal and the collective uncon-
scious (Jung, 1928/1960).

Collective Unconscious
In contrast to the personal unconscious, which results from individual experiences,
the collective unconscious has roots in the ancestral past of the entire species. It rep-
resents Jung’s most controversial, and perhaps his most distinctive, concept. The
physical contents of the collective unconscious are inherited and pass from one gen-
eration to the next as psychic potential. Distant ancestors’ experiences with univer-
sal concepts such as God, mother, water, earth, and so forth have been transmitted
through the generations so that people in every clime and time have been influenced
by their primitive ancestors’ primordial experiences (Jung, 1937/1959). Therefore,
the contents of the collective unconscious are more or less the same for people in all
cultures (Jung, 1934/1959).

The contents of the collective unconscious do not lie dormant but are active
and influence a person’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. The collective unconscious
is responsible for people’s many myths, legends, and religious beliefs. It also pro-
duces “big dreams,” that is, dreams with meaning beyond the individual dreamer and
that are filled with significance for people of every time and place (Jung,
1948/1960b).

The collective unconscious does not refer to inherited ideas but rather to hu-
mans’ innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences stim-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories104

ulate a biologically inherited response tendency. For example, a young mother may
unexpectedly react with love and tenderness to her newborn infant, even though she
previously had negative or neutral feelings toward the fetus. The tendency to respond
was part of the woman’s innate potential or inherited blueprint, but such innate po-
tential requires an individual experience before it will become activated. Humans,
like other animals, come into the world with inherited predispositions to act or react
in certain ways if their present experiences touch on these biologically based predis-
positions. For example, a man who falls in love at first sight may be greatly surprised
and perplexed by his own reactions. His beloved may not resemble his conscious
ideal of a woman, yet something within him moves him to be attracted to her. Jung
would suggest that the man’s collective unconscious contained biologically based
impressions of woman and that these impressions were activated when the man first
saw his beloved.

How many biologically based predispositions do humans have? Jung said that
people have as many of these inherited tendencies as they have typical situations in
life. Countless repetitions of these typical situations have made them part of the
human biological constitution. At first, they are “forms without content, representing
merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action” (Jung, 1937/1959,
p. 48). With more repetition these forms begin to develop some content and to
emerge as relatively autonomous archetypes.

Archetypes
Archetypes are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective uncon-
scious. They are similar to complexes in that they are emotionally toned collections
of associated images. But whereas complexes are individualized components of the
personal unconscious, archetypes are generalized and derive from the contents of the
collective unconscious.

Archetypes should also be distinguished from instincts. Jung (1948/1960a) de-
fined an instinct as an unconscious physical impulse toward action and saw the ar-
chetype as the psychic counterpart to an instinct. In comparing archetypes to in-
stincts, Jung (1975) wrote:

As animals of the same kind show the same instinctual phenomena all over the
world, man also shows the same archetypal forms no matter where he lives. As
animals have no need to be taught their instinctive activities, so man also
possesses his primordial psychic patterns and repeats them spontaneously,
independently of any kind of teaching. Inasmuch as man is conscious and capable
of introspection, it is quite possible that he can perceive his instinctual patterns in
the form of archetypal representations. (p. 152)

In summary, both archetypes and instincts are unconsciously determined, and both
can help shape personality.

Archetypes have a biological basis but originate through the repeated experi-
ences of humans’ early ancestors. The potential for countless numbers of archetypes
exists within each person, and when a personal experience corresponds to the latent
primordial image, the archetype becomes activated.

The archetype itself cannot be directly represented, but when activated, it ex-
presses itself through several modes, primarily dreams, fantasies, and delusions.

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 105

During his midlife encounter with his unconscious, Jung had many archetypal
dreams and fantasies. He frequently initiated fantasies by imagining that he was de-
scending into a deep cosmic abyss. He could make little sense of his visions and
dreams at that time, but later, when he began to understand that dream images and
fantasy figures were actually archetypes, these experiences took on a completely new
meaning (Jung, 1961).

Dreams are the main source of archetypal material, and certain dreams offer
what Jung considered proof for the existence of the archetype. These dreams produce
motifs that could not have been known to the dreamer through personal experience.
The motifs often coincide with those known to ancient people or to natives of con-
temporary aboriginal tribes.

Jung believed that hallucinations of psychotic patients also offered evidence
for universal archetypes (Bair, 2003). While working as a psychiatric assistant at
Burghöltzli, Jung observed a paranoid schizophrenic patient looking through a win-
dow at the sun. The patient begged the young psychiatrist to also observe.

He said I must look at the sun with eyes half shut, and then I could see the sun’s
phallus. If I moved my head from side to side the sun-phallus would move too,
and that was the origin of the wind. (Jung, 1931/1960b, p. 150)

Four years later Jung came across a book by the German philologist Albrecht Di-
eterich that had been published in 1903, several years after the patient was commit-
ted. The book, written in Greek, dealt with a liturgy derived from the so-called Paris
magic papyrus, which described an ancient rite of the worshippers of Mithras, the
Persian god of light. In this liturgy, the initiate was asked to look at the sun until he
could see a tube hanging from it. The tube, swinging toward the east and west, was
the origin of the wind. Dieterich’s account of the sun-phallus of the Mithraic cult was
nearly identical to the hallucination of the mental patient who, almost certainly, had
no personal knowledge of the ancient initiation rite. Jung (1931/1960b) offered many
similar examples as proof of the existence of archetypes and the collective uncon-
scious.

As noted in Chapter 2, Freud also believed that people collectively inherit pre-
dispositions to action. His concept of phylogenetic endowment, however, differs
somewhat from Jung’s formulation. One difference was that Freud looked first to the
personal unconscious and resorted to the phylogenetic endowment only when indi-
vidual explanations failed—as he sometimes did when explaining the Oedipus com-
plex (Freud, 1933/1964). In contrast, Jung placed primary emphasis on the collective
unconscious and used personal experiences to round out the total personality.

The major distinction between the two, however, was Jung’s differentiation of
the collective unconscious into autonomous forces called archetypes, each with a life
and a personality of its own. Although a great number of archetypes exist as vague
images, only a few have evolved to the point where they can be conceptualized. The
most notable of these include the persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother,
wise old man, hero, and self.

Persona
The side of personality that people show to the world is designated as the persona.
The term is well chosen because it refers to the mask worn by actors in the early the-
ater. Jung’s concept of the persona may have originated from experiences with his

Part II Psychodynamic Theories106

No. 1 personality, which had to make accommodations to the outside world. Each of
us, Jung believed, should project a particular role, one that society dictates to each
of us. A physician is expected to adopt a characteristic “bedside manner,” a politi-
cian must show a face to society that can win the confidence and votes of the peo-
ple; an actor exhibits the style of life demanded by the public (Jung, 1950/1959).

Although the persona is a necessary side of our personality, we should not con-
fuse our public face with our complete self. If we identify too closely with our per-
sona, we remain unconscious of our individuality and are blocked from attaining
self-realization. True, we must acknowledge society, but if we over identify with our
persona, we lose touch with our inner self and remain dependent on society’s expec-
tations of us. To become psychologically healthy, Jung believed, we must strike a bal-
ance between the demands of society and what we truly are. To be oblivious of one’s
persona is to underestimate the importance of society, but to be unaware of one’s
deep individuality is to become society’s puppet (Jung, 1950/1959).

During Jung’s near break with reality from 1913 to 1917, he struggled hard to
remain in touch with his persona. He knew that he must maintain a normal life, and
his work and family provided that contact. He was frequently forced to tell himself,
“I have a medical diploma from a Swiss university, I must help my patients, I have a
wife and five children, I live at 228 Seestrasse in Küsnacht” (Jung, 1961, p. 189).
Such self-talk kept Jung’s feet rooted to the ground and reassured him that he really
existed.

Shadow
The shadow, the archetype of darkness and repression, represents those qualities we
do not wish to acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves and others. The
shadow consists of morally objectionable tendencies as well as a number of con-
structive and creative qualities that we, nevertheless, are reluctant to face (Jung,
1951/1959a).

Jung contended that, to be whole, we must continually strive to know our
shadow and that this quest is our first test of courage. It is easier to project the dark
side of our personality onto others, to see in them the ugliness and evil that we re-
fuse to see in ourselves. To come to grips with the darkness within ourselves is to
achieve the “realization of the shadow.” Unfortunately, most of us never realize our
shadow but identify only with the bright side of our personality. People who never
realize their shadow may, nevertheless, come under its power and lead tragic lives,
constantly running into “bad luck” and reaping harvests of defeat and discourage-
ment for themselves (Jung, 1954/1959a).

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung (1961) reported a dream that took
place at the time of his break from Freud. In this dream his shadow, a brown-skinned
savage, killed the hero, a man named Siegfried, who represented the German people.
Jung interpreted the dream to mean that he no longer needed Sig Freud (Siegfried);
thus, his shadow performed the constructive task of eradicating his former hero.

