Sigmund Freud and Carl Young Compare

There are two theorist which are conferred more often than others when the subject of psychoanalysis is discussed are Sigmund Freud and Carl Young. Freud is mostly considered the founding father of this concept; however, Jung, a follower of Freud, disagreed with some of his theories. This disagreement caused Jung to breakoff and create his own theories on the subject of collective unconscious. Both of these men have similar views on the psychoanalytic theory, but choose different ways to teach and explain those ideas. Freud argues that there are three parts to the psyche. They include: ego, superego, and id. As Freud studied the different parts of the mind, he concluded that slips of the tongue of words, which he later coined Freudian slips, occur when a person unwittingly says what their unconscious is thinking. Freud’s Oedipus complex states that the main drive of humans occurs through sex and sexual libido, Freud assumed, “that when we are infants we love our opposite-sex parent and hate our same-sex parent” (Jacobus 478). Jung argues that there are also three parts to the psyche. They include: the ego, or conscious mind, the personal unconscious, or where “personal experience form only part of the individual’s unconscious” (Jacobus 488), and the collective unconscious. This is where experiences are revealed in a person’s dreams. Freud and Jung, for years, worked together with a goal of pursuing Freud’s work on psychoanalysis until Jung started to oppose Freuds view he proposed on sexual conflicts and the tendencies of humans. Jung continued to look at what he considered the truth of the unconscious mind and his understanding of human nature which he calls analytical psychology. This is similar to Freud’s findings except just focusing on the sexual libido which leads a person to make decisions, but to focus on an individual’s psyche and the collective unconscious. Even with these similarities the two men’s differences distinguish them apart. Freud spends his time focused on the sexual tendencies that a person has and he finds that their sex drive is the sole motivational factor for the decisions they make. As well as, repressed thoughts and memories to the person’s unconscious mind. Freud describes the rational thought process as a way to stop a person’s id from controlling or acting on impulses. Then we are making decision are based upon what makes them happy. As Jung describes a person has an inner world in which the unconscious mind sees and not what society sees as a person’s persona. The ego, as discussed by Jung, is a person’s conscious identity of who they are and what is liked or not liked based on a person’s inner and environmental needs. Freud and Jung were two psychologists who share the similarities and differences in the study of psychology. They did agree upon the importance of dreams and that dreams do provide a guide into a person’s unconscious mind. They disagreed on what the causes of the unconscious. They both made contributions and their own individual theories in the psychoanalytic movement; however, they did agree on certain elements of psychology.

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