Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory suggests that occasions in childhood have a significant effect on adulthood hence it influences the personality. The approach concentrates on the interpretation of dreams to expose the unconscious desires (Ullman " Zimmerman, 2017). The mind is divided into the superego, the ego, and the id, which describes the human morality, their reality, and instincts, respectively. In most cases, the instinctual desires (the id) contravenes with human morals (the superego) as the human id attempts to accomplish fundamental needs as the superego strives to attain the ideal. On the other hand, the neurosis theory by Carl Jung is founded on the idea of self-controlling psyche involving the tension between contradicting attitudes of the unconscious and the ego. The self-control psyche is divided into three groups which include the anima (soul image of the human beings), the persona (social personality of man), and the self/the darker or the shadow (the unconscious self) (Frieden, 2012). Therefore, to attain a sound mental state an individual requires controlling the three elements of her or his being. Moreover, every neurosis is unique, and diverse issues world in different cases hence no therapeutic strategy can be subjectively utilized. Therefore, the two theories, albeit diverse, have a substantial effect on the insight of the human mind. In addition, their aids to practice and philosophy have contributed to the growth of effective psychological management for various cases of human distress.
Similarities
Freud and Jung provide a similar perspective in their theories because they both agreed that the unconscious being plays a critical part in the lives of human beings. The held that there are concepts in the unconscious that influence the conscious personalities of people. Human beings can be mindful of such thought mainly via the dream analysis (Ullman " Zimmerman, 2017). In addition, they both hypothesized the complexes theory which implies that human beings possess suppressed emotional charges in their unconscious self that are structured around specific images or ideas.
Moreover, they both established that dreams contain desires, thoughts, and feelings which are painful and unacceptable to conscious alertness. Jung expounded on this idea and introduced the phrase ‘complex”. Therefore, a complex focuses on a particular theme which permeates an individual’s life again in several diverse ways. It should be a frequent theme that profoundly affects the psychology of the person (Frieden, 2012). In addition, both of these scholars viewed dreams as the core diagnostic instrument in psychotherapy. Similarly, they accepted that the unconscious is demonstrated in dreams
Differences
Jung and Freud’s differ based on the concept of the unconscious mind. Freud noted that the unconscious mind was the foundation of human suppressed traumatic memories, thoughts, and critical efforts of aggression and sex. He viewed it as a storing room for all hidden sexual desires, leading in neuroses, or mental illness. He noted that the human mind is founded on three aspects which are the superego, the ego, and the id (Ullman " Zimmerman, 2017). The id creates the unconscious drives especially sex and is not affected by morality but mainly attempt to gratify pleasure. Besides, the ego is human conscious thoughts, memories, and perceptions that help them to focus efficiently on reality. Further, the superego seeks to mediate the efforts of the id via socially acceptable behaviors. On the contrary, Jung also introduces three categories of the human psyche which include the collective unconscious, the personal unconscious, and the ego (Jung, 2015). Based on his argument, the conscious is founded on the ego, while the individual unconscious involves the suppressed and recalled memories. The collective psyche possesses human experiences as knowledge or species that they are born with such as love at the initial glance (Frieden, 2012). Jung’s concepts on the human psyche were motivated by Hinduism and Buddhism religions and the Eastern philosophy. He also noted that the ideas of the unconscious are not limited material.