Anima
Like Freud, Jung believed that all humans are psychologically bisexual and possess
both a masculine and a feminine side. The feminine side of men originates in the
collective unconscious as an archetype and remains extremely resistant to

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 107

consciousness. Few men become well acquainted with their anima because this task
requires great courage and is even more difficult than becoming acquainted with
their shadow. To master the projections of the anima, men must overcome intellec-
tual barriers, delve into the far recesses of their unconscious, and realize the femi-
nine side of their personality.

As we reported in the opening vignette in this chapter, Jung first encountered
his own anima during his journey through his unconscious psyche soon after his
break with Freud. The process of gaining acquaintance with his anima was Jung’s
second test of courage. Like all men, Jung could recognize his anima only after
learning to feel comfortable with his shadow (Jung, 1954/1959a, 1954/1959b).

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung vividly described this experience. In-
trigued by this “woman from within,” Jung (1961) concluded that

she must be the “soul,” in the primitive sense, and I began to speculate on the
reasons why the name “anima” was given to the soul. Why was it thought of as
feminine? Later I came to see that this inner feminine figure plays a typical, or
archetypal, role in the unconscious of a man, and I called her the “anima.” The
corresponding figure in the unconscious of woman I called the “animus.” (p. 186)

Jung believed that the anima originated from early men’s experiences with
women—mothers, sisters, and lovers—that combined to form a generalized picture
of woman. In time, this global concept became embedded in the collective uncon-
scious of all men as the anima archetype. Since prehistoric days, every man has come
into the world with a predetermined concept of woman that shapes and molds all his
relationships with individual women. A man is especially inclined to project his
anima onto his wife or lover and to see her not as she really is but as his personal and
collective unconscious have determined her. This anima can be the source of much
misunderstanding in male-female relationships, but it may also be responsible for the
alluring mystique woman has in the psyche of men (Hayman, 2001; Hillman, 1985).

A man may dream about a woman with no definite image and no particular
identity. The woman represents no one from his personal experience, but enters his
dream from the depths of his collective unconscious. The anima need not appear in
dreams as a woman, but can be represented by a feeling or mood (Jung, 1945/1953).
Thus, the anima influences the feeling side in man and is the explanation for certain
irrational moods and feelings. During these moods a man almost never admits that
his feminine side is casting her spell; instead, he either ignores the irrationality of the
feelings or tries to explain them in a very rational masculine manner. In either event
he denies that an autonomous archetype, the anima, is responsible for his mood.

The anima’s deceptive qualities were elucidated by Jung (1961) in his descrip-
tion of the “woman from within” who spoke to him during his journey into the un-
conscious and while he was contemplating whether his work was science.

What the anima said seemed to me full of a deep cunning. If I had taken these
fantasies of the unconscious as art, they would have carried no more conviction
than visual perceptions, as if I were watching a movie. I would have felt no moral
obligation toward them. The anima might then have easily seduced me into
believing that I was a misunderstood artist, and that my so-called artistic nature
gave me the right to neglect reality. If I had followed her voice, she would in all
probability have said to me one day, “Do you imagine the nonsense you’re
engaged in is really art? Not a bit.” Thus the insinuations of the anima, the
mouthpiece of the unconscious, can utterly destroy a man. (p. 187)

Part II Psychodynamic Theories108

Animus
The masculine archetype in women is called the animus. Whereas the anima repre-
sents irrational moods and feelings, the animus is symbolic of thinking and reason-
ing. It is capable of influencing the thinking of a woman, yet it does not actually be-
long to her. It belongs to the collective unconscious and originates from the
encounters of prehistoric women with men. In every female-male relationship, the
woman runs a risk of projecting her distant ancestors’ experiences with fathers,
brothers, lovers, and sons onto the unsuspecting man. In addition, of course, her per-
sonal experiences with men, buried in her personal unconscious, enter into her rela-
tionships with men. Couple these experiences with projections from the man’s anima
and with images from his personal unconscious, and you have the basic ingredients
of any female-male relationship.

Jung believed that the animus is responsible for thinking and opinion in
women just as the anima produces feelings and moods in men. The animus is also
the explanation for the irrational thinking and illogical opinions often attributed to
women. Many opinions held by women are objectively valid, but according to Jung,
close analysis reveals that these opinions were not thought out, but existed ready-
made. If a woman is dominated by her animus, no logical or emotional appeal can
shake her from her prefabricated beliefs (Jung, 1951/1959a). Like the anima, the an-
imus appears in dreams, visions, and fantasies in a personified form.

Great Mother
Two other archetypes, the great mother and the wise old man, are derivatives of the
anima and animus. Everyone, man or woman, possesses a great mother archetype.
This preexisting concept of mother is always associated with both positive and neg-
ative feelings. Jung (1954/1959c), for example, spoke of the “loving and terrible
mother” (p. 82). The great mother, therefore, represents two opposing forces—fer-
tility and nourishment on the one hand and power and destruction on the other. She
is capable of producing and sustaining life (fertility and nourishment), but she may
also devour or neglect her offspring (destruction). Recall that Jung saw his own
mother as having two personalities—one loving and nurturing; the other uncanny, ar-
chaic, and ruthless.

Jung (1954/1959c) believed that our view of a personal loving and terrible
mother is largely overrated. “All those influences which the literature describes as
being exerted on the children do not come from the mother herself, but rather from
the archetype projected upon her, which gives her a mythological background” (p.
83). In other words, the strong fascination that mother has for both men and women,
often in the absence of a close personal relationship, was taken by Jung as evidence
for the great mother archetype.

The fertility and nourishment dimension of the great mother archetype is sym-
bolized by a tree, garden, plowed field, sea, heaven, home, country, church, and hol-
low objects such as ovens and cooking utensils. Because the great mother also rep-
resents power and destruction, she is sometimes symbolized as a godmother, the
Mother of God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, a stepmother, or a witch. One exam-
ple of the opposing forces of fertility and destruction is the story of Cinderella,
whose fairy godmother is able to create for her a world of horses, carriages, fancy
balls, and a charming prince. However, the powerful godmother could also destroy

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 109

that world at the strike of midnight. Legends, myths, religious beliefs, art, and liter-
ary stories are filled with other symbols of the great mother, a person who is both
nurturing and destructive.

Fertility and power combine to form the concept of rebirth, which may be a
separate archetype, but its relation to the great mother is obvious. Rebirth is repre-
sented by such processes as reincarnation, baptism, resurrection, and individuation
or self-realization. People throughout the world are moved by a desire to be reborn:
that is, to reach self-realization, nirvana, heaven, or perfection (Jung, 1952/1956,
1954/1959c).

Wise Old Man
The wise old man, archetype of wisdom and meaning, symbolizes humans’ preex-
isting knowledge of the mysteries of life. This archetypal meaning, however, is un-
conscious and cannot be directly experienced by a single individual. Politicians and
others who speak authoritatively—but not authentically—often sound sensible and
wise to others who are all too willing to be misled by their own wise old man ar-
chetypes. Similarly, the wizard in L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz was an impressive
and captivating speaker whose words, however, rang hollow. A man or woman dom-
inated by the wise old man archetype may gather a large following of disciples by
using verbiage that sounds profound but that really makes little sense because the
collective unconscious cannot directly impart its wisdom to an individual. Political,
religious, and social prophets who appeal to reason as well as emotion (archetypes
are always emotionally tinged) are guided by this unconscious archetype. The dan-
ger to society comes when people become swayed by the pseudoknowledge of a
powerful prophet and mistake nonsense for real wisdom. Recall that Jung saw the
preachings of his own father (a pastor) as hollow pontifications, not backed by any
strong religious conviction.

The wise old man archetype is personified in dreams as father, grandfather,
teacher, philosopher, guru, doctor, or priest. He appears in fairy tales as the king, the
sage, or the magician who comes to the aid of the troubled protagonist and, through
superior wisdom, he helps the protagonist escape from myriad misadventures. The
wise old man is also symbolized by life itself. Literature is replete with stories of
young people leaving home, venturing out into the world, experiencing the trials and
sorrows of life, and in the end acquiring a measure of wisdom (Jung, 1954/1959a).

Hero
The hero archetype is represented in mythology and legends as a powerful person,
sometimes part god, who fights against great odds to conquer or vanquish evil in the
form of dragons, monsters, serpents, or demons. In the end, however, the hero often
is undone by some seemingly insignificant person or event (Jung, 1951/1959b). For
example, Achilles, the courageous hero of the Trojan War, was killed by an arrow in
his only vulnerable spot—his heel. Similarly, Macbeth was a heroic figure with a sin-
gle tragic flaw—ambition. This ambition was also the source of his greatness, but it
contributed to his fate and his downfall. Heroic deeds can be performed only by
someone who is vulnerable, such as Achilles or the comic book character Superman,

Part II Psychodynamic Theories110

whose only weakness was the chemical element kryptonite. An immortal person
with no weakness cannot be a hero.

