STRENGTHS AND CRITICISMS OF NEO-FREUDIAN THEORIES
Strengths
The primary strength of the neo-Freudian theories is their elaboration of
important concepts that Freud had ignored or de-emphasized. Most of these
theorists identified the role social factors play in the formation and change of
personality. Many described the ways personality develops beyond the first
few years of life. And most neo-Freudian theorists presented a much more
optimistic and flattering picture of humankind than Freud had. They de-
scribed the positive functions served by the ego rather than restricting its roleto arbitrator between the demanding id and superego.
The neo-Freudians also introduced many new concepts into the psycho-
logical literature. As with Freudian theory, many of these ideas have madetheir way into our everyday language. People speak of identity crises, intro-
version, and inferiority complexes without recognizing the references to Erik-
son, Jung, and Adler.
Another gauge of a personality theory ’s value is the extent to which it in-
fluences later theorists and psychotherapists. In this respect, the neo-Freudians
can claim some success. The optimistic tone about humans that characterized
many neo-Freudians ’views helped pave the way for the humanistic personal-
ity theories. Similarly, the emphasis on social aspects of personality develop-
ment was undoubtedly a considerable step in the evolution of social learning
approaches to personality. And the techniques and approaches developed by
each of the neo-Freudians have been adopted or adapted by many contempo-
rary psychotherapists.
In short, the neo-Freudian theorists did much to make parts of the psy-
choanalytic approach palatable to psychologists and nonpsychologists alike.In fact, these theories provide a bridge between Freud ’s concepts and many
later personality theories. However, no individual neo-Freudian theorist, or
even the theories taken as a whole, has ever reached the level of acclaim that
Freud did.
Criticisms
Many of the limitations critics point to in Freud ’s theory also are present in
some of the neo-Freudian works. Like Freudian theory, some of the neo-
Freudian theories are supported with questionable evidence. In particular,
many of Jung ’s conclusions about the nature of the collective unconscious
are based on myths, legends, dreams, occult phenomena, and artwork. Neo-
Freudians often based their conclusions about human personality largely on
data from patients undergoing psychotherapy. As such, questions about biasedinterpretations and their applicability to normally functioning adults remain.
A second problem with the neo-Freudians as a group is that they often
oversimplified or ignored important concepts. None dealt with so many to-pics in so much depth as Freud. Consequently, the neo-Freudians sometimes
failed to effectively address concepts central to psychoanalytic theory. This
observation has led some people to criticize neo-Freudian works as incom-plete or limited accounts of personality and human behavior. For example,
Erikson has been criticized for what some consider a superficial treatment of120 CHAPTER 5 The Psychoanalyt ic Approach