The two theorists differ concerning dreams. For instance, Freud noted that human beings could learn a lot about a person via dreams interpretation. He also believed that when humans are awake, their genuine desires are not met because there are the contemplations of reality or the egos and the morality which are caused by the superego. However, in the course of their sleep, such confining forces are reduced, and humans may face their desires via their dreams (Progoff, 2013). According to Freud, the human dreams have the capacity to access apprehension inciting thoughts especially sexually repressed wishes that cannot be promoted directly for fear of humiliation and anxiety. Therefore, the defense processes enable a belief or desire to slip via into their dreams in a symbolic or disguised manner (Ullman " Zimmerman, 2017). On the contrary, Jung noted that the dream analysis permitted for an opening into the unconscious mind. As opposed to Freud, he fails to believe that the compositions of all dreams are primarily sexual, or that they concealed their real meaning (Frieden, 2012). On the contrary, the illustration of ideas in accordance with Jung’s theory is that it focused more on symbolic imagery. Therefore, he suggested that dreams could have a wide range of meanings based on the associations of the dreamer. He illustrated that dreams communicate in a unique language of metaphors, images, or symbols that they depict both the internal world (emotions, thoughts, feelings) and the external world (places and individuals in the daily life of an individual). He also asserts that dreams could be a reflection of the past events, but he also submitted that they could forestall events in the future which could be a significant foundation of creativity. Therefore, Jung opposes Freud for concentrating on the objective and external elements of the dream of an individual instead of focusing at both subjective and objective content. The dream theory also illustrates the collective and personal contents (Progoff, 2013). The collective material was represented via what the theorists called ‘archetypes’ which are generally hereditary prototypes that assist humans to act or create perceptions in a particular manner.
Freud and Jung differ on the issues of sexuality and sex. Freud reasoned that expressed, and repressed sexuality was the most significant motivating force affecting behaviors. He contended that male kids have a healthy sexual affection for their mothers hence they express their father’s resentment based on the Oedipus complex. Based on the Electra complex, female kids tend to possess the sexual affection for their fathers. The male kids are afraid that their fathers will damage or remove their penises in a penalty for their emotions towards their mother (Ullman " Zimmerman, 2017). Conversely, the female kids realized that since they lack a penis, it creates envy where they crave for their father’s penis. However, he argued that such anxieties are often repressed and will emerge via anxiety and defense processes. As opposed to Freud’s stance, Jung maintained that Freud’s attention was extremely concentrated upon sex and its effect on behavior. Jung asserted that what influences and motivates behavior is a life force or psychic energy, out of which sexuality can be a single possible manifestation (Frieden, 2012). He also opposed the oedipal impulses because he believed the interaction between a child and mother was founded on the protection and lover given to each other.
Besides, Freud theorized the unconscious as being devastatingly dedicated to negative thoughts and emotions regarding the ego. The Freud’s complex was constantly a malicious phenomenon. However, Jung did not think this mostly had to be the situation and postulated that the unconsciousness could contain feelings, thoughts, and desires of any passionate valence (Progoff, 2013). Moreover, he also thought that the composition of the individual unconscious could have been suppressed from consciousness for different reasons, which varies drastically from the views of Freud who thought that this was only likely via the stimulation of defense processes an individual conceived of. In fact, Jung opined that the majority of the archetypes as benevolent abstractions collective for all cultures which are universally useful in influencing the socialization of all people of the society (Jung, 2015). Therefore, the theory by Jung has larger scope in summarizing the macro-level effects which influence all persons and personal tendencies articulated in dreams. In this regard, this differs with Freud’s theory paid close attention to the person and their instantaneous relations (Ullman " Zimmerman, 2017). Jung’s theory introduces the concepts of the collective unconscious which encompasses the use of the archetypal system to develop a socialized persona and personal identity.
Conclusion
Theories by Freud and Jung have a wide range of similarities and differences. For instance, both are similar because they offer an analysis which assists in dreams interpretation. They both contended that dreams are the essential diagnostic instrument in psychotherapy. Similarly, they both argued that composition in the unconscious life affects the conscious personalities of the people. Nevertheless, they differ because they use divergent techniques in their analysis. For instance, Freud contended that human could learn via dream interpretations because dreams access suppressed thoughts or feelings. However, Jung opposes the idea that the composition of all dreams involves sexuality. Instead, he proposed that dreams focus more on symbolic imagery which emerges from the associations of the dreamer.
References
Frieden, K. (2012). Freud's dream of interpretation. SUNY Press.
Jung, C. G. (2015). Freud and Psychoanalysis, Vol. 4. Routledge.
Progoff, I. (2013). Jung's Psychology and its Social Meaning: An introductory statement of CG Jung's psychological theories and a first interpretation of their significance for the social sciences. Routledge.
Ullman, M., " Zimmerman, N. (2017). Working with dreams. Routledge.