The image of the hero touches an archetype within us, as demonstrated by our
fascination with the heroes of movies, novels, plays, and television programs. When
the hero conquers the villain, he or she frees us from feelings of impotence and mis-
ery; at the same time, serving as our model for the ideal personality (Jung,
1934/1954a).

The origin of the hero motif goes back to earliest human history—to the dawn
of consciousness. In conquering the villain, the hero is symbolically overcoming the
darkness of prehuman unconsciousness. The achievement of consciousness was one
of our ancestors’ greatest accomplishments, and the image of the archetypal con-
quering hero represents victory over the forces of darkness (Jung, 1951/1959b).

Self
Jung believed that each person possesses an inherited tendency to move toward
growth, perfection, and completion, and he called this innate disposition the self.
The most comprehensive of all archetypes, the self is the archetype of archetypes
because it pulls together the other archetypes and unites them in the process of self-
realization. Like the other archetypes, it possesses conscious and personal uncon-
scious components, but it is mostly formed by collective unconscious images.

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 111

The hero archetype has a tragic flaw. With Superman, the fatal weakness was kryptonite.

As an archetype, the self is symbolized by a person’s ideas of perfection, com-
pletion, and wholeness, but its ultimate symbol is the mandala, which is depicted
as a circle within a square, a square within a circle, or any other concentric fig-
ure. It represents the strivings of the collective unconscious for unity, balance, and
wholeness.

The self includes both personal and collective unconscious images and thus
should not be confused with the ego, which represents consciousness only. In Figure
4.1, consciousness (the ego) is represented by the outer circle and is only a small part
of total personality; the personal unconscious is depicted by the middle circle; the
collective unconscious is represented by the inner circle; and totality of all three cir-
cles symbolizes the self. Only four archetypes—persona, shadow, animus, and
anima—have been drawn in this mandala, and each has been idealistically depicted
as being the same size. For most people the persona is more conscious than the
shadow, and the shadow may be more accessible to consciousness than either the
anima or the animus. As shown in Figure 4.1, each archetype is partly conscious,
partly personal unconscious, and partly collective unconscious.

The balance shown in Figure 4.1 between consciousness and the total self is
also somewhat idealistic. Many people have an overabundance of consciousness and
thus lack the “soul spark” of personality; that is, they fail to realize the richness and
vitality of their personal unconscious and especially of their collective unconscious.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories112

FIGURE 4.1 Jung’s Conception of Personality.

Personal
unconscious

Anima (femininity) Animus (masculinity)

Personal
unconscious

Collective
unconscious

Conscious (ego)

Conscious (ego)

C
o

n
sc

io
u

s
(e

g
o

)
C
o
n
sc
io
u
s
(e
g
o
)
Shadow
Persona

On the other hand, people who are overpowered by their unconscious are often
pathological, with one-sided personalities (Jung, 1951/1959a).

Although the self is almost never perfectly balanced, each person has in the
collective unconscious a concept of the perfect, unified self. The mandala represents
the perfect self, the archetype of order, unity, and totality. Because self-realization
involves completeness and wholeness, it is represented by the same symbol of per-
fection (the mandala) that sometimes signifies divinity. In the collective uncon-
scious, the self appears as an ideal personality, sometimes taking the form of Jesus
Christ, Buddha, Krishna, or other deified figures.

Jung found evidence for the self archetype in the mandala symbols that appear
in dreams and fantasies of contemporary people who have never been conscious of
their meaning. Historically, people produced countless mandalas without appearing
to have understood their full significance. Jung (1951/1959a) believed that psychotic
patients experience an increasing number of mandala motifs in their dreams at the
exact time that they are undergoing a period of serious psychic disorder and that this
experience is further evidence that people strive for order and balance. It is as if
the unconscious symbol of order counterbalances the conscious manifestation of
disorder.

In summary, the self includes both the conscious and unconscious mind, and it
unites the opposing elements of psyche—male and female, good and evil, light and
dark forces. These opposing elements are often represented by the yang and yin (see
Figure 4.2), whereas the self is usually symbolized by the mandala. This latter motif
stands for unity, totality, and order—that is, self-realization. Complete self-realization
is seldom if ever achieved, but as an ideal it exists within the collective unconscious
of everyone. To actualize or fully experience the self, people must overcome their

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 113

FIGURE 4.2 The Yang and the Yin.

Introversion
Extraversion

fear of the unconscious; prevent their persona from dominating their personality;
recognize the dark side of themselves (their shadow); and then muster even greater
courage to face their anima or animus.

On one occasion during his midlife crisis, Jung had a vision in which he con-
fronted a bearded old man who was living with a beautiful blind young girl and a
large black snake. The old man explained that he was Elijah and that the young girl
was Salome, both biblical figures. Elijah had a certain, sharp intelligence, although
Jung did not clearly understand him. Salome gave Jung a feeling of distinct suspi-
ciousness, while the serpent showed a remarkable fondness for Jung. At the time he
experienced this vision, Jung was unable to comprehend its meaning, but many years
later he came to see the three figures as archetypes. Elijah represented the wise old
man, seemingly intelligent, but not making a good deal of sense; the blind Salome
was an anima figure, beautiful and seductive, but unable to see the meaning of
things; and the snake was the counterpart of the hero, showing an affinity for Jung,
the hero of the vision. Jung (1961) believed that he had to identify these unconscious
images in order to maintain his own identity and not lose himself to the powerful
forces of the collective unconscious. He later wrote:

The essential thing is to differentiate oneself from these unconscious contents by
personifying them, and at the same time to bring them into relationship with
consciousness. That is the technique for stripping them of their power. It is not too
difficult to personify them, as they always possess a certain degree of autonomy, a
separate identity of their own. Their autonomy is a most uncomfortable thing to
reconcile oneself to, and yet the very fact that the unconscious presents itself in
that way gives us the best means of handling it. (p. 187)

Dynamics of Personality
In this section on the dynamics of personality, we look at Jung’s ideas on causality
and teleology and on progression and regression.

Causality and Teleology
Does motivation spring from past causes or from teleological goals? Jung insisted
that it comes from both. Causality holds that present events have their origin in pre-
vious experiences. Freud relied heavily on a causal viewpoint in his explanations of
adult behavior in terms of early childhood experiences (see Chapter 2). Jung criti-
cized Freud for being one-sided in his emphasis on causality and insisted that a
causal view could not explain all motivation. Conversely, teleology holds that pres-
ent events are motivated by goals and aspirations for the future that direct a person’s
destiny. Adler held this position, insisting that people are motivated by conscious and
unconscious perceptions of fictional final goals (see Chapter 3). Jung was less criti-
cal of Adler than of Freud, but he insisted that human behavior is shaped by both
causal and teleological forces and that causal explanations must be balanced with
teleological ones.

Jung’s insistence on balance is seen in his conception of dreams. He agreed
with Freud that many dreams spring from past events; that is, they are caused by ear-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories114

lier experiences. On the other hand, Jung claimed that some dreams can help a per-
son make decisions about the future, just as dreams of making important discover-
ies in the natural sciences eventually led to his own career choice.

Progression and Regression
To achieve self-realization, people must adapt not only to their outside environment
but to their inner world as well. Adaptation to the outside world involves the forward
flow of psychic energy and is called progression, whereas adaptation to the inner
world relies on a backward flow of psychic energy and is called regression. Both
progression and regression are essential if people are to achieve individual growth or
self-realization.

Progression inclines a person to react consistently to a given set of environ-
mental conditions, whereas regression is a necessary backward step in the success-
ful attainment of a goal. Regression activates the unconscious psyche, an essential
aid in the solution of most problems. Alone, neither progression nor regression leads
to development. Either can bring about too much one-sidedness and failure in adap-
tation; but the two, working together, can activate the process of healthy personality
development (Jung, 1928/1960).

Regression is exemplified in Jung’s midlife crisis, during which time his psy-
chic life was turned inward toward the unconscious and away from any significant
outward accomplishments. He spent most of his energy becoming acquainted with
his unconscious psyche and did little in the way of writing or lecturing. Regression
dominated his life while progression nearly ceased. Subsequently, he emerged from
this period with a greater balance of the psyche and once again became interested in
the extraverted world. However, his regressive experiences with the introverted
world had left him permanently and profoundly changed. Jung (1961) believed that
the regressive step is necessary to create a balanced personality and to grow toward
self-realization.

Psychological Types
Besides the levels of the psyche and the dynamics of personality, Jung recognized
various psychological types that grow out of a union of two basic attitudes—intro-
version and extraversion—and four separate functions—thinking, feeling, sensing,
and intuiting.

Attitudes
Jung (1921/1971) defined an attitude as a predisposition to act or react in a charac-
teristic direction. He insisted that each person has both an introverted and an ex-
traverted attitude, although one may be conscious while the other is unconscious.
Like other opposing forces in analytical psychology, introversion and extraversion
serve in a compensatory relationship to one another and can be illustrated by the
yang and yin motif (see Figure 4.2).

