Psychology theories
The Freudian Theory involved a development of a topographical mind model and in his description, the function and structure of the mind was given much attention. Using the iceberg analogy, Freud described the various levels of the mind which including the conscious, subconscious and unconscious. The consciousness comprises of thoughts with a focus on the present, the preconscious comprises of whatever is retrievable from memory and the unconscious involves the various processes that define human behavior and personality. The unconscious mind of human consists of mental processes that cannot be accessed by consciousness but in which behavior, feelings and judgments are influenced. The human behavior emerges primarily from unconscious mind and like any iceberg the most important section of a person’s mind is the visible one (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004). The intentions, feelings and resolutions of someone are to a great extent influenced by their past experiences whose storage is in the unconscious minds. The three parts were applied to human structure of their personality or rather psyche, which comprises of the id, ego and superego. Freudian theory regards id a being wholly unconscious while on the other hand m ego and superego is the section comprising of unconscious, preconscious and conscious aspect. While a person is completely aware of any occurrence in their conscious minds, they do not understand what is stored in the part of mind that is unconscious(d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004).
All kinds of important and disturbing information is in the unconscious part and these needs to be kept out of one’s awareness since their threatening nature makes it impossible to acknowledge them. A person’s primitive wishes are stored in their unconscious minds while the impulse is stored in the preconscious mind by which it is also meditated. Moreover, the unconscious mind has the biological instincts including thanatos and eros from which sexual aggression and urges emerge. The theory thus related a person’s libido with behavior, but the theory also argues that an individual’s primitive urges in most times cannot reach consciousness since the conscious and rational selves cannot allow them (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004). Moreover, humans develop a range of defence mechanisms like repression in order to avoid the knowledge of their unconscious feelings or intentions. The Freudian theory primarily assumes that a person’s behavior is governed by the unconscious mind to a larger extent than one can suspect. In fact, the aim of psychoanalysis is to achieve revelation of using such aspects like defence mechanisms and therefore, ensure the unconscious is conscious. According to this theory, the unconscious influences are revealed in different manner such during dreaming and the slip of one’s tongue(d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004).
The life instinct is the Eros which assist in a person’s survive and at the same time directing activities that sustain life like eating, respiration, sex and eating. In Freudian theory, libido is the energy resulting from life instincts, while Thanatos (read death) is presented as various destructive forces found in every human being. Once this kind of energy is directed towards other people, it comes in form of violence or aggression. However, Eros is considered to be as strong as Thanatos which enables individuals to survive instead of self-destruction. The ego aims at satisfying id’s demand in a way that is socially safe and acceptable. The superego is developed at the childhood stage and ensures the various morals standards in place(d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004).
On the other hand, Jung‘s Unconscious Theory differs with the notion of sexuality and involved more of psychoanalytical aspect. The theory disagreed with Freud in regards to his explanation of the role played by sexuality and his believe was that libido did not just involve sexual energy but also generally involved the psychic energy. As per Jung’s theory, the aim of psychic energy was to provide motivation to a person in various essential ways that comprise of creativity, spirituality and intellect. It provides the motivation to a person to reducing conflict with others and seeks pleasure. Whereas, Freud’s theory described the nature and goal of one’s libido as providing psychic energy whose specific goal is for sexual gratification, Jung’s theory views libido as just a general basis of psychic energy that motivates various behaviors (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004). In addition , Freudian theory views unconscious as being a storage for unaccepted desires for a particular person that have been repressed, where as the Jung’s unconscious theory views unconscious as a storage for various memories that have been repressed , both for a specific person and his or her ancestral past. In addition, Freudian theory perceives past experiences as the real cause of past behavior while Jung’s theory view’s a person’s behavior as resulting from their past experiences plus their future desires or aspirations (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004).
The two theories, however, agreed on various fronts in terms of a person’s unconscious part of his or her brain. Like Freudian theory, the Unconscious Theory by Jung viewed psyche as being made up of various separate systems that are constantly interacting. For the Jung’s Unconscious Theory, the collective unconscious, personal unconscious and the ego are the major systems of the psyche. As such, the ego is a representation of the conscious mind since it consists of thoughts, emotions and memories that an individual understands. The identity and continuity feelings broadly results from the ego. Like the description of Freud, the Theory of Unconscious by Jung placed emphasis on the role of unconscious in regard to personality of a person (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004). However, his proposal comprised of two parts which are a person unconscious and transpersonal or collective unconscious. The personal unconscious part is basically similar to that of Freudian theory on unconsciousness. The unconscious consists of information that is temporarily forgotten and the repressed memories. The complex if an important aspect of personal unconscious and involves a set of aspects like feelings, thoughts, memories and even attitudes that places focus on one idea. The greater these elements are attached to a person’s concept, the more they will have an influence on him or her. According to this theory, the personal unconscious is believed to be much closer to the surface than suggested by Freudian theory and as such, Jung’s therapy had little concern for childhood experiences that have been repressed. For him, the present activities and future aspirations formed the key for analyzing neurosis and the treatment of the condition (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004).
The collective unconscious brings about the most significant difference between the theory by Juan and Freud and to Juan’s Unconscious theory forms his original description of an individual’s personality. The collective unconscious is the extent of unconscious that a person shares with fellow humans and includes the latent memories dating back to evolutionary and ancestral past. In this sense, the nature of the world into which an individual is born is inherent. The mind of a person has some inherent features that are already imparted on it in the entire evolution process. The shared predispositions can be traced from the ancestral past of a person; an example of such predispositions includes the fear of spiders, snake or even darkness. The images archetypes and ancestral memories are the aspects comprised in collective unconscious that have been developed into different personality sub-systems (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004).
According to Juan’s unconscious theory, the psyche is viewed as system that is self-regulating and one whose aim is to maintain a balance between qualities that are not agreeing and at the same time striving to achieve growth. However, the ego is the seen as being central to the consciousness level and the psyche level where a person conscious awareness is stored together with his or her sense of existence and identity. The parts act as a fundamental command where a person’s thoughts , senses , feelings and insight are structured while at the same time regulating how the memory can be accessed. Through the ego, the inner and outer environments are linked together and at the same time forms how the person relates to whatever is external to them. The way an human being will relate to their external world is determined by the extent of introversion and extraversion and how the functions of their senses are used. Some individuals have one or more of such facets developed in them than fellow humans and this determines their perception of the environment (d’Heurle, Adma and Tash, 2004). Just as unconsciousness is perceived to be significant in Freudian theory it is similarly perceived by the Juan’s unconscious theory.
References
d’Heurle, Adma Jeha and Tash, Robert C. (2004). Classics in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. 3. ed) Acton, MA: Copley Custom Publishing Group
