Beyond Freud: schools and authors of psychoanalysis

From a magical-religious conception to Freud’s couch, there were certain glimpses of active listening and concern for a person with affected mental faculties. From Father Joan Jofré in Valencia with his sanatorium for the mentally ill to the Arab community’s treatment of listening to the sick not as a madman, but as a messenger of the word of God.

There are many attempts to do psychology, since, As Skinner said, in reality politics will not save us, only knowledge of ourselves will have a chance to do so. We have evolved as a species almost by trial and error, without making a great effort to separate everything that, while not being true, has been taken as such in the process.

That’s why, We are going to analyze what can be considered one of the first formal approaches to psychology. Many times attacked and ignored, but we owe it to her that, in her interest in analyzing certain clinical cases, she sowed the seed for this exciting science to emerge.

The beginning of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud

The fascination that Freud and his work have provoked has limits that are as broad as they are diffuse. Currently, many accuse him of having been a mere speculator, far from the light that emanates from the lamp of the scientific method. However, others consider him as a visionary who knew how to see human beings and their problems from a revolutionary perspective.

Explanations such as the Oedipus complex, the fear of castration, the origin of all psychological problems due to a poorly fixed sexual libido are totally excluded from a serious and scientific study of a psychological theory and all of them casually refer more to the study of the origin of the disorder in childhood than to the study of an adult in consultation.

However, we have to thank Freud for the detailed description of clinical cases. Also for the identification of certain unconscious phenomena, such as suggestion, the law of floating attention, resistance or transference and countertransference that today are well articulated within the framework of therapy.

After Freud: Adler, Carl Jung, neo-Freudians and the analytical tradition of the ego

Alder He was one of the first to disagree with Freud, since he defended a finalist and non-causalist approach to behavior. The truth is that many of our behaviors are caused by the purpose for which they are carried out, however with many others this does not happen. If not, think about the child who has been asked to tidy up his room: the end is the tidy room, the cause is the fact that her mother told him to do it.

Furthermore, Adler defends the strength of the ego, against the “natural” weakness of the Freudian ego.. She speaks of the individual lifestyle marked by early relationships with family, family values ​​and family constellation. Adler refers to development of the individual not as a response to libido, but as a desire for power to overcome his organic inferiority.

On the other hand, Jung differs from Freud in his concept of the unconscious: for Jung it transcends the individual. The treatment will seek a broader vision in the way of understanding the individualization process. It talks about different collective archetypes and psychological types. Its reading is recommended and exciting.

On the other hand, many of Freud’s followers who have identified with part of his legacy have minimized, to a greater or lesser extent, the importance of sexuality in the development of neurosis.

Some have also downplayed the role of the unconscious, they have emphasized the cultural and social area, interpersonal relationships or they have paid more attention to the experiences and circumstances that occurred at that moment for the patient. Some of these neo-Freudians would be Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Harry S. Sullivan.

In the analytic tradition of the selfanother current of psychoanalysis, we find his daughter Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, Erik Erikson or Bolwlby. This group gives special relevance to the functions of the egogiving great relevance to interpersonal relationships, precisely as a driving force for the construction of that self.

It is worth highlighting authors such as Melanie Klein and her development of play therapy or Winnicott’s transitional object theory, so studied and validated by other currents.

Furthermore, Anna Freud stands out in this psychoanalytic movement for her famous defense mechanisms.: repression, regression, reactive formation, retroactive cancellation, introjection, projection, isolation, turning against oneself and transformation into its opposite or sublimation.

Erik Erikson gained great fame and prestige when describing the stages of the self and his theory is widely accepted for its clinical usefulness. In the framework established by Erikson, there would be eight stages of the human being and their antithesis: trust/distrust, autonomy/shame, initiative/guilt, industry/inferiority, identity/role confusion, intimacy/isolation, generativity/stagnation, integrity of the self/ despair.

To conclude this point, note that John Bowlby has greatly influenced his attachment theory. His articulation of theory is widely accepted as a useful framework for understanding how children relate to their reference figures.

In addition, it explains how, based on these types of important relationships and the dynamics that occur in them, we build the rest of the relationships as we grow.

Bowlby

Other authors and psychoanalytic developments

It would be impossible to describe all the wealth of psychoanalytic schools that have emerged over time, although it is worth naming some of them due to their greatest weight and influence:

Brief psychodynamic therapy, which limits the duration of therapy, focuses on a main focus of the problem and with a more directive and active attitude of the therapist. The best known representatives are Sandor Ferenczi and Otto Rank.Alexander and its corrective emotional experience, a recognized therapeutic success factor today.Ackerman and his study of family relationships in neurotic and psychotic disorders.Jacob Moreno with the creation of psychodrama.Lacan with his return to Freud’s postulates incorporating contributions from Saussure and Levis-Strauss.

We may or may not accept Freud’s thoughts. What is undeniable is that his thinking meant a revolution in the way we understand our actions and the motivations that underpin them. It was also a wake-up call, opening the way to an idea that we take into account today: in our remote past, conscious and unconscious memories were formed that condition our current behavior.

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