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 115

Introversion
According to Jung, introversion is the turning inward of psychic energy with an ori-
entation toward the subjective. Introverts are tuned in to their inner world with all its
biases, fantasies, dreams, and individualized perceptions. These people perceive the
external world, of course, but they do so selectively and with their own subjective
view (Jung, 1921/1971).

The story of Jung’s life shows two episodes when introversion was clearly the
dominant attitude. The first was during early adolescence when he became cognizant
of a No. 2 personality, one beyond awareness to his extraverted personality. The sec-
ond episode was during his midlife confrontation with his unconscious when he car-
ried on conversations with his anima, experienced bizarre dreams, and induced
strange visions that were the “stuff of psychosis” (Jung, 1961, p. 188). During his
nearly completely introverted midlife crisis, his fantasies were individualized and
subjective. Other people, including even Jung’s wife, could not accurately compre-
hend what he was experiencing. Only Toni Wolff seemed capable of helping him
emerge from his confrontation with the unconscious. During that introverted con-
frontation, Jung suspended or discontinued much of his extraverted or objective at-
titude. He stopped actively treating his patients, resigned his position as lecturer at
the University of Zürich, ceased his theoretical writing, and for 3 years, found him-
self “utterly incapable of reading a scientific book” (p. 193). He was in the process
of discovering the introverted pole of his existence.

Jung’s voyage of discovery, however, was not totally introverted. He knew that
unless he retained some hold on his extraverted world, he would risk becoming ab-
solutely possessed by his inner world. Afraid that he might become completely psy-
chotic, he forced himself to continue as much of a normal life as possible with his
family and his profession. By this technique, Jung eventually emerged from his inner
journey and established a balance between introversion and extraversion.

Extraversion
In contrast to introversion, extraversion is the attitude distinguished by the turning
outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the objective and away
from the subjective. Extraverts are more influenced by their surroundings than by
their inner world. They tend to focus on the objective attitude while suppressing the
subjective. Like Jung’s childhood No. 1 personality, they are pragmatic and well
rooted in the realities of everyday life. At the same time, they are overly suspicious
of the subjective attitude, whether their own or that of someone else.

In summary, people are neither completely introverted nor completely ex-
traverted. Introverted people are like an unbalanced teeter-totter with a heavy weight
on one end and a very light weight on the other (see Figure 4.3 A). Conversely, ex-
traverted people are unbalanced in the other direction, with a heavy extraverted atti-
tude and a very light introverted one (see Figure 4.3 B). However, psychologically
healthy people attain a balance of the two attitudes, feeling equally comfortable with
their internal and their external worlds (see Figure 4.3 C).

In Chapter 3, we said that Adler developed a theory of personality that was
quite opposite to that of Freud. Where did Jung place these two theories on the ex-
traversion/introversion pole? Jung (1921/1971) said that “Freud’s view is essentially
extraverted, Adler’s introverted” (p. 62). Our biographical sketches of Freud and

Part II Psychodynamic Theories116

Adler reveal that the opposite appears to be true: Freud was personally somewhat in-
troverted, in tune to his dreams and fantasy life, whereas Adler was personally ex-
traverted, feeling most comfortable in group settings, singing songs and playing the
piano in the coffeehouses of Vienna. Yet Jung held that Freud’s theory was ex-
traverted because it reduced experiences to the external world of sex and aggression,
Conversely, Jung believed that Adler’s theory was introverted because it emphasized
fictions and subjective perceptions. Jung, of course, saw his own theory as balanced,
able to accept both the objective and the subjective.

Functions
Both introversion and extraversion can combine with any one or more of four func-
tions, forming eight possible orientations, or types. The four functions—sensing,
thinking, feeling, and intuiting—can be briefly defined as follows: Sensing tells peo-
ple that something exists; thinking enables them to recognize its meaning; feeling
tells them its value or worth; and intuition allows them to know about it without
knowing how they know.

Thinking
Logical intellectual activity that produces a chain of ideas is called thinking. The
thinking type can be either extraverted or introverted, depending on a person’s basic
attitude.

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 117

FIGURE 4.3 The Balance of Introversion and Extraversion.

Introverted Extroverted

A

B

C

Extraverted thinking people rely heavily on concrete thoughts, but they may
also use abstract ideas if these ideas have been transmitted to them from without, for
example, from parents or teachers. Mathematicians and engineers make frequent use
of extraverted thinking in their work. Accountants, too, are extraverted thinking
types because they must be objective and not subjective in their approach to num-
bers. Not all objective thinking, however, is productive. Without at least some indi-
vidual interpretation, ideas are merely previously known facts with no originality or
creativity (Jung, 1921/1971).

Introverted thinking people react to external stimuli, but their interpretation of
an event is colored more by the internal meaning they bring with them than by the
objective facts themselves. Inventors and philosophers are often introverted thinking
types because they react to the external world in a highly subjective and creative
manner, interpreting old data in new ways. When carried to an extreme, introverted
thinking results in unproductive mystical thoughts that are so individualized that they
are useless to any other person (Jung, 1921/1971).

Feeling
Jung used the term feeling to describe the process of evaluating an idea or event. Per-
haps a more accurate word would be valuing, a term less likely to be confused with
either sensing or intuiting. For example, when people say, “This surface feels
smooth,” they are using their sensing function, and when they say, “I have a feeling
that this will be my lucky day,” they are intuiting, not feeling.

The feeling function should be distinguished from emotion. Feeling is the
evaluation of every conscious activity, even those valued as indifferent. Most of
these evaluations have no emotional content, but they are capable of becoming emo-
tions if their intensity increases to the point of stimulating physiological changes
within the person. Emotions, however, are not limited to feelings; any of the four
functions can lead to emotion when their strength is increased.

Extraverted feeling people use objective data to make evaluations. They are
not guided so much by their subjective opinion, but by external values and widely
accepted standards of judgment. They are likely to be at ease in social situations,
knowing on the spur of the moment what to say and how to say it. They are usually
well liked because of their sociability, but in their quest to conform to social
standards, they may appear artificial, shallow, and unreliable. Their value
judgments will have an easily detectable false ring. Extraverted feeling people
often become businesspeople or politicians because these professions demand and
reward the making of value judgments based on objective information (Jung,
1921/1971).

Introverted feeling people base their value judgments primarily on subjective
perceptions rather than objective facts. Critics of the various art forms make much
use of introverted feeling, making value judgments on the basis of subjective indi-
vidualized data. These people have an individualized conscience, a taciturn de-
meanor, and an unfathomable psyche. They ignore traditional opinions and beliefs,
and their nearly complete indifference to the objective world (including people)
often causes persons around them to feel uncomfortable and to cool their attitude to-
ward them (Jung, 1921/1971).

Part II Psychodynamic Theories118

Sensing
The function that receives physical stimuli and transmits them to perceptual con-
sciousness is called sensation. Sensing is not identical to the physical stimulus but
is simply the individual’s perception of sensory impulses. These perceptions are not
dependent on logical thinking or feeling but exist as absolute, elementary facts
within each person.

Extraverted sensing people perceive external stimuli objectively, in much the
same way that these stimuli exist in reality. Their sensations are not greatly influ-
enced by their subjective attitudes. This facility is essential in such occupations as
proofreader, house painter, wine taster, or any other job demanding sensory dis-
criminations congruent with those of most people (Jung, 1921/1971).

Introverted sensing people are largely influenced by their subjective sensations
of sight, sound, taste, touch, and so forth. They are guided by their interpretation of
sense stimuli rather than the stimuli themselves. Portrait artists, especially those
whose paintings are extremely personalized, rely on an introverted-sensing attitude.
They give a subjective interpretation to objective phenomena yet are able to com-
municate meaning to others. When the subjective sensing attitude is carried to its ex-
treme, however, it may result in hallucinations or esoteric and incomprehensible
speech (Jung, 1921/1971).

Intuiting
Intuition involves perception beyond the workings of consciousness. Like sensing,
it is based on the perception of absolute elementary facts, ones that provide the raw
material for thinking and feeling. Intuiting differs from sensing in that it is more cre-
ative, often adding or subtracting elements from conscious sensation.

Extraverted intuitive people are oriented toward facts in the external world.
Rather than fully sensing them, however, they merely perceive them subliminally.
Because strong sensory stimuli interfere with intuition, intuitive people suppress
many of their sensations and are guided by hunches and guesses contrary to sensory
data. An example of an extraverted intuitive type might be inventors who must in-
hibit distracting sensory data and concentrate on unconscious solutions to objective
problems. They may create things that fill a need few other people realized existed.

