NEO-FREUDIANS:Task setting, Composition of Personality, The Shadow

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Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

LESSON 26

NEO-FREUDIANS

Goals of Adlerian Individual Psychology

· The goals of Adlerian counseling revolve around helping people develop healthy life styles as well

as helping them overcome feelings of inferiority.

· One of the major goals of Adlerian counseling is to encourage clients to cultivate social interests.

· Adlerian counselors stress three goals of the therapeutic process:

o Establishment and maintenance of an egalitarian counseling relationship.

o Interpretation of client's life style in a way that promotes insight.

o Reorientation and reeducation of the client with accompanying behavior change.

Techniques

To accomplish behavioral change, the counselor uses specific techniques:

Confrontation

The counselor challenges clients to consider their own private logic. When clients examine this logic, they

often realize they can change it and their behavior.

Asking the question

The counselor asks, "what would be different if you were well?".

Encouragement

Counselors encourage their clients by stating their belief that behavior change is possible. Encouragement is

the key to making productive life-style choices.

Acting "as if"

Clients are instructed to act "as if" they are the persons they want to be for instance, the ideal persons

they see in their dreams(Gold,1979). Adler originally got the idea of acting "as if" from Hans

Vaihinger(1911), who wrote that people create the worlds they live in by the assumptions they make about

the world.

Spitting in the client's soup

A counselor points out certain behaviors to clients and thus ruins the payoff for the behavior. The logic is

that when the client is aware of the causes of his behaviors, then the reinforcement attached with them are

gone.

Task setting

Clients initially set short range, attainable goals and eventually work up to long-term, realistic objectives.

Push Button

Clients are encouraged to realize that they have choices about what stimuli in their lives they pay attention

to. The technique is like pushing a button because clients can choose to remember negative or positive

experiences.

Evaluation of Adlerian Approach

Strengths

· The approach fosters an equalitarian atmosphere through the positive techniques that counselors

promote.

· The approach is versatile. Adlerian theorists have developed counseling models for working with

children, adolescents, parents, entire families, teacher groups, and other segments of society. Adler

recommends play therapy for children ages 4 to 9 seems to be especially effective. It allows children

to communicate through the language of play and then verbally talk about their feelings. On the

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other hand, approach that emphasizes verbal and behavioral consequences is recommended for

adolescents, especially those dealing with the typical faulty goals of this age group (such as power,

attention, revenge and inadequacy. Parents may benefit from Adlerian theory by using educational

support groups to understand their children better and plan affective intervention strategies.

The approach is useful in the treatment of a variety of DSM-IV disorders Including conduct

disorders, antisocial disorders, anxiety disorders of childhood and adolescence, some affective

disorders, and personality disorders.

The approach contributes to other helping theories and to the public's knowledge. Concepts such

as freedom, phenomenology, interpretation of events, life scripts, growth , and personal

responsibility are found in existential, Gestalt, rational-emotive, transactional analysis, person-

centered therapy, and reality counseling and therapy.

Adlerian terms such as inferiority complex have also become part of the public's vocabulary.

Limitations

· The approach lacks of firm, supportive research base. There are relatively few empirical studies that

clearly outline Adlerian counseling's effectiveness.

· The approach is vague in regard to some of its terms and concepts.

· The approach may be too optimistic about human nature. Adler, who called his theory "Individual

Psychology" stressed social cooperation and interest. It does not consider other important life

dimensions like power and unconscious.

Jungian Analytical Theory

Jungian Analytical Theory originated with the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. At one point he was

designated by Freud to head the psychoanalytic movement. But after working with Freud, he did not agree

with Freud on issues of sexuality.

· Born in 1875, Jung, an early member of Freud's psychoanalytic circle described their differences in

"Symbols of Transformation"

· Observed two personalities of his mother and later used this in the concept of personal and

collective unconscious

· The distant relationship of his parents represented the dichotomies of spirit and matter, anima and

animus, persona and shadow

Human Nature: A Developmental Perspective

· The psyche, the essence of a person, is composed of conscious and unconscious

· Personal Unconscious

Reside just below consciousness; Personal unconscious is composed of the forgotten,

repressed, and subliminally perceived events reactions to one's own life

· Collective Unconscious

Contains the deposits of human psyche from the beginning of time. Collective

unconscious includes images, archetypes (which means standard and original), and symbols

common to all people.

Composition of Personality

Ego

Ego is the centre of the field of consciousness. Role of the ego is to maintain relationships with

other psychological contents

Persona

Persona is a mask or public face worn for protection. The individuality of a person is suppressed to

fit into collective ideals, which creates problems. So outer expectations substitute for an individual's

standpoint. Individual behave in mechanical and false way.

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Anima (soul) & Animus (spirit or breath)

Represents both biological and psychological aspects of femininity and masculinity. Anima initially

is experienced from a male's psychological experience with his mother or the primary female figure

in his life, and archetypal experience of female and that is how a male projects onto females. So it is

determined by the personal and archetypal experience of females. Animus is the collective image of

a man or what a woman experiences in her life with contacts with her father and other males.

The Shadow

Represents our dark side and the thoughts, feelings, and actions that are not socially acceptable.

Jung lived through two world wars where the collective shadow brutally ruled. If you face shadows,

it promotes reflection on human nature and reveals individual values. Living the shadow

consciously implies assuming the responsibility for oneself and taking back projections. It is

difficult to accept and confront shadow because we consciously project onto others. Recognizing

the shadow means giving up ideal. Owing your shadow improves relationships.

Psychological Types

Theses are two attitudes to perceiving the world.

· Extrovert

Looks at the world, and then to himself/ herself

Influenced by collective norms

· Introvert

Uses the perspective of the inner world and then perceives the outer world

Influenced by subjective norms

Jungian analyses are predominantly introverts and appeal to people searching the psychological depths to

find their way.

Goals of therapy

· It is concerned with the knowledge of the various personality aspects. For example, a person can

proceed often until midlife, functioning reasonably. The central importance of his approach is on

psychological changes associated with mid-life, and the need is to find a meaning in life.

Individuation

The differentiation of the various components of psyche: Jung addresses the development

of the unique elements of an individual.

Transcendence function

Involves a constant striving for wholeness, integration of the personality, and realization of

the self.

Process of change is very much individual. The counselor can use the chair or couch, and the

clients are seen weekly or 2-3 times a week. No special techniques are prescribed as the process of

individuation is very much personal.

Interventions used in Jungian Analytical Psychology

Dream Analysis

Attending to dreams is a way to obtain Information about unknown and untapped psychological

areas. Dream analysis sheds light on repressions, and contents robbing the individual of actualizing

potential.

Are symbolic

o The figures in dreams are personified features of the dreamer personality. Moreover,

physical illnesses in dreams represent psychological illness.

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They are prospective

o Help people prepare themselves for the experience and events they anticipate in the future

They serve as a compensatory function

o They work to bring about a balance between opposites within a person

They address the blind spots of one's personality. There are two levels of dreams: on the objective

level the figures in dreams are actual persons, while on subjective level they are personified features

of the dreamer personality. There is meaning in the sequence, and the people, named or unnamed.

Transference and counter-transference

Transference and counter-transference are part of the dynamic process occurring in the therapeutic

relationships.

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