Freud & Jung Historical Showdown
Two of history’s most prominent and influential figures throughout their lives and even after death. Namely, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and Carl Jung (1875–1961). This will be a quick essay about what each is known for, how their studies influenced the world and their encounters.
Freud, the Darwin of the mind, was the “founder of the psychoanalysis theory.” Not only is he the founder of the psychoanalysis theory, but Freud also came up with many theories. His first theory was about how [humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences].
Freud based his theories to contextualise connections between the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, the body, and the world. His theory also suggests that [human behaviour is influenced by unconscious memories, thoughts and urges]. Some may even consider him the father of modern psychology.
He approached the human personality from three aspects. First is the Id, which is triggered by pleasure and is associated with the subconscious. The Second is the Ego, which functions through reality and manifests in the conscious realm of the mind. The third is the Superego, triggered by the morality principle and manifests on all levels.
Suppose a child experiences a traumatic event or recurring abuse. In that case, this will only result in suppression that will manifest in the child’s behaviour as an adult. This is one form of the defence mechanisms the mind may use as the child is triggered and will react to the repressed trauma without knowing the reason for such reaction.
All of these factors are in play in the human personality. Thus, it causes anxiety and must be subdued by defence mechanisms. Freud’s theories paved the way for many other studies and analytical studies in fields beyond science, literature, and physics. Oedipus complex, Behavioral theories, and Neurology, to name a few. Even Albert Einstein greatly admired Freud’s passion for ascertaining the truth, even though he may not have agreed with all that Freud had come to conclude. The two men only met once in 1927.
Freud’s theories stated that violence is the basic innate psychological urge within people. However, the man was a doctor and not all that violent. Freud became a dog lover in his 70s. He kept three Chows, and they helped him handle patients’ anxiety and his own. Even Anna Freud kept her dog, a German Shepherd named Wolf.
On the other hand, we have Carl Jung. Jung and Freud were good friends who clicked at their first meeting in Vienna, Austria, in 1907, and they spent over 12 hours talking and engrossed in their world. Their friendship lasted five years, especially since Jung was Freud’s great admirer. Until their friendship broke off in 1913, they hated each other until death.
Jung disagreed with Freud and insisted that he dig deeper into dreams’ objective and subjective formation as a bridge between the conscious and subconscious rather than a manifestation of repressed wishes as per Freud’s Dream theory. Jung refused that the main drive in humans is sexual and wanted to seek a psychic energy or life force of which sexuality is only one form of manifestation, not the only form.
Carl Jung developed his theory of the collective unconscious. He believed that humans are connected and that their ancestors shared experiences to give meaning to the world through collective consciousness. In turn, Jung developed psychotherapy in addition to his four personality types: Introverted Intuition, Extroverted Intuition, Introverted Sensation, and Extroverted Sensation.
Highlighting that introverts receive their stimulation from within while extroverts receive their stimulation from the environment. Jung also approached the human personality from three aspects. The first is the “ego which represents the conscious mind as it comprises the thoughts, memories, and emotions of a person’s awareness. The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity. However, for Jung, the unconscious consisted of two layers.
“The first layer, the personal unconscious, is essentially the same as Freud’s version of the unconscious. The personal unconscious contains temporality forgotten information and repressed memories.”
Jung (1933) outlined an essential feature of the personal unconscious called complexes. A complex is a collection of thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and memories that focus on a single concept. The more elements attached to the complex, the greater its influence on the individual. Jung believed that the personal unconscious was nearer the surface than Freud suggested, and Jungian therapy is less concerned with childhood experiences. The second layer is the collective unconscious.
[The collective unconscious is a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, which are shared with other members of the human species (Jung, 1928). These ancestral memories, which Jung called archetypes, are represented by universal themes in various cultures, as expressed through literature, art, and dreams.]
The four archetypes of personality are:
The Persona
It is the projected personality that others perceive and is different from the authentic self.
The Anima/Animus
The anima is the feminine image of the male psyche, while the animus is the masculine image of the female psyche. They both represent the true self and can be considered the primary source of communication with the collective unconscious.
The Shadow
It is an unconscious part of us that represents the ideal ego as a version of us, but it does not align with the definitive version we aim for.
The Self
The union of consciousness and unconsciousness represents the psyche as a whole. It is a product of individuation, a process of integrating multiple aspects of one’s personality.
Jung also suggested that there is no fixed number of archetypes but that they are inferred from ansastical relations.
There is even a type of analysis known as the Jungian analysis, which is a specialised form of depth psychotherapy based on Jung’s approach to the psyche and relies on four steps that may overlap: catharsis, elucidation, education, and transformation to increase the “patient’s” consciousness in order to move toward psychological balance and wholeness and to bring relief and meaning to psychological suffering.
In the end, both Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist, and Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, did several history books. Not only have they ensured their thoughts will live on after their death, but also they managed to change how people understood the world and perceived themselves and, causing such a massive shift in paradigms, have truly accounted throughout the modern age and up till this very day.