Introverted intuitive people are guided by unconscious perception of facts that
are basically subjective and have little or no resemblance to external reality. Their
subjective intuitive perceptions are often remarkably strong and capable of motivat-
ing decisions of monumental magnitude. Introverted intuitive people, such as mys-
tics, prophets, surrealistic artists, or religious fanatics, often appear peculiar to peo-
ple of other types who have little comprehension of their motives. Actually, Jung
(1921/1971) believed that introverted intuitive people may not clearly understand
their own motivations, yet they are deeply moved by them. (See Table 4.1 for the
eight Jungian types with some possible examples of each.)

The four functions usually appear in a hierarchy, with one occupying a supe-
rior position, another a secondary position, and the other two inferior positions.
Most people cultivate only one function, so they characteristically approach a situa-
tion relying on the one dominant or superior function. Some people develop two
functions, and a few very mature individuals have cultivated three. A person who has

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 119

theoretically achieved self-realization or individuation would have all four functions
highly developed.

Development of Personality
Jung believed that personality develops through a series of stages that culminate
in individuation, or self-realization. In contrast to Freud, he emphasized the second
half of life, the period after age 35 or 40, when a person has the opportunity to bring
together the various aspects of personality and to attain self-realization. However,
the opportunity for degeneration or rigid reactions is also present at that time.
The psychological health of middle-aged people is related to their ability in achiev-
ing balance between the poles of the various opposing processes. This ability is
proportional to the success achieved in journeying through the previous stages
of life.

Stages of Development
Jung grouped the stages of life into four general periods—childhood, youth, middle
life, and old age. He compared the trip through life to the journey of the sun through
the sky, with the brightness of the sun representing consciousness. The early morn-
ing sun is childhood, full of potential, but still lacking in brilliance (consciousness);
the morning sun is youth, climbing toward the zenith, but unaware of the impending
decline; the early afternoon sun is middle life, brilliant like the late morning sun, but
obviously headed for the sunset; the evening sun is old age, its once bright con-
sciousness now markedly dimmed (see Figure 4.4). Jung (1931/1960a) argued that
values, ideals, and modes of behavior suitable for the morning of life are inappro-
priate for the second half, and that people must learn to find new meaning in their
declining years of life.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories120

T A B L E 4 . 1

Examples of the Eight Jungian Types

Thinking
Feeling

Sensation

Intuition

Philosophers, theoretical
scientists, some inventors

Subjective movie critics, art
appraisers

Artists, classical musicians

Prophets, mystics, religious
fanatics

Research scientists, accountants,
mathematicians

Real estate appraisers, objective
movie critics

Wine tasters, proofreaders,
popular musicians, house
painters

Some inventors, religious
reformers

Functions Attitudes

Introversion Extraversion

Childhood
Jung divided childhood into three substages: (1) the anarchic, (2) the monarchic, and
(3) the dualistic. The anarchic phase is characterized by chaotic and sporadic con-
sciousness. “Islands of consciousness” may exist, but there is little or no connection
among these islands. Experiences of the anarchic phase sometimes enter conscious-
ness as primitive images, incapable of being accurately verbalized.

The monarchic phase of childhood is characterized by the development of the
ego and by the beginning of logical and verbal thinking. During this time children
see themselves objectively and often refer to themselves in the third person. The is-
lands of consciousness become larger, more numerous, and inhabited by a primitive
ego. Although the ego is perceived as an object, it is not yet aware of itself as per-
ceiver.

The ego as perceiver arises during the dualistic phase of childhood when the
ego is divided into the objective and subjective. Children now refer to themselves
in the first person and are aware of their existence as separate individuals. Dur-
ing the dualistic period, the islands of consciousness become continuous land, inhab-
ited by an ego-complex that recognizes itself as both object and subject (Jung,
1931/1960a).

Youth
The period from puberty until middle life is called youth. Young people strive to gain
psychic and physical independence from their parents, find a mate, raise a family,
and make a place in the world. According to Jung (1931/1960a), youth is, or should
be, a period of increased activity, maturing sexuality, growing consciousness, and
recognition that the problem-free era of childhood is gone forever. The major diffi-
culty facing youth is to overcome the natural tendency (found also in middle and
later years) to cling to the narrow consciousness of childhood, thus avoiding prob-
lems pertinent to the present time of life. This desire to live in the past is called the
conservative principle.

A middle-aged or elderly person who attempts to hold on to youthful values faces
a crippled second half of life, handicapped in the capacity to achieve self-realization
and impaired in the ability to establish new goals and seek new meaning to life
(Jung, 1931/1960a).

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 121

FIGURE 4.4 Jung Compares the Stages of Life to the Sun’s Journey through the Sky,
with the Brilliance of the Sun Representing Consciousness.

Childhood

Youth Middle life

Old age

Middle Life
Jung believed that middle life begins at approximately age 35 or 40, by which time
the sun has passed its zenith and begins its downward descent. Although this decline
can present middle-aged people with increasing anxieties, middle life is also a pe-
riod of tremendous potential.

If middle-aged people retain the social and moral values of their early life, they
become rigid and fanatical in trying to hold on to their physical attractiveness and
agility. Finding their ideals shifting, they may fight desperately to maintain their
youthful appearance and lifestyle. Most of us, wrote Jung (1931/1960a), are unpre-
pared to “take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with
the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. . . . We can-
not live in the afternoon of life according to the programme of life’s morning; for
what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was
true will at evening have become a lie” (p. 399).

How can middle life be lived to its fullest? People who have lived youth by nei-
ther childish nor middle-aged values are well prepared to advance to middle life and
to live fully during that stage. They are capable of giving up the extraverted goals of
youth and moving in the introverted direction of expanded consciousness. Their psy-
chological health is not enhanced by success in business, prestige in society, or sat-
isfaction with family life. They must look forward to the future with hope and an-
ticipation, surrender the lifestyle of youth, and discover new meaning in middle life.
This step often, but not always, involves a mature religious orientation, especially a
belief in some sort of life after death (Jung, 1931/1960a).

Old Age
As the evening of life approaches, people experience a diminution of consciousness
just as the light and warmth of the sun diminish at dusk. If people fear life during the
early years, then they will almost certainly fear death during the later ones. Fear of
death is often taken as normal, but Jung believed that death is the goal of life and
that life can be fulfilling only when death is seen in this light. In 1934, during his
60th year, Jung wrote:

Ordinarily we cling to our past and remain stuck in the illusion of youthfulness.
Being old is highly unpopular. Nobody seems to consider that not being able to
grow old is just as absurd as not being able to outgrow child’s-size shoes. A still
infantile man of thirty is surely to be deplored, but a youthful septuagenarian—
isn’t that delightful? And yet both are perverse, lacking in style, psychological
monstrosities. A young man who does not fight and conquer has missed the best
part of his youth, and an old man who does not know how to listen to the secrets
of the brooks, as they tumble down from the peaks to the valleys, makes no sense;
he is a spiritual mummy who is nothing but a rigid relic of the past. (Jung,
1934/1960, p. 407)

Most of Jung’s patients were middle aged or older, and many of them suffered
from a backward orientation, clinging desperately to goals and lifestyles of the past
and going through the motions of life aimlessly. Jung treated these people by help-
ing them establish new goals and find meaning in living by first finding meaning in
death. He accomplished this treatment through dream interpretation, because the
dreams of elderly people are often filled with symbols of rebirth, such as long jour-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories122

neys or changes in location. Jung used these and other symbols to determine pa-
tients’ unconscious attitudes toward death and to help them discover a meaningful
philosophy of life (Jung, 1934/1960).

Self-Realization
Psychological rebirth, also called self-realization or individuation, is the process of
becoming an individual or whole person (Jung, 1939/1959, 1945/1953). Analytical
psychology is essentially a psychology of opposites, and self-realization is the
process of integrating the opposite poles into a single homogeneous individual. This
process of “coming to selfhood” means that a person has all psychological compo-
nents functioning in unity, with no psychic process atrophying. People who have
gone through this process have achieved realization of the self, minimized their per-
sona, recognized their anima or animus, and acquired a workable balance between
introversion and extraversion. In addition, these self-realized individuals have ele-
vated all four of the functions to a superior position, an extremely difficult accom-
plishment.

Self-realization is extremely rare and is achieved only by people who are able
to assimilate their unconscious into their total personality. To come to terms with the
unconscious is a difficult process that demands courage to face the evil nature of
one’s shadow and even greater fortitude to accept one’s feminine or masculine side.
This process is almost never achieved before middle life and then only by men and
women who are able to remove the ego as the dominant concern of personality and
replace it with the self. The self-realized person must allow the unconscious self to
become the core of personality. To merely expand consciousness is to inflate the ego
and to produce a one-sided person who lacks the soul spark of personality. The self-
realized person is dominated neither by unconscious processes nor by the conscious
ego but achieves a balance between all aspects of personality.

Self-realized people are able to contend with both their external and their in-
ternal worlds. Unlike psychologically disturbed individuals, they live in the real
world and make necessary concessions to it. However, unlike average people, they
are aware of the regressive process that leads to self-discovery. Seeing unconscious
images as potential material for new psychic life, self-realized people welcome these
images as they appear in dreams and introspective reflections (Jung, 1939/1959;
1945/1953).

