Personality theories evolved beyond Freud's ideas, focusing on social influences and lifelong development. Alfred Adler introduced the inferiority complex concept, while Erik Erikson outlined psychosocial stages spanning the entire lifespan. These approaches emphasized how we overcome challenges and form our identities.

Carl Jung delved into the collective unconscious and archetypes, exploring shared human experiences. Karen Horney challenged Freud's views, highlighting social factors in personality development. Neo-Freudian theories expanded on these ideas, incorporating concepts like self-actualization and cultural influences.

Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology

Adler's inferiority complex concept

• Feeling of inadequacy or insecurity arising from perceived weaknesses or deficiencies (physical, mental, or social limitations)
• Motivates individuals to strive for superiority or perfection to compensate for perceived shortcomings
• Adler believed everyone experiences inferiority feelings during childhood
  • Drives people to overcome weaknesses and achieve success
  • Healthy individuals develop sense of competence and social interest, contributing to society
• Unhealthy compensation for inferiority feelings leads to:
  • Superiority complex: exaggerated sense of one's abilities or importance
  • Overcompensation: striving for excessive power, status, or perfection (becoming a workaholic)
  • Avoidance: withdrawing from challenges or social interactions (social anxiety)

Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

Erikson vs Freud on personality stages

• Erikson emphasizes social and cultural influences on personality development
  • Freud focuses on sexual and aggressive drives
• Erikson's stages cover entire lifespan, from infancy to late adulthood
  • Freud's stages end at puberty
• Erikson's stages characterized by psychosocial crises or conflicts that must be resolved for healthy personality development
  1. Trust vs. Mistrust (0-18 months)
  2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (18 months-3 years)
  3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5 years)
  4. Industry vs. Inferiority (5-12 years)
  5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 years)
  6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (18-40 years)
  7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-65 years)
  8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair (65+ years)
• Freud's stages based on erogenous zones and resolution of sexual conflicts
  • Oral (0-18 months), Anal (18 months-3 years), Phallic (3-6 years), Latency (6 years-puberty), Genital (puberty-adulthood)

Carl Jung's Analytical Psychology

Jung's collective unconscious and archetypes

• Collective unconscious: universal, inherited part of unconscious mind containing archetypes and instinctual knowledge
  • Shared by all humans, influences behavior and experience
  • Distinct from personal unconscious (individual's unique experiences and memories)
• Archetypes: universal, innate patterns or symbols shaping human behavior, appearing in myths, dreams, art across cultures
  • Examples: Hero, Mother, Wise Old Man, Shadow
  • Influence personality development and interpersonal relationships
• Jung's theories influenced various fields:
  • Personality psychology: development of personality type theories (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)
  • Literary criticism: analysis of archetypal themes and symbols in literature (hero's journey)
  • Psychotherapy: dream analysis and active imagination techniques to explore unconscious mind

Jung's concepts of persona and anima/animus

• Persona: the social mask or public face individuals present to others, adapting to societal expectations
• Anima/Animus: unconscious aspects of personality representing the opposite gender
  • Anima: feminine qualities in men's unconscious
  • Animus: masculine qualities in women's unconscious
  • Integration of these aspects contributes to psychological wholeness

Karen Horney's Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Horney's psychoanalytic contributions

• Challenged Freud's emphasis on biological and sexual factors in personality development
  • Argued social and cultural influences, especially early childhood experiences and relationships, play crucial role
  • Rejected Freud's concepts of penis envy and Oedipus complex as universally applicable
• Introduced concept of basic anxiety: feeling of helplessness and insecurity in potentially hostile world
  • Arises from child's dependence on parents and fear of abandonment or punishment
  • Leads to development of neurotic needs and coping strategies
• Identified three neurotic trends or coping styles:
  1. Moving toward people (compliance): seeking affection and approval to alleviate anxiety
  2. Moving against people (aggression): striving for power and control to overcome inferiority feelings
  3. Moving away from people (detachment): seeking independence and self-sufficiency to avoid potential harm
• Emphasized importance of self-realization: developing one's unique potential and achieving psychological growth
  • Neurotic individuals have unrealistic idealized self-image leading to inner conflicts
  • Healthy individuals have realistic self-image and strive for self-realization within social and cultural context

Neo-Freudian Approaches

Key concepts in neo-analytic and psychodynamic theories

• Psychodynamic theory: emphasizes the role of unconscious processes and early life experiences in shaping personality and behavior
• Neo-analytic theory: builds upon Freud's ideas while incorporating social and cultural factors in personality development
• Self-actualization: the process of realizing one's full potential and achieving personal growth, central to many neo-Freudian approaches