James And S. Freud's Pychodynamic Theory Of Personality

Psychology began as the study of the soul. Plato believed the soul was an individual’s belief they are separate from, but also connected to their physical and social environments. Aristotle believed the soul was a set of psychological attributes which he referred to as the ‘mind’ (Garcia-Valdecasas, 2005).

From that, psychology evolved into a science of the self which James (1890) viewed as a fundamental concept in psychology. James made the distinction between the objective self (me) and the subjective self (I). Poll and Smith (2003) remarked that psychodynamic theories place more emphasis on the objective self unlike James.

The psychodynamic school was founded by Sigmund Freud and tries to explain individual’s personality and behaviour in terms of underlying conscious and unconscious forces. Thus, a strong emphasis is placed on the unconscious and childhood experiences as these are thought to help shape personality.

Psychoanalytic Theory (S. Freud, 1900)

The best-known psychodynamic theory of personality is S. Freud’s (1900) psychoanalytic theory which can be seen as a response to James’ (1890) radical empiricism.

S. Freud initially believed there were three unconscious motives responsible for all human behaviour; sex, aggression, and anxiety

Freud’s (1900) theory as ‘masculine psychology’. However, they agreed that human activity was a result of unconscious motives, and Horney saw value in his defence mechanisms. They shared an emphasis on transference, free association and dream analysis. However, they differed on the goal of therapy as S. Freud saw therapy as a way to restore the equilibrium within personality, whereas Horney believed it helped to continue the process of seeking self-knowledge. Horney also believed the Oedipus complex was a result of anxiety arising from feelings of insecurity in the child due to rejection, hurt, and overprotection, rather than the sexual and aggressive interaction between the child and