Jung’s Methods of Investigation
Jung looked beyond psychology in his search for data to build his conception of hu-
manity. He made no apologies for his ventures into the fields of sociology, history,
anthropology, biology, physics, philology, religion, mythology, and philosophy. He
strongly believed that the study of personality was not the prerogative of any single
discipline and that the whole person could be understood only by pursuing knowl-
edge wherever it existed. Like Freud, Jung persistently defended himself as a scien-
tific investigator, eschewing the labels of mystic and philosopher. In a letter to Calvin
Hall, dated October 6, 1954, Jung argued: “If you call me an occultist because I am
seriously investigating religious, mythological, folkloristic and philosophical

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 123

fantasies in modern individuals and ancient texts, then you are bound to diagnose
Freud as a sexual pervert since he is doing likewise with sexual fantasies” (Jung,
1975, p. 186). Nevertheless, Jung asserted that the psyche could not be understood
by the intellect alone but must be grasped by the total person. Along the same line,
he once said, “Not everything I bring forth is written out of my head, but much of it
comes from the heart also” (Jung, 1943/1953, p. 116).

Jung gathered data for his theories from extensive reading in many disciplines,
but he also gathered data from his use of the word association test, dream analysis,
active imagination, and psychotherapy. This information was then combined with
readings on medieval alchemy, occult phenomena, or any other subject in an effort
to confirm the hypotheses of analytical psychology.

Word Association Test
Jung was not the first to use the word association test, but he can be credited with
helping develop and refine it. He originally used the technique as early as 1903 when
he was a young psychiatric assistant at Burghöltzli, and he lectured on the word as-
sociation test during his trip with Freud to the United States in 1909. However, he
seldom employed it in his later career. In spite of this inattention, the test continues
to be closely linked with Jung’s name.

His original purpose in using the word association test was to demonstrate the
validity of Freud’s hypothesis that the unconscious operates as an autonomous
process. However, the basic purpose of the test in Jungian psychology today is to un-
cover feeling-toned complexes. As noted in the section of levels of the psyche, a
complex is an individualized, emotionally toned conglomeration of images grouped
around a central core. The word association test is based on the principle that com-
plexes create measurable emotional responses.

In administering the test, Jung typically used a list of about 100 stimulus words
chosen and arranged to elicit an emotional reaction. He instructed the person to re-
spond to each stimulus word with the first word that came to mind. Jung recorded
each verbal response, time taken to make a response, rate of breathing, and galvanic
skin response. Usually, he would repeat the experiment to determine test-retest con-
sistency.

Certain types of reactions indicate that the stimulus word has touched a com-
plex. Critical responses include restricted breathing, changes in the electrical con-
ductivity of the skin, delayed reactions, multiple responses, disregard of instructions,
inability to pronounce a common word, failure to respond, and inconsistency on test-
retest. Other significant responses include blushing, stammering, laughing, cough-
ing, sighing, clearing the throat, crying, excessive body movement, and repetition of
the stimulus word. Any one or combination of these responses might indicate that a
complex has been reached (Jung, 1935/1968; Jung & Riklin, 1904/1973).

Dream Analysis
Jung agreed with Freud that dreams have meaning and that they should be taken se-
riously. He also agreed with Freud that dreams spring from the depths of the uncon-

Part II Psychodynamic Theories124

scious and that their latent meaning is expressed in symbolic form. However, he ob-
jected to Freud’s notion that nearly all dreams are wish fulfillments and that most
dream symbols represent sexual urges. Jung (1964) believed that people used sym-
bols to represent a variety of concepts—not merely sexual ones—to try to compre-
hend the “innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding” (p. 21).
Dreams are our unconscious and spontaneous attempt to know the unknowable, to
comprehend a reality that can only be expressed symbolically.

The purpose of Jungian dream interpretation is to uncover elements from
the personal and collective unconscious and to integrate them into consciousness
in order to facilitate the process of self-realization. The Jungian therapist must
realize that dreams are often compensatory; that is, feelings and attitudes not
expressed during waking life will find an outlet through the dream process. Jung
believed that the natural condition of humans is to move toward completion or
self-realization. Thus, if a person’s conscious life is incomplete in a certain area,
then that person’s unconscious self will strive to complete that condition through
the dream process. For example, if the anima in a man receives no conscious devel-
opment, she will express herself through dreams filled with self-realization motifs,
thus balancing the man’s masculine side with his feminine disposition (Jung,
1916/1960).

Jung felt that certain dreams offered proof for the existence of the collective
unconscious. These dreams included big dreams, which have special meaning for all
people; typical dreams, which are common to most people; and earliest dreams re-
membered.

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung (1961) wrote about a big dream he
had while traveling to the United States with Freud in 1909. In this dream—briefly
mentioned in our biographical sketch of Jung—Jung was living in the upper floor of
a two-story house. This floor had an inhabited atmosphere, although its furnishings
were somewhat old. In the dream, Jung realized that he did not know what the
ground floor was like, so he decided to explore it. After descending the stairs, he no-
ticed that all the furnishings were medieval and dated to the 15th or 16th century.
While exploring this floor, he discovered a stone stairway that led down into a cel-
lar. “Descending again, I found myself in a beautifully vaulted room which looked
exceedingly ancient. . . . As soon as I saw this I knew that the walls dated from
Roman times” (Jung, 1961, p. 159). While exploring the floor of this cellar, Jung no-
ticed a ring on one of the stone slabs. When he lifted it, he saw another narrow stair-
way leading to an ancient cave. There, he saw broken pottery, scattered animal bones,
and two very old human skulls. In his own words, he had “discovered the world of
the primitive man within myself—a world which can scarcely be reached or illumi-
nated by consciousness” (Jung, 1961, p. 160).

Jung later accepted this dream as evidence for different levels of the psyche.
The upper floor had an inhabited atmosphere and represented consciousness, the top
layer of the psyche. The ground floor was the first layer of the unconscious—old but
not as alien or ancient as the Roman artifacts in the cellar, which symbolized a
deeper layer of the personal unconscious. In the cave, Jung discovered two human
skulls—the ones for which Freud insisted Jung harbored death wishes. Jung, how-
ever, saw these ancient human skulls as representing the depths of his collective un-
conscious.

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 125

Beyond Biography Did Jung wish for the death of his wife?
For insight into Jung’s relationship with women and to see how one
of his big dreams may have reflected a wish for his wife’s death, see
our website at www.mhhe.com/feist7

The second kind of collective dreams is the typical dreams, those that are com-
mon to most people. These dreams include archetypal figures, such as mother, father,
God, devil, or wise old man. They may also touch on archetypal events, such as birth,
death, separation from parents, baptism, marriage, flying, or exploring a cave. They may
also include archetypal objects, such as sun, water, fish, snakes, or predatory animals.

The third category includes earliest dreams remembered. These dreams can be
traced back to about age 3 or 4 and contain mythological and symbolic images and
motifs that could not have reasonably been experienced by the individual child.
These early childhood dreams often contain archetypal motifs and symbols such as
the hero, the wise old man, the tree, the fish, and the mandala. Jung (1948/1960b)
wrote of these images and motifs: “Their frequent appearance in individual case ma-
terial, as well as their universal distribution, prove that the human psyche is unique
and subjective or personal only in part, and for the rest is collective and objective”
(p. 291).

Jung (1961) presented a vivid illustration in one of his earliest dreams, which
took place before his 4th birthday. He dreamed he was in a meadow when suddenly
he saw a dark rectangular hole in the ground. Fearfully, he descended a flight of stairs
and at the bottom encountered a doorway with a round arch covered by a heavy green
curtain. Behind the curtain was a dimly lit room with a red carpet running from the
entrance to a low platform. On the platform was a throne and on the throne was an
elongated object that appeared to Jung to be a large tree trunk. “It was a huge thing,
reaching almost to the ceiling. But it was of a curious composition: It was made of
skin and naked flesh, and on top there was something like a rounded head with no
face and no hair. On the very top of the head was a single eye, gazing motionlessly
upward” (p. 12). Filled with terror, the young boy heard his mother say, “Yes, just
look at him. That is the man-eater!” This comment frightened him even more and
jolted him awake.

Jung thought often about the dream, but 30 years would pass before the obvi-
ous phallus became apparent to him. An additional number of years were required
before he could accept the dream as an expression of his collective unconscious
rather than the product of a personal memory trace. In his own interpretation of the
dream, the rectangular hole represented death; the green curtain symbolized the
mystery of Earth with her green vegetation; the red carpet signified blood; and the
tree, resting majestically on a throne, was the erect penis, anatomically accurate in
every detail. After interpreting the dream, Jung was forced to conclude that no 31/2-
year-old boy could produce such universally symbolic material solely from his own
experiences. A collective unconscious, common to the species, was his explanation
(Jung, 1961).

