Analytical Evaluation of Freud Essay -- essays research papers

Based on the past information and the information I acquired during the duration of this course I chose to do my evaluation on Erik Erikson using the classical psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers using the non-Freudian / interpersonal approach from Adler and Jung. Since there is no way to tell if either theory is right or wrong it is imperative that we discover our own theory among the popular ones and derive our own method of practice based on our current knowledge. This is done by comparing and evaluating each psychologist and their own theories to derive a common ground among each of them. In response to Erik Erikson and his approach on ego psychology he was an insecure child growing up who had problems with identity confusion. According to Freud and the classical psychoanalysis, this could possibly be a reflection of his Oedipus complex in where he can not identify with his father nor can he get close to his mother. Since he is dealing with his own confusion of his own identity he can no longer have feelings of closeness with either parent causing him to feel abandoned. His father abandoned him at an early age and so he never had that feeling of closeness with his father. Being as though he did not have that male role during his growing up he can not feel that sense of love coming from either parent which caused him to come up with the ego identity model in his own practices. Freud didn't exactly invent the idea of the conscious versus unconscious mind, but he certainly was responsible for making it popular. The conscious mind is what you are aware of at any particular moment, your present perceptions, memories, thoughts, fantasies, feelings, what have you. Working closely with the conscious mind is what Freud called the preconscious, what we might today call "available memory:" anything that can easily be made conscious, the memories you are not at the moment thinking about but can readily bring to mind. Now no-one has a problem with these two layers of mind. But Freud suggested that these are the smallest parts! Freud created a sense of super ego where you internalize the parental standards, ideas, and prohibitions. Since Erikson had no parents to identify with his sense of standards were nonexistent. He had a feeling of inferiority in rel... ...p; Obviously, everyone suffers from inferiority in one form or another. For example, Adler began his theoretical work considering organ inferiority, that is, the fact that each of us has weaker, as well as stronger, parts of our anatomy or physiology. Some of us are born with heart murmurs, or develop heart problems early in life; Some have weak lungs, or kidneys, or early liver problems; Some of us stutter or lisp; Some have diabetes, or asthma, or polio; Some have weak eyes, or poor hearing, or a poor musculature; Some of us have innate tendencies to being heavy, others to being skinny; Some of us are retarded, some of us are deformed; Some of us are terribly tall or terribly short; And so on and so on. Both Erikson and Rogers possessed different qualities that can be attributed to other psychologists to evaluate themselves and their performance in the world of psychology. Each different theorist created a different contribution to psychology and neither one is right or wrong. It is up to each individual person to create their own image of what is right or wrong and what they want to teach in their lives and use in their every day life.