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Old Wednesday, April 06, 2011
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CRITIQUE OF SIGMUND FREUD

CRITICISMS

• Freud’s belief that women are inferior creatures with defective sexual organs, weaker superegos and a greater disposition to neurosis is regarded virtually by all modern psychologists as absurd.
• Freudian theory has been strongly attacked for its heavy emphasis on sexuality: the universality of the Oedipus complex, libido, the psychosexual stages of development and attributing all psychopathology to the malfunctions of the sexual drive, many psychologists find it hard to believe that this one drive can explain nearly all human behavior.
• Freud’s picture of the dark side of the personality has also provoked strong criticisms. No one can deny that people are capable of highly destructive acts, but Freud’s suggestion that people are inherently incestuous and murderous has been rejected by contemporary research.
• Freud’s emphasis on drive reduction has also come under heavy fire. A wealth of experience suggests that people are also motivated by increases in tension and actively seek out excitation and stimulation.
• Some critics regard psychoanalysis as too subjective and uncontrolled.

CONTRIBUTIONS

• Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious instead of assuming that behavior is what it seems to be on the surface. It is now widely accepted that a significant part of our personality is below the level of awareness
• Freud devised valuable techniques for interpreting dreams and was the first to incorporate dream interpretation as a formal part of psychotherapy.
• Freud developed the first method of psychotherapy including procedures for bringing unconscious materials into the conscious.
• Freud pointed out the importance of early childhood in personality development.
• Freud pointed out how much of our behavior was based on biology.

CRITIQUE OF CARL GUSTAV JUNG

CRITICISMS
• Jung regarded thoughts and fantasies as autonomous events that happen to us, triggered by complexes that have a purpose of their own.
• Although Jung’s writing is at times strikingly insightful, his usual literary style has been described as dreadful, confused and lacking any semblance of logical order
• Jung’s construct of the collective unconscious and his belief in parapsychology has been criticized as mystical and unscientific
• Jung’s concept of synchronicity has been criticized as being nothing more then coincidences to which he assigns some grand design
• Jung’s emphasis on our spiritual and religious longings has provoked considerable controversy. Critics argue that a scientific psychology cannot deal with such arcane issues as the nature of god and the existence of the supernatural

CONTRIBUTIONS
• Jung’s concept of an inherent positive tendency of self realization helps us to correct Freud’s extreme pessimism about human nature
• Jung took an active interest in psychosis and made significant contributions to our understanding of schizophrenia.
• Jung’s implicit or explicit suggestions led to the development of such modern forms of therapy such as Art therapy. Some of his approaches to psychotherapy have gained widespread acceptance such as fewer than four sessions per week.
• The concept of the collective unconscious suggests that something of us continues after death. Jung was acutely aware that we need meaning in our lives and his positive approach to religion has supporters as well as critics
• Many of Jung’s practical guidelines make excellent sense: to follow our true inner nature, to bring the shadow into the light and accept the unpleasant aspects of our personality and to beware the one sidedness of personality that constitutes pathology.

CRITIQUE OF ERIK ERIKSON

CRITICISMS
• Much research has been done on Erikson's ideas and theories. "It has been proven difficult to create objectives to evaluate Erikson's identity theory. Not only do many different threads enter into the process of establishing an identity, but each person must create a unique synthesis of all the disparate parts" (Marcia, 1980; Waterman, 1985).
• Like many of his predecessors, Erikson’s work reflects a complete lack of quantification and statistical analyses
• Many questions have been raised referring to Erikson's belief of identity formation. What about those adults who rediscover themselves and develop a different understanding of their lives due to life's changes and experiences?
• Critics of Erikson's theory say that his theory is more applicable to boys than to girls, and that more attention is paid to infancy and childhood than to adult life, despite the claim to be a life-span theory.