Active Imagination
A technique Jung used during his own self-analysis as well as with many of his pa-
tients was active imagination. This method requires a person to begin with any im-
pression—a dream image, vision, picture, or fantasy—and to concentrate until the

WWW

Part II Psychodynamic Theories126

impression begins to “move.” The person must follow these images to wherever they
lead and then courageously face these autonomous images and freely communicate
with them.

The purpose of active imagination is to reveal archetypal images emerging
from the unconscious. It can be a useful technique for people who want to become
better acquainted with their collective and personal unconscious and who are willing
to overcome the resistance that ordinarily blocks open communication with the un-
conscious. Jung believed that active imagination has an advantage over dream analy-
sis in that its images are produced during a conscious state of mind, thus making
them more clear and reproducible. The feeling tone is also quite specific, and ordi-
narily a person has little difficulty reproducing the vision or remembering the mood
(Jung, 1937/1959).

As a variation to active imagination, Jung sometimes asked patients who were
so inclined to draw, paint, or express in some other nonverbal manner the progres-
sion of their fantasies. Jung relied on this technique during his own self-analysis, and
many of these reproductions, rich in universal symbolism and often exhibiting the
mandala, are scattered throughout his books. Man and His Symbols (1964), Word
and Image (1979), Psychology and Alchemy (1952/1968), and Claire Dunne’s (2000)
illustrated biography, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul, are especially prolific
sources for these drawings and photographs.

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 127

Carl Jung, the wise old man of Küsnacht.

In 1961, Jung wrote about his experiences with active imagination during his
midlife confrontation with the unconscious:

When I look back upon it all today and consider what happened to me during the
period of my work on the fantasies, it seems as though a message had come to me
with overwhelming force. There were things in the images which concerned not
only myself but many others also. It was then that I ceased to belong to myself
alone, ceased to have the right to do so. From then on, my life belonged to the
generality. . . . It was then that I dedicated myself to service of the psyche: I loved
it and hated it, but it was my greatest wealth. My delivering myself over to it, as it
were, was the only way by which I could endure my existence and live it as fully
as possible. (p. 192)

Psychotherapy
Jung (1931/1954b) identified four basic approaches to therapy, representing four de-
velopmental stages in the history of psychotherapy. The first is confession of a path-
ogenic secret. This is the cathartic method practiced by Josef Breuer and his patient
Anna O. For patients who merely have a need to share their secrets, catharsis is ef-
fective. The second stage involves interpretation, explanation, and elucidation. This
approach, used by Freud, gives the patients insight into the causes of their neuroses,
but may still leave them incapable of solving social problems. The third stage, there-
fore, is the approach adopted by Adler and includes the education of patients as so-
cial beings. Unfortunately, says Jung, this approach often leaves patients merely so-
cially well adjusted.

To go beyond these three approaches, Jung suggested a fourth stage, trans-
formation. By transformation, he meant that the therapist must first be transformed
into a healthy human being, preferably by undergoing psychotherapy. Only after
transformation and an established philosophy of life is the therapist able to help pa-
tients move toward individuation, wholeness, or self-realization. This fourth stage is
especially employed with patients who are in the second half of life and who are con-
cerned with realization of the inner self, with moral and religious problems, and with
finding a unifying philosophy of life (Jung, 1931/1954b).

Jung was quite eclectic in his theory and practice of psychotherapy. His treat-
ment varied according to the age, stage of development, and particular problem of
the patient. About two thirds of Jung’s patients were in the second half of life, and a
great many of them suffered from a loss of meaning, general aimlessness, and a fear
of death. Jung attempted to help these patients find their own philosophical orien-
tation.

The ultimate purpose of Jungian therapy is to help neurotic patients be-
come healthy and to encourage healthy people to work independently toward self-
realization. Jung sought to achieve this purpose by using such techniques as dream
analysis and active imagination to help patients discover personal and collective un-
conscious material and to balance these unconscious images with their conscious at-
titude (Jung, 1931/1954a).

Although Jung encouraged patients to be independent, he admitted the impor-
tance of transference, particularly during the first three stages of therapy. He re-
garded both positive and negative transference as a natural concomitant to patients’

Part II Psychodynamic Theories128

revelation of highly personal information. He thought it quite all right that a number
of male patients referred to him as “Mother Jung” and quite understandable that oth-
ers saw him as God or savior. Jung also recognized the process of countertransfer-
ence, a term used to describe a therapist’s feelings toward the patient. Like transfer-
ence, countertransference can be either a help or a hindrance to treatment, depending
on whether it leads to a better relationship between doctor and patient, something
that Jung felt was indispensable to successful psychotherapy.

Because Jungian psychotherapy has many minor goals and a variety of tech-
niques, no universal description of a person who has successfully completed analyt-
ical treatment is possible. For the mature person, the goal may be to find meaning in
life and strive toward achieving balance and wholeness. The self-realized person is
able to assimilate much of the unconscious self into consciousness but, at the same
time, remains fully aware of the potential dangers hidden in the far recess of the un-
conscious psyche. Jung once warned against digging too deeply in land not properly
surveyed, comparing this practice to a person digging for an artesian well and run-
ning the risk of activating a volcano.

Related Research
Jung’s approach to personality was very influential in the early development of per-
sonality psychology. In recent times, however, its influence has waned, even though
there are still a few institutions around the world dedicated to analytical psychology.
Today, most research related to Jung focuses on his descriptions of personality types.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; Myers, 1962) is the most frequently used
measure of Jung’s personality types and is often used by school counselors to direct
students toward rewarding avenues of study. For example, research has found that
people high on the intuition and feeling dimensions are likely to find teaching re-
warding (Willing, Guest, & Morford, 2001). More recently, researchers have extended
work on the usefulness of Jungian personality types by exploring the role of types in
how people manage their personal finances and the kinds of careers they pursue.

Personality Type and Investing Money
Research on personality is not only conducted by personality psychologists. Because
personality is the study of the uniqueness of each person, it is relevant to any person
and any place. For example, although research on psychology and finance do not
typically cross paths, personality can be a common factor in both areas because
unique aspects of individuals are important in both areas. Recently, business finance
researchers were interested in studying how personality affected the way people in-
vest their money (Filbeck, Hatfield, & Horvath, 2005). Specifically, Filbeck and col-
leagues (2005) wanted to better understand the level of risk individuals are willing
to tolerate when it comes to investing money. Investments are often quite volatile.
It is true that you can make a lot of money playing the stock market, but you can
also lose everything. Some people have natural tolerance for wide fluctuations in
their investments, whereas others do not. What kinds of people are willing to take
such risks?

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 129

Filbeck and colleagues (2005) used the MBTI to determine which of Jung’s
personality types were more likely to tolerate risk when investing money. The MBTI
is a self-report measure with items that assess each of the eight Jungian personality
types outlined in Table 4.1. To measure risk tolerance when investing money, the re-
searchers used a questionnaire on which people were presented with several differ-
ent hypothetical situations of either increasing or decreasing their wealth. Based on
responses to these hypothetical situations, the researchers were able to determine at
which point (i.e., what percentage gain/loss) people felt their investments were too
volatile and risky. The researchers recruited a sample of students and adults to com-
plete the MBTI and risk tolerance questionnaire and then tested their hypothesis that
some personality types would tolerate more risk than others.

Their findings revealed that the MBTI is a good predictor of who is willing to
tolerate risk and who is not. Specifically, the researchers found that those who are of
the thinking type have a high tolerance for risk, whereas those of the feeling type
have a relatively low tolerance for the same level of risk. Surprisingly, the extraversion-
introversion dimension was not a good predictor of risk tolerance, so it is difficult to
predict what specific type of thinkers and feelers (e.g., extraverted or introverted) are
most tolerant or intolerant of risk. Still, the findings are informative and in line with
Jungian types. For example, the thinking personality type (provided one is not of the
extremely extraverted or extremely introverted type) is one who places importance
on logical intellectual activity. Logically speaking, stock markets go up and down,
and therefore it is wise to tolerate risk even when investments are down because they
will likely go back up (eventually) as the economy strengthens. The feeling person-
ality type describes the way people evaluate information, and this evaluation is not
necessarily circumscribed by the rules of logic and reason. Therefore, the feeling
type is more likely to base their risk tolerance on their own personal evaluation of
the situation, which may or may not be in line with the logical trends of the stock
market. Though not all of the Jungian personality types were related to risk tolerance
in this study, the researchers concluded that personality of investors is an important
factor for financial advisors to consider when creating an investment portfolio that
best meets the needs and personal values of the investor.

