Depth psychology

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Depth psychology (from the German term Tiefenpsychologie) refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology. [1] It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as the patterns and dynamics of motivation and the mind. [2] The theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Adler are all considered its foundations. [3]

Contents

Development

The term "depth psychology" was coined by Eugen Bleuler and refers to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and research that take the unconscious into account. [4] The term was rapidly accepted in the year of its proposal (1914) by Sigmund Freud, to cover a topographical view of the mind in terms of different psychic systems. [5] He is considered to have revolutionized this field, which he viewed in his later years as his most significant work. [6]

Since the 1970s, depth psychology has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by Pierre Janet, William James, and Carl Gustav Jung, as well as Freud. All explore relationships between the conscious and the unconscious (thus including both psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology). [7]

Summary of primary elements

Depth psychology states that the psyche process is partly conscious, partly unconscious, and partly semi-conscious. [1] In practice, depth psychology seeks to explore underlying motives as an approach to various mental disorders. Depth psychologists believe that the uncovering of deeper, often unconscious, motives is intrinsically healing in and of itself. It seeks knowledge of the deep layers underlying behavioral and cognitive processes.

In modern times, the initial work, development, theories, and therapies of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Otto Rank have grown into three main perspectives on depth psychology:

Adlerian view

Adlerian psychology has been regarded as depth psychology due to its aim of discovering the buried unconscious phenomena. It is one of the first frameworks that approached the individual as a fundamentally social being, one that needs to be situated in a socio-cultural context in order to be understood. [9] It is also described as a representation of the ego psychology and views the ego as an independent and creative entity that facilitates the interaction with social reality instead of merely a handmaiden of the id . [9]

The Adlerian approach to psychoanalysis includes a set of tools that allows an individual to break through a self-centered way of life. For instance, it eliminates the core style of life and fictional final goal of a patient through Socratic method as opposed to counselling. [10]

Jungian views

Many scholars believe that Jung's most significant contribution to depth psychology was his conceptualization of the "collective unconscious". [11] While Freud cited the conceptualization unconscious forces was limited to repressed or forgotten personal experiences, Jung emphasized the qualities that an individual shares with other people. [11] This is demonstrated in his notion that all minds, all lives, are ultimately embedded in some sort of myth-making in the form of themes or patterns. This myth-making or creation of a mythical image lies at the depth of the unconscious, where an individual's mind widens out and merges into the mind of mankind. [12] Mythology is therefore not a series of old explanations for natural events, but rather the richness and wonder of humanity played out in a symbolical, thematic, and patterned storytelling.[ citation needed ]

There is also the case of the Jungian archetypes. According to Jung, archetypes are primordial elements of the Collective Unconscious. [13] They form the unchanging context from which the contents of cyclic and sequent changes derive their meanings. Duration is the secret of action. [14] He also stated that the psyche spontaneously generates mythico-religious symbolism or themes, and is therefore spiritual or metaphysical, as well as instinctive, in nature. An implication of this is that the choice of whether to be a spiritual person may be beyond the individual, whether and how we apply it, including to nonspiritual aspirations.

Another Jungian position in depth psychology involves his belief that the unconscious contains repressed experiences and other personal-level issues in its "upper" layers and "transpersonal" (e.g. collective, non-I, archetypal) forces in its depths. The semi-conscious contains or is, an aware pattern of personality, including everything in a spectrum from individual vanity to the personality of the workplace. [15]

Criticism


Alfred Adler initiated works leading to the cognitive revolution with the Cognitive psychology in a synthesis that overcome the older behaviour therapy from mid century. Over the second half of twentieth century the development of clinical psychology centered on cooperation and discussion with the patient firstly with works of Maslow and Carl Rogers then developped as Humanistic psychology. These lead to a synthesis in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy guided by methodic experiments that brought demonstrations of clinical effectiveness in short therapies on numerous mental health disorders such as depression.

