Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Erik Erikson

Theories of Personal Development - Interpersonal Communication

Sigmund Freud

           Super-Ego

               |
  Alter-       |   
  Ego    ------|------  Ego
               |
               |

               ID

 ID:  our wishes, low level needs (pleasure principle)

Ego:  the 'I' inside that tells us to meet our needs as soon as appropriate (reality principle)

Super-Ego:  our set of learned strategies and experience, and things to avoid in satisfying the ego (conscience and ego ideal)

Alter-Ego:  opposite of our ego- such as our subconscious wish to die, things that do not satisfy our needs

Freud's Stages of PsychoSexual Development of a Child:

  1. oral - child needs to be fed, focus on mouth

  2. anal - focus on potty-training

  3. phallic - puberty, focus on genitals

  4. latency - focus on acquiring new knowledge (stage with highest balance of ID, Ego and Super-Ego)

  5. genital - adulthood, focus on mating and reproduction

Gender Complexes:  Oedipus Complex (male w/ mother) and Electra (female w/ father)

Freud said the unconscious will bring to light problems for the conscious to solve.

Religion:  Freud was a modernist and said that religion was a disorder; a condition of dependency and irresponsibility, and that science / technology would replace it

Civilization:  Freud thought civilization was a form of repression to control the masses, and it could erupt at any time and destroy the current norms


My paper on The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

Carl Jung

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html

Jung's Four Functions of the Mind:  thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition

Introverted / Extroverted personality, archetypes (Myers / Briggs Personality Test)

Erik Erikson

was an ego-psychologist- accepted Freud, reinterpreted Freud's concepts

Eight Stages / Battles throughout life (epigenetic principle):

  1. infancy:  trust vs. mistrust

  2. early childhood:  autonomy vs. shame and doubt

  3. preschool:  initiative vs. guilt

  4. school age:  industry vs. inferiority

  5. puberty:  identity vs. identity confusion

  6. young adulthood:  intimacy vs. isolation

  7. middle adulthood:  generativity vs. stagnation

  8. late adulthood:  integrity vs. despair

Summary of Erikson:  http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/erikson.html