Personality Type and Interest in
and Attrition From Engineering
Attrition from engineering seems to be a particularly acute problem given that nearly
50% of the students who start the major do not graduate in it. The two most common
explanations are poor performance in “weeding out” courses and poor self-perceived
fit with the typical engineer. A study in the Journal of Psychological Type examined
whether personality type and fit predicted interest in and attrition from engineering
in a sample of engineering majors at Georgia Tech (Thomas, Benne, Marr, Thomas,
& Hume, 2000). The researchers looked at 195 students (72% male) enrolled in a
known “weeding out” engineering class (electricity and magneticism), where 30% of
the students traditionally received grades below a C. The students completed the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) in a laboratory session. Thomas and col-
leagues predicted MBTI scores would be related to scores on the final exam, grade
for the course, and withdrawing from the course.

Part II Psychodynamic Theories130

As might be expected, results showed that as a group, the sample was over-
represented by the Thinking (75%), Introversion (57%), and Judging (56%) types
and was almost evenly split on Intuitive-Sensing (51% Sensing). More importantly,
students who withdrew from the course had high scores on the Extraversion and
Feeling scales, with 96% of the dropouts scoring high on at least one of those scales.
Interestingly, personality type was not related to course grades. In addition, Thomas
et al. found that students who were most likely to drop out were exactly the opposite
types of those who were least likely to enter engineering to begin with. This result
supports the congruency or fit theory of persons and organizations, which states that
those who do best in certain professions are those whose personality type matches
closest with those already in the profession (Schneider, 1987).

Critique of Jung
Carl Jung’s writings continue to fascinate students of humanity. Despite its subjec-
tive and philosophical quality, Jungian psychology has attracted a wide audience of
both professional and lay people. His study of religion and mythology may resonate
with some readers but repel others. Jung, however, regarded himself as a scientist
and insisted that his scientific study of religion, mythology, folklore, and philosoph-
ical fantasies did not make him a mystic any more than Freud’s study of sex made
Freud a sexual pervert (Jung, 1975).

Nevertheless, analytical psychology, like any theory, must be evaluated against
the six criteria of a useful theory established in Chapter 1. First, a useful theory must
generate testable hypotheses and descriptive research, and second, it must have the
capacity for either verification or falsification. Unfortunately, Jung’s theory, like
Freud’s, is nearly impossible to either verify or falsify. The collective unconscious,
the core of Jung’s theory, remains a difficult concept to test empirically.

Much of the evidence for the concepts of archetype and the collective uncon-
scious has come from Jung’s own inner experiences, which he admittedly found dif-
ficult to communicate to others, so that acceptance of these concepts rests more on
faith than on empirical evidence. Jung (1961) claimed that “archetypal statements
are based upon instinctive preconditions and have nothing to do with reason; they are
neither rationally grounded nor can they be banished by rational argument” (p. 353).
Such a statement may be acceptable to the artist or the theologian, but it is not likely
to win adherents among scientific researchers faced with the problems of designing
studies and formulating hypotheses.

On the other hand, that part of Jung’s theory concerned with classification and
typology, that is, the functions and attitudes, can be studied and tested and have gen-
erated a moderate amount of research. Because the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has
yielded a great number of investigations, we give Jung’s theory a moderate rating on
its ability to generate research.

Third, a useful theory should organize observations into a meaningful frame-
work. Analytical psychology is unique because it adds a new dimension to personal-
ity theory, namely, the collective unconscious. Those aspects of human personality
dealing with the occult, the mysterious, and the parapsychological are not touched
on by most other personality theories. Even though the collective unconscious is not
the only possible explanation for these phenomena, and other concepts could be

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Concept of Humanity
Jung saw humans as complex beings with many opposing poles. His view of hu-
manity was neither pessimistic nor optimistic, neither deterministic nor purposive.
To him, people are motivated partly by conscious thoughts, partly by images from
their personal unconscious, and partly by latent memory traces inherited from
their ancestral past. Their motivation comes from both causal and teleological
factors.

The complex makeup of humans invalidates any simple or one-sided descrip-
tion. According to Jung, each person is a composition of opposing forces. No one
is completely introverted or totally extraverted; all male or all female; solely a

postulated to account for them, Jung is the only modern personality theorist to make
a serious attempt to include such a broad scope of human activity within a single the-
oretical framework. For these reasons, we have given Jung’s theory a moderate rat-
ing on its ability to organize knowledge.

A fourth criterion of a useful theory is its practicality. Does the theory aid
therapists, teachers, parents, or others in solving everyday problems? The theory of
psychological types or attitudes and the MBTI are used by many clinicians, but the
usefulness of most analytical psychology is limited to those therapists who subscribe
to basic Jungian tenets. The concept of a collective unconscious does not easily lend
itself to empirical research, but it may have some usefulness in helping people un-
derstand cultural myths and adjust to life’s traumas. Overall, however, we can give
Jung’s theory only a low rating in practicality.

Is Jung’s theory of personality internally consistent? Does it possess a set of
operationally defined terms? The first question receives a qualified affirmative an-
swer; the second, a definite negative one. Jung generally used the same terms con-
sistently, but he often employed several terms to describe the same concept. The
words regression and introverted are so closely related that they can be said to de-
scribe the same process. This is also true of progression and extraverted, and the list
could be expanded to include several other terms such as individuation and self-
realization, which also are not clearly differentiated. Jung’s language is often arcane,
and many of his terms are not adequately defined. As for operational definitions,
Jung, like other early personality theorists, did not define terms operationally. There-
fore, we rate his theory as low on internal consistency.

The final criterion of a useful theory is parsimony. Jung’s psychology is not
simple, but neither is human personality. However, because it is more cumbersome
than necessary, we can give it only a low rating on parsimony. Jung’s proclivity for
searching for data from a variety of disciplines and his willingness to explore his
own unconscious, even beneath the personal level, contribute to the great complexi-
ties and the broad scope of his theory. The law of parsimony states, “When two the-
ories are equally useful, the simpler one is preferred.” In fact, of course, no two are
ever equal, but Jung’s theory, while adding a dimension to human personality not
greatly dealt with by others, is probably more complex than necessary.

Key Terms and Concepts

• The personal unconscious is formed by the repressed experiences of one
particular individual and is the reservoir of the complexes.

• Humans inherit a collective unconscious that helps shape many of their
attitudes, behaviors, and dreams.

• Archetypes are contents of the collective unconscious. Typical archetypes
include persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother, wise old man, hero,
and self.

• The persona represents the side of personality that people show to the rest
of the world. Psychologically healthy people recognize their persona but
do not mistake it for the whole of personality.

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 133

thinking, feeling, sensing, or intuitive person; and no one proceeds invariably in
the direction of either progression or regression.

The persona is but a fraction of an individual. What one wishes to show oth-
ers is usually only the socially acceptable side of personality. Every person has a
dark side, a shadow, and most try to conceal it from both society and themselves.
In addition, each man possesses an anima and every woman an animus.

The various complexes and archetypes cast their spell over people and are re-
sponsible for many of their words and actions and most of their dreams and fan-
tasies. Although people are not masters in their own houses, neither are they com-
pletely dominated by forces beyond their control. People have some limited
capacity to determine their lives. Through strong will and with great courage, they
can explore the hidden recesses of their psyche. They can recognize their shadow
as their own, become partially conscious of their feminine or masculine side, and
cultivate more than a single function. This process, which Jung called individua-
tion or self-realization, is not easy and demands more fortitude than most people
can muster. Ordinarily, a person who has achieved self-realization has reached mid-
dle life and has lived successfully through the stages of childhood and youth. Dur-
ing middle age, they must be willing to set aside the goals and behaviors of youth
and adopt a new style appropriate to their stage of psychic development.

Even after people have achieved individuation, made an acquaintance with
their inner world, and brought the various opposing forces into balance, they re-
main under the influence of an impersonal collective unconscious that controls
many of their prejudices, interests, fears, dreams, and creative activities.

On the dimension of biological versus social aspects of personality, Jung’s
theory leans strongly in the direction of biology. The collective unconscious, which
is responsible for so many actions, is part of our biological inheritance. Except for
the therapeutic potential of the doctor-patient relationship, Jung had little to say
about differential effects of specific social practices. In fact, in his studies of var-
ious cultures, he found the differences to be superficial, the similarities profound.
Thus, analytical psychology can also be rated high on similarities among people and
low on individual differences.

• The anima is the feminine side of men and is responsible for many of their
irrational moods and feelings.

• The animus, the masculine side of women, is responsible for irrational
thinking and illogical opinions in women.

• The great mother is the archetype of fertility and destruction.
• The wise old man archetype is the intelligent but deceptive voice of

accumulated experience.
• The hero is the unconscious image of a person who conquers an evil foe

but who also has a tragic flaw.
• The self is the archetype of completeness, wholeness, and perfection.
• The two attitudes of introversion and extraversion can combine with any

one or more of the four functions—thinking, feeling, sensation, and
intuition—to produce eight basic types.

• A healthy middle life and old age depend on proper solutions to the
problems of childhood and youth.

• Jungian therapists use dream analysis and active imagination to discover
the contents of patients’ collective unconscious.

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