The social context and conditioning of individuals has been better understood through development of social studies such as cultural history and sociology while the interpersonal psychotherapy developed focusing on individual's relations. All these modern development reshaped Clinical psychology with various approaches that pushed depth psychology to margins in therapy in many countries. As a notable exception there is still a strong influence of depth psychology in France due to credit for psychoanalysis in schools and the huge influence of Jacques Lacan's work in 70's wich resulted in numerous professionals trained or influenced by these ideas. As a criticism the

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Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis is a theory developed by Sigmund Freud. It describes the human soul as an apparatus that emerged along the path of evolution and consists mainly of three parts that complement each other in a similar way to the organelles: a set of innate needs, a consciousness that serves to satisfy them, and a memory for the retrievable storage of experiences during made. Further in, it includes insights into the effects of traumatic education and a technique for bringing repressed content back into the realm of consciousness, in particular the diagnostic interpretation of dreams. Overall, psychoanalysis represents a method for the treatment of mental disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigmund Freud</span> Founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Jung</span> Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961)

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, psychologist and pioneering evolutionary theorist who founded the school of analytical psychology. He was a prolific author, illustrator, and correspondent, and a complex and controversial character, perhaps best known through his "autobiography" Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

In psychoanalysis and other psychological theories, the unconscious mind is the part of the psyche that is not available to introspection. Although these processes exist beneath the surface of conscious awareness, they are thought to exert an effect on conscious thought processes and behavior. Empirical evidence suggests that unconscious phenomena include repressed feelings and desires, memories, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, and automatic reactions. The term was coined by the 18th-century German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Adler</span> Austrian psychotherapist (1870–1937)

Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, relationships within the family, and birth order set him apart from Freud and others in their common circle. He proposed that contributing to others was how the individual feels a sense of worth and belonging in the family and society. His earlier work focused on inferiority, coining the term inferiority complex, an isolating element which he argued plays a key role in personality development. Alfred Adler considered a human being as an individual whole, and therefore he called his school of psychology "Individual Psychology".

Collective unconscious refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populated by instincts, as well as by archetypes: ancient primal symbols such as The Great Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower, Water, and the Tree of Life. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind, distinguishing it from the personal unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis. He believed that the concept of the collective unconscious helps to explain why similar themes occur in mythologies around the world. He argued that the collective unconscious had a profound influence on the lives of individuals, who lived out its symbols and clothed them in meaning through their experiences. The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious.

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development relating to the practice of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century, psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements since his work. The psychoanalytic theory came to full prominence in the last third of the twentieth century as part of the flow of critical discourse regarding psychological treatments after the 1960s, long after Freud's death in 1939. Freud had ceased his analysis of the brain and his physiological studies and shifted his focus to the study of the psyche, and on treatment using free association and the phenomena of transference. His study emphasized the recognition of childhood events that could influence the mental functioning of adults. His examination of the genetic and then the developmental aspects gave the psychoanalytic theory its characteristics.

Psychosynthesis is an approach to psychology that expands the boundaries of the field by identifying a deeper center of identity, which is the postulate of the Self. It considers each individual unique in terms of purpose in life, and places value on the exploration of human potential. The approach combines spiritual development with psychological healing by including the life journey of an individual or their unique path to self-realization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytical psychology</span> Jungian theories

Analytical psychology is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" of the psyche. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their seven-year collaboration on psychoanalysis was drawing to an end between 1912 and 1913. The evolution of his science is contained in his monumental opus, the Collected Works, written over sixty years of his lifetime.

In analytical psychology, the shadow is an unconscious aspect of the personality that does not correspond with the ego ideal, leading the ego to resist and project the shadow, creating conflict with it. The shadow may be personified as archetypes which relate to the collective unconscious, such as the trickster.

Neo-Freudianism is a psychoanalytic approach derived from the influence of Sigmund Freud but extending his theories towards typically social or cultural aspects of psychoanalysis over the biological.

Transference is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which repetitions of old feelings, attitudes, desires, or fantasies that someone displaces are subconsciously projected onto a here-and-now person. Traditionally, it had solely concerned feelings from a primary relationship during childhood.

