Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung

Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are famous psychologists that focused on personality. These two men have defined and shaped psychology. In the beginning, Freud and Jung had a deep friendship and shared many ideas. After thirteen long years of working together, Jung developed several new theories and started to disagree with Freud in certain areas in the field of psychology. Later, they have begun to develop their own individual ideas and drop their friendship. The three specific areas that Jung disagrees with Freud on being the unconscious mind, the role of sexuality and the subject of dreams.

Freud and Jung each had an important attitude on the subject of the unconscious mind. In the early days they generally agreed with each other. Then, as time went on they began to argue and arrange their own individual theories (Lagasse, 1). Freud observes that the human mind centers around three structures: the identity, the ego and the superego (Marcovitch, 2). He suggests the identity is a basic inborn drive, which seeks pleasure and challenges to avoid pain (Marcovitch, 2). In other words, the identity is one’s character and uniqueness. He studies the ego and believes it is the realistic part that balances personality and conscience (Marcovitch, 2). He interprets ego as one’s self-image and sense of self (Lagasse, 1). Freud continues clarifying the superego as a moral or ideal of who we want to be (Marcovich, 2). In other words, Freud believed the unconscious mind is broken into three parts, and each fragment plays an important role (Marcovich, 2). Jung agrees with Freud that the human mind does divide into three structures (Marcovich, 2). However, he believes in a different way that the unconscious centers on the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (Lagasse, 1). Like Freud, he believes the ego is the mindful level that carries out daily activities (Marcovich, 2). Both agree that the unconscious mind is the individual’s personal thoughts, feelings and memories (Lagasse, 1). Jung argues that the collective unconscious is memories inherited from common ancestors of the whole human race (Lagasse, 1). The memories the child had at birth. Jung suggests that this part of the mind collects data from the past all the way back in time. In other words, they both agreed on the ego part of the unconscious mind, although unlike Freud, Jung reported the memories of past events and the human race as a whole.

However, Freud argues the perception of the unconscious mind to be not only a large storage of experience and memories, but storage for all hidden desires, wants and needs (McLeish, 1). He states the mind is like a storehouse for bottled-up desires particular to the individual (McLeish, 1). This storehouse collected unknown and out of sight wishes. On the other hand, “Jung saw the unconscious as a source of spiritual insight, like Freud, he saw this part of the mind as a storehouse but for past memories only” (McLeish, 1). Jung believed it was where memories of an earlier time stayed. He insisted that, “when minds are active and awake, they alternate between taking in information and making decisions’’ (Kimmelam, 23). Unlike Freud, Jung believed each individual feels most comfortable with either an introversion or extroversion, although people alternate between both, each person prefers one over the other (Kimmelam, 23). According to Briggs, “Introversion is energy moving toward the inner world of thoughts and ideas; extroversion is energy moving toward the outer world of people, places and things (Briggs, Mbti handout). Jung believes that the way people present themselves to the world was a foundational aspect of their personality (McLeish, 1). He observes how people express themselves. According to Jung, “until you make your unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate” (Braden, 1). Jung is insisting that until a person becomes aware, they will have no control over their life, and will continue to think it is luck. According to Freud, “the mind is like an iceberg, floats with one seventh of its bulk above water” (Braden, 1). He is implying how one seventh of the mind is conscious and the other percent is unconscious.

Afterward, Freud and Jung compare their ideas on the interpretation of dreams. Many believe, “dreams are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur in the mind during certain stages of sleep” (Braden, 1). According to Freud, he claims that dreams are a series of events and images that are perceived through the mind during sleep (McLeish, 2). He said, “If you want to learn about an individual you could do so by interpreting their dreams” (McLeish, 5). For instance, Freud thinks a person expresses themselves through their dreams. Unlike Freud, “Jung’s depiction of dreams concentrated on symbolic imagery” (Jacobson, 3). He believed differently. He believes an individual’s dream does not distinguish the true meaning of the individual (Jacobson, 3). In other words, Jung thinks a person can dream about anything, and it will mean nothing (Jacobson, 3). Instead, he believes dreams have many different meanings and that they do not interpret ideas (McLeish, 3). He sees dreams like a series of events. Freud disagrees because he believes it is the individual’s character and self-creating the imaginations (Jacobson, 3). In other words, Freud develops a theory that dreams come from the individual’s thoughts and personality, and Jung develops a theory that dreams are just symbolic imagery and have no true meaning.

During sleep, Freud states the mind is in a state of censorship (McLeish, 5). He believes a dream an individual is having is a representation of wishes from the unconscious that are not accessible in a waking state (McLeish, 5). In other words, the individual’s unknown desires that are stored in the mind get expressed in their sleep. For Jung, he states, dreams are just a main source of knowledge through symbolism, such as natural and spur-of-the-moment parts of the unconscious (McLeish, 5). Freud does agree with Jung that dreams can be interpreted through symbols, however; he believes the dream has something to do with the individual (McLeish, 4).

Finally, the role of sexuality is another huge topic that Jung disagrees with Freud on. Freud sees sexuality as the biggest motivating force behind behavior (Lagasse, 6). Jung argues that Freud concentrates too much on sex and the impact behavior has (Lagasse, 6). Instead, he has a theory that it is the psychic energy that motivates and inspires an individual to become sexual (McLeish, 4). According to Jung, “Sexuality is only likely manifestation” (Lagasse, 6). In other words, an individual’s sexual desire is not mandatory. Unlike Jung, Freud goes into detail how children go through sexual stages and sexual pleasure. Throughout these stages children go through sexual development to become a well-adjusted adult. Freud studies how children experience sexual pleasure and how it is developed (Lagasse, 6). For example, when babies suck on their thumbs or rocked back and forth in a chair. Freud is interested in the way a child gains understanding for pleasure. On the other hand, Jung does not go into detail about sexuality, he thinks the relationship between a mother and child depends on the human being (Marcovich, 1). Nevertheless, Freud has an assumption that, “female children go to the opposite sex and wish to remove their mothers” (Marcovich, 1). Jung argues that his studies are ridiculous (Marcovich, 1).

The two topics Jungian Psychology and Freudian Psychology are both logical. Each man contributed to the world of Psychology. Not only did they start off sharing ideas, they began to study on their own and create their individual theories. Jung disagrees with Freud greatly, but would be no where without Freud. Despite the differences they are two similar men with related interests. Dreams, the unconscious mind and sexuality are areas they spent a majority of their time researching on, although they study much more.

Works Cited

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“Jung, Carl Gustav.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University and Paul Lagasse. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. Credo Reference. Web. 25 Sep 2015.

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“Unconscious.” Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought. Ed. Kenneth McLeish. London: Bloomsbury, 1993. Credo Reference. Web. 7 Oct 2015.