Principles, Contributions, and Limitations of Psychoanalysis and Adlerian Therapy

Chapter 4
Psychoanalytical therapy is based on the premise that our unconscious self is the determinant for our conscious behaviors. Freud asserts that the unconscious is the sum of our stored experiences, memories, and repressed materials. The aim of psychoanalytical therapy is to uncover the unconscious motives by analyzing the outward symptoms of our behavior thus revealing the meaning of the symptom or the root of the problem. Freud identifies his theory as stages of development. The first phase of personality development takes place during the initial six years of life in which we learn to deal with frustrations, learn to love and trust, and accept our sexuality. Erikson built on the Freudian theory and identified this developmental process as psychosocial and psychosexual then described the stages as decision points in which we make certain life-decisions. Those decisions cause us to either regress to an earlier phase of development or to advance forward in our development ...