The difference between Freud and Jung
Introduction
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and is considered the father of psychoanalysis,
which is a clinical method to evaluate and treat pathologies in the psyche through dialogue
between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Meanwhile, Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss
psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology. Under Eugen Bleuler,
Jung was employed as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, in Zurich.
During this time, he came to the attention of Freud, and the two peers were supposed to
conduct a lengthy correspondence and collaborate together for a while on a collective vision
of human psychology. They worked closely together for several years but it was Jung who
broke off and created his own perspective.
Accomplishments shared between them
Freud developed therapeutic methods like the use of free association and discovered
transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud's revaluation of
sexuality to involve its infantile forms governed him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the
primary tenet of psychoanalytical theory. Freud hypothesized the existence of libido – sexual
energy with which mental processes and structures are arrayed and which engenders erotic
attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, aggression, hate and
neurotic guilt. Later on in his works, Freud made a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of
religion and culture.
When Jung broke away from Freud, he created his own psychology called analytical
psychology. Among the main concepts of analytical psychology is individuation — which is
the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of oneself out of each individual's
conscious and unconscious elements. Jung deemed that it would inevitably be a main factor
of human development. He established some of the best known psychological concepts,
including archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious, synchronicity, the psychological
complex and extraversion and introversion. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of
literature, archaeology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, psychiatry, and religious
studies.
Differences between their ideologies
Even though Jung and Freud had a common ground, they contradicted each other on a few
issues. Freud believed that we all go through stages and if you get stuck into one of these
stages it can cause problems in life later on. These stages ranged from birth to six years old.
Freud focused majorly on the past but on the contrary Jung focused on the person’s present
and future. Freud thought traumas were sexual in nature and Jung believed that there was
more to it than just that.
The two men also differed in their understanding of the unconscious mind. Freud’s analysis
of dreams as wish fulfilments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom
formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression. On this basis, Sigmund Freud
elaborated his ideas and theories of the unconscious and went on to formulate a model of
psychic structure comprising ego, super-ego and id which is an acronym for identity
document. Freud believed that it’s the id that controls the unconscious mind, repressed
thoughts and hidden sexual desires. Jung viewed Freud's theory of the unconscious as
incomplete and unnecessarily negative and inelastic. Jung had a different approach and he
believed that Freud conceived the unconscious solely as a repository of repressed emotions
and desires. He formulated that the unconscious mind held three parts - Personal
unconscious, collective unconscious and ego. The ego is the conscious, the personal
conscious includes memories that are both obtainable and repressed and the collective
unconscious is the deepest level of the unconscious. This level is formed by genetics and
inheritance. It’s something that we all humans share on an unconscious level as a species.
They also had a different idea of what libido was. For Freud, libido was a part of the id and
the drive for sexual and unconscious behaviour. For Jung, the libido was a universal life force
which he referred to it as psychic energy. It’s a psychic energy that fuels personality and is
generalized, not sexual. While Jung was working on his Psychology of the Unconscious – a
study of the transformations and symbolization of the libido, stress manifested between him
and Freud because of various disagreements, including those regarding the nature of libido.
Jung de-emphasized the vitality of sexual development and focused on the collective
unconscious, which is the part of the unconscious that holds the memories and ideas that Jung
believed deeply were inherited by us from our ancestors. While he did think that libido was a
crucial source for personal growth, unlike Freud, Jung did not pursue the thought that libido
alone could be responsible for the formation of the core personality.
Conclusion
Jung and Freud both have remarkably contributed to the field of psychology, even though
having contradictory visions, they have shaped the field of psychology for the upcoming
generations by augmenting the standards of research and hypothesis and they are heavily
respected for the foundations that they have inculcated.