Hidden personality is the part of the personality that is determined by unconscious processes.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are two categories of psychological therapies. Their main purpose is revealing the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension, which is inner conflict within the mind that was created in a situation of extreme stress or emotional hardship, often in the state of distress. The terms "psychoanalytic psychotherapy" and "psychodynamic psychotherapy" are often used interchangeably, but a distinction can be made in practice: though psychodynamic psychotherapy largely relies on psychoanalytical theory, it employs substantially shorter treatment periods than traditional psychoanalytical therapies. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is evidence-based; the effectiveness of psychoanalysis and its relationship to facts is disputed.

Individual psychology is a psychological method or science founded by the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler. The English edition of Adler's work on the subject (1925) is a collection of papers and lectures given mainly between 1912 and 1914. The papers cover the whole range of human psychology in a single survey, and were intended to mirror the indivisible unity of the personality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychodynamics</span> Approach to psychology

Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.

In psychoanalysis, resistance is the individual's efforts to prevent repressed drives, feelings or thoughts from being integrated into conscious awareness.

Psychoanalytic dream interpretation is a subdivision of dream interpretation as well as a subdivision of psychoanalysis pioneered by Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century. Psychoanalytic dream interpretation is the process of explaining the meaning of the way the unconscious thoughts and emotions are processed in the mind during sleep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of psychotherapy</span>

Although modern, scientific psychology is often dated from the 1879 opening of the first psychological clinic by Wilhelm Wundt, attempts to create methods for assessing and treating mental distress existed long before. The earliest recorded approaches were a combination of religious, magical and/or medical perspectives. Early examples of such psychological thinkers included Patañjali, Padmasambhava, Rhazes, Avicenna and Rumi.

Robert Joseph Langs was a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychoanalyst. He was the author, co-author, or editor of more than forty books on psychotherapy and human psychology. Over the course of more than fifty years, Langs developed a revised version of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, currently known as the "adaptive paradigm". This is a distinctive model of the mind, and particularly of the mind's unconscious component, significantly different from other forms of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

References

  1. 1 2 Šolc, Vladislav; Didier, George J. (2018-12-01). Dark Religion: Fundamentalism from The Perspective of Jungian Psychology. Chiron Publications. ISBN   978-1-63051-400-6.
  2. ↑ Clayton, Susan; Myers, Gene (2011). Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. p. 208. ISBN   978-1-4443-5641-0.
  3. ↑ Lewis, John Wren (June 1958). "A Survey of Adler's Writing". New Scientist. 4 (83): 224–225.
  4. ↑ Henri Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) p. 562
  5. ↑ Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 175-6
  6. ↑ Polka, Brayton (2001). Depth Psychology, Interpretation, and the Bible: An Ontological Essay on Freud. London: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 20. ISBN   0-7735-2125-9.
  7. ↑ Chalquist, Craig. "What Is Depth Psychology?". terrapsych.com. Re-engaging the Soul of Place (Spring Journal Books, 2007). Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  8. ↑ "What is Depth Psychology? - an Introduction".
  9. 1 2 Marcus, Paul; Rosenberg, Alan (1998). Psychoanalytic Versions of the Human Condition: Philosophies of Life and Their Impact on Practice. New York: NYU Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN   0-8147-5501-1.
  10. ↑ Adler, Alfred (2006). The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler: The general system of individual psychology, Volume 12. Alfred Adler Institute. p. 271. ISBN   0-9770186-2-8.
  11. 1 2 Engler, Barbara (2013). Personality Theories, Ninth Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. p. 68. ISBN   978-1-285-08881-5.
  12. ↑ Pandikattu, Kuruvila (2001). Gandhi: The Meaning of Mahatma for the Millennium, Volume V. Washington, D.C.: CRVP. p. 240. ISBN   978-1-56518-156-4.
  13. ↑ Jung, C. G. (1998). Jung on Mythology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 231. ISBN   978-0-691-01736-5.
  14. ↑ Dr. Fredricks, Randi. "Depth Psychology". Theoretical Approaches: Depth Psychology. Randi Fredricks. Archived from the original on 2013-04-12. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  15. ↑ Adams, Lee (17 September 2019). "Dr". Jung’s Bias Toward Spiritual Practices of the East. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  16. ↑ M. Hardt/K. Weeks eds., The Jameson Reader (2000) p. 198

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