anxiety ’s role in the development of psychological disorders. Similarly, Adler
has been accused of oversimplifying in his attempt to explain many complex
behaviors in terms of a single concept, the striving for superiority.
SUMMARY
1. Many psychologists who studied with Freud eventually broke away from
the Vienna group to develop their own theories of personality and estab-lish their own schools of psychology. Collectively, these theorists are
known as the neo-Freudians because they retained many basic Freudian
concepts and assumptions. Among the limits they saw in Freud ’s theory
were his failure to recognize personality change after the first few years of
life, his emphasis on instinctual over social influences, and the generally
negative picture he painted of human nature.
2. Alfred Adler introduced the concept of striving for superiority to account
for most human motivation. He argued that we are motivated to over-come feelings of helplessness that begin in infancy. Adler also identified
parental pampering and neglect as two sources of later personality pro-
blems. He argued that middle-born children were the most achieving andwere less likely to experience psychological disorders than were firstborns
or last-borns.
3. Carl Jung proposed the existence of a collective unconscious that houses
primordial images he called archetypes. The collective unconscious con-
tains material each of us inherited from past generations and is basically
the same for all people. Among the most important of the archetypes are
the anima, the animus, and the shadow. Jung pointed to the recurrent
surfacing of archetypal symbols in folklore, art, dreams, and psychotic
patients as evidence for their existence.
4. Erik Erikson emphasized the positive functions of the ego in his theory.
One of the ego ’s most important functions is to develop and maintain a
sense of identity. Erikson outlined eight stages of personality development
that we pass through during our lifetimes. At each stage we are faced
with a crisis and two means to resolve the crisis.
5. Karen Horney rejected Freud’ s emphasis on instinctual causes of person-
ality development. She argued that the differences Freud saw between the
personalities of men and women were more likely the result of social
factors than inherited predispositions. Horney maintained that neuroticbehavior is the result of interpersonal styles developed in childhood to
overcome anxiety. She identified three neurotic styles, which she called
moving toward people, moving against people, and moving away frompeople.
6. Freud was highly critical of organized religion, calling it wish fulfillment
and a type of neurosis. Jung explained humankind ’s persistent need for
religion in terms of a God archetype. He saw modern psychotherapists
taking the place of religious leaders when patients become disenchanted
with the answers provided by their religion. Erich Fromm argued that theuniversal need for religion stems from the need to escape from feelings of
insecurity.Summary 121