Theoretical Positions

Theoretical positions come from within the field of development psychology are being debated. The greatest insight of psychological analysis consists of Alder’s individual psychology, Jung’s analytical psychology, James’s stream of thought and Freud’s psychoanalysis, provides a clear explanation on consciousness. On the other hand, understanding the importance of consciousness and the traditional psychoanalytical approach where psychologist emphasizes on the contrast between functionalism and structuralism.Alfred Adler became a psychiatrist in 1907 after practicing both optometry and general medicine because of his love for the human mind. Cynthia Osborn wrote that,” Alfred Adler was a visionary.

He envisioned human nature in concepts and images never before expressed by either his contemporaries or his predecessors” (Osborn, 2001). Adler’s approach to psychology was initially close to Sigmund Freud’s views considering he was a member of Freud’s discussion group, but quickly changed after Adler made some contrary discoveries to Freud’s psychosexual theory.In 1911, Adler was made to resign as President of Freud’s Analytic Society because of disagreements he and Freud had concerning Freud’s psychosexual theories on development and Adler’s child inferiority complex theory. Though Adler resigned as President from Freud’s Analytic Society, he did not stop his research in the field of psychology. During his time as a psychiatrist, Adler made some very profound discoveries in regards to personality. Adler believed that a person’s self image was created from their unconscious. The unconscious changes inferior feelings of self into feelings of superiority.

Those feelings of completeness and superiority are challenged by society and various outside influences and the person is then made to feel inferior. Then they overcompensate for those negative feelings and thus an inferiority complex is formed. These negative feelings of inferiority lead to the person acting out in aggressive and neurotic ways. In addition to the inferiority complex, Adler believed that people were driven by “striving for perfection”. Adler believed that people are only driven by the goal to become their best or ideal selves. People have different views in regards to the drive for self perfection.Some believe this is unhealthy such as Carl Rogers.

Adler believed that the drive for self perfection is healthy and normal. The theory of self actualization is very close to Adler’s theory of striving for perfection. He believed that if simple needs like eating or the need for sex were disturbed and not met, this would cause the aggressions drive which is when a person acts more aggressively to get their needs fulfilled. Another interesting point about Adler is that he was pro feminism and believed that in many cultures that boys are thought of as better than girls. He called this the masculine protest.Next, when it comes to the impact on psychology and psychiatry Carl Jung was considered the biggest. Carl Jung was not one of the original members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, such as Alfred Adler, but rather met Freud as the result of several exchanged correspondences (Goodwin, 2005).

He was born in 1875 in Kesswill, Switzerland. He went to School of Basil where he studied medicine and in Paris, he studied psychology. In Zurich he became a physician and also lectured in psychiatry, while he traveled around the world. Once he settled in Zurich in 1912 he became a Professor of Psychology.One of the techniques that Freud was interested in from Jung is the divulging unconscious associations, which is another name for word association. Word association represents a patient with a word and then asking them to say the first word that comes to their mind. While this is taken place the reaction time and breathing is being measured, so there is an understanding of unconscious elements, just as modern-day polygraph.

In 1909 on his trip to America during the Clark conference, Jung was admitted into Freud’s inner circle. In. 1911, Jung was named the first president of the International Psychoanalytic.