CONTRIBUTIONS
• Erikson’s most notable contribution has been to broaden the scope of psychoanalytic theory. By stressing the effects of social and cultural influences on personality development he helped integrate sociology and psychoanalysis.
• His was a theory of development across the lifespan. Unlike Freud, Piaget or some of the other stage theorists, Erikson's theory covers adult development from birth through old age.
• Due to his emphasis on healthy and adaptive ego processes psychoanalysis is no longer limited to the study of those characteristics that clinical cases and normal individuals have in common
• Erikson was one of the first analysts to treat children, including psychotics as well as neurotics and to devise valuable techniques of play therapy.
• Erikson’s developmental stages and emphasis on adolescence offer an alternative to Freud’s exclusive concern with childhood.

CRITIQUE OF ALFRED ADLER

CRITICISMS
• Adler’s overemphasis on social factors regarding development of personality is critized by most current theorists who suggest that personality can be studied in isolation from other human beings.
• Adler implies that the choice of a disordered lifestyle is often triggered by on or two key incidents in childhood such as the birth of a sibling or single organ inferiority. Modern psychologists reject this contention.
• Adler’s concept of Anxiety also leads to some questionable implications. Neurotic anxiety typically involves intense suffering and personal anguish, and it is hardly likely that this emotional turmoil serves merely as a manipulative attempt to gain the attention of other people.
• Yet another source of controversy concerns’ Adler’s contention that every neurotic, criminal and psychotic suffers from an inferiority complex. Exaggerated feelings of powerlessness do play an important role in many disorders but whether all psychopathology can be explained in similar terms in questionable
• Whereas Freudian theory has been taken to task for being overly pessimistic, individual psychology may well err toward the opposite extreme of excessive optimism.

CONTRIBUTIONS
• Adler was the first psychologist to stress the social determinants of personality.
• He was also unique among the early personality theorists in devoting considerable attention to criminality, education and child guidance.
• Like Jung, Adler emphasized that teleology and self selected goals play a significant role in personality development.
• The relative simplicity of individual psychology also offers advantages as some patients may find it easier to understand Adler’s teachings than those of Freud and Jung

CRITIQUE OF KAREN HORNEY

CRITICISMS
• Horney has been criticized for borrowing to freely from Individual psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis and for failing to introduce any new constructs
• Her concept of externalization is hardly distinguishable from projection
• The idealized image is hardly a departure from superiority complex
• Her concept of tyranny of the shoulds is similar to an overly sever superego.
• Horney’s emphasis on neurosis causes her to neglect normal personality development and structure.

CONTRIBUTIONS
• Horney’s writings represent the views of a skilled and experienced psychotherapist and are presented clearly enough to facilitate self analysis and understanding
• Her attempt to modify Freudian psychoanalysis in an Adlerian direction is sufficiently original to be worthy of serious consideration.
• Her approach to such important phenomenon and transference is considerably more insightful than Adler’s
• Her equalitarian view of women accords well with modern opinion.

CRITIQUE OF HARRY STACK SULLIVAN

CRITICISMS
• Sullivan’s writings are difficult to understand
• Although based on a different premise, Sullivan’s tension reduction model of human motivation is as subject to criticism as Freud’s.
• The concept of dynamism has an all pervasive quality like Freudian sexuality and has not enjoyed much popularity among modern theorists.
• Sullivan often fails to acknowledge his intellectual debts to his predecessors, he ignores obvious similarities between such concepts as security operations and defense mechanisms.
• Sullivan has also been criticized for attributing the formation of self system primarily to the appraisal of significant others, and for ignoring those distortions introduced by the child’s own misperception.

CONTRIBUTIONS
• Sullivan’s greatest contribution concerns the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia
• Sullivan’s rejection of libido theory finds favor with many modern psychologists
• Sullivan’s conception of the important variable of anxiety is superior to that of Adler
• Sullivan devotes far more attention to the development of personality than Horney
• His approach to important causes of psychopathology during adolescence appears preferable to Freud’s and Adler’s relative lack of concern with this stage of life
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Old Thursday, April 07, 2011
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Do we need to study all these theories? :-(
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Old Thursday, April 07, 2011
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yes we have to as for as personality and socialization processes are concerned. but chill they are just like a treat. Worth reading and helpful in other social sciences too..
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in which book r these present
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Old Thursday, April 07, 2011
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Book: Theories of Personality by Gregory Feist
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