This paper briefly examines the theories of psychotherapy, with particular reference to Freud, Jung and Adler, and the differences in their aims and methodologies
The following paper takes a look at how a therapist would approach therapy in the context of the three schools of thought, namely: Psychoanalysis, Adlerian and Jungian Therapy and discusses the appropriateness of each. Selected concepts and theories of the unconscious, the instinctual impulses, the persona and archetypes, role-playing and the superiority and inferiority complex are discussed in this paper.
“Freud emphasized “free association” and the therapeutic importance of recalling seemingly random material from the unconscious mind. He was the first to recognize that the unconscious thought process follows laws that were quite different from the laws of logic applicable to conscious thought. He found out that in the unconscious, the thoughts and feelings that belong together can be separated or displaced out of context while completely dissimilar ideas or images could be merged into one in the unconscious. Freud’s analysis of the unconscious enabled him to interpret dreams, which he saw as a device used by the mind to protect sleep against disturbing images of early life experiences. In psychoanalysis these disturbing and unpleasant unconscious images (called latent dream content) are used by the therapist to transform into the conscious (or manifest dream) and helps the patient to come to terms with these unpleasant early life experiences. (Arlo & Herma, Encarta).”