Personality Theorist Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Personality Theorist Paper - Essay Example Of these approaches, the psychoanalysis was captures the interest of many psychologists and ordinary people because of its startling applications and implications to human behavior (Jung, 1976). The psychoanalytic school of psychology was founded by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud. The central theory of the school that unconscious motivation and desires direct human behavior. The psychoanalytic model identified three key subsystems within an individual's personality: the ego, superego and id. The interaction of these three subsystems shapes observable behavior (Atkinson, 1993, p. 534). This school of thought assumes that a person's problems cannot be fully solved without understanding the unconscious influences in a person's early relationships may have contributed to the current problem of the person (p. 674). Psychoanalysis also gave birth to new outlooks on human behavior and installed Freud as one of the most recognizable names in the field of psychology. However Freud's apparent contracted and inflexible view of libido and other human behavioral motivations, which he basically viewed as sexual in context, left some of the dissatisfied and prompted them to diverge from the Freud (Booere, 2006). Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. He used his background on Freudian theories to explore the "inner space" of the human psyche. He involved mythology, religion, and philosophy into his studies and became an expert in mystic symbolism. He concentrated on the study of dreams and their importation and devoted himself significantly to the study and correlation of Western and Eastern philosophical beliefs (Carl Jung, 2004). Carl Gustav Jung and Analytic Psychology According to Carl Jung, "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." (Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1989). Carl Jung tried to find the explanation to human behavior through exploring dreams, philosophy, religion and literature (Booere, 2006). His work provided archetypes of personality and behavioral theories that is still being used today by psychologist and has influenced other fields such as humanities, mythology and theology (Carl Jung, 2004). Jung's research created the idea of the complex, or cluster of emotionally charged associations. He disagrees with Freudian theory of the pervasiveness of a sexual basis for neuroses and the pessimism on human nature and motivation (Carl Jung, 2004). Jung established analytic psychology and brought forward the concepts of the introvert and extravert personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. He also created new method for psychotherapeutic that allowed a person to know his unique "myth" or place in the collective unconscious. His work is dominated by his study of dreams, their meaning and imagination (Carl Jung, 2006). The Archetypes Jung theorized that humans have a "preconscious psychic disposition" explains why a person reacts in a specific human manner (Jung, 1966). Jung worked on the reconciliation of the individual with supra-personal archetypes and linked the archetypes to heredity and instinct. Archetype had no form of its own and functioned more as an "organizing principle" or a structural notion of psychological existence (Booere, 2006). Jung's archetypes were as