Question

What are the similarities and difference between Freud's Psychoanalysis and Adler's Individual Psychology

Answer 1

In the present time, the psychodynamic approach is an umbrella perspective which constitutes within itself a varsity of psychoanalytic viewpoints about unconscious motivation and personality development. Beginning with the founder, classical psychoanalysis or Freudian Psychoanalysis emphasises on the role of the unconscious wishes, sexual and aggressive drives as the precursor to understanding individual behaviour and emotions. Later psychoanalysts developed their own ideas either in line with Freud or in opposition to him. One of Freud’s colleagues, Alfred Adler developed his own take on psychoanalytic theory thereby starting a series of independent psychoanalysts. Adlerian Psychology is popularly known as Individual Psychology and it is characterised by certain points of similarity and differences with Freudian Psychoanalysis.

Similarities between Adlerian and Freudian Psychoanalysis:

Both Adler and Freud emphasise on the role of past childhood experiences as a crucial factor in the development of personality in adulthood. Both the theorists ascribed to a developmental model of personality where the first six-seven years of life become foundational to an individual’s life experiences later on. For Freud, it was the child’s experience with his/her sexuality and gratification of needs related to the different zones of pleasure which determine the consequences of regression or fixation of libido at a particular psychosexual stage of development. For Adler, it was the experiences with inferiority complex during the formative years which become crucial to understanding an adult’s conscious life.

For both Freud and Adler, environmental forces such as biological and environmental conditions create limitations in the human capacity to choose and to create.

Differences between Freudian Psychoanalysis and Adler’s Individual Psychology:

Freud's psychoanalytic view was deterministic where he saw the ego as under the servitude of unconscious impulses of the id and the superego.

Moreover, the Freudian theory believed sexual tension was one of the basic human drives while the Adlerian theory believed that people are motivated more by thier social relationships- in family, peer groups, schools, communities, etc.

The differences in their viewpoints about motivation and personality further led to differences in their approach to therapy.
A primary difference between the two is that the Freudian approach focuses more on the early childhood and th goal of therapy proceeds towards recovery of the past memory so as to free the libidinal energy for a more productive life in the present, but Adler's therapy focuses more on the presen complexes, interpersonal and social difficulties and the goal of therapy is to help the patient explore his her choices in dealing with the problems. The latter view believes the conscious aspect of the human mind was a powerful component in creating goals, and making choices.

Adlerian therapy involves techniques which are intended for a shorter length of a goal-oriented therapy with a focus on a strong collaborative relationship with the therapist, and an optimistic view of the client's ability to change. The Freudian approach however ofders a longer-term therapeutic investment, with a focus on bringing the unconscious into consciousness. The therapist rather than acting through directives operates more neutrally as a blank screen who encourages transferentila relationship in the therapeutic setting wherein the patient can begin to transfer his or her unconscious feelings and thoughts towards significant others onto the therapist and the therapist then tries to interpret such transferred feelings and shares them with the patient to help him or her gain access to his or her unconscious The therapist uncovers unconscious directives and works toward bringing them into the client's consciousness.