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UNIT 2: PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES (Part
Two)
2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes
a. Describe how the Psychodynamic theorist’s childhood experiences may
have influenced their theory of personality.
b. Summarize the different psychosexual stages of development of each
theory and their possible effects on personality.
c. Critique the different psychodynamic concepts as scientific theories.

2.1 Introduction
This learning packet is just a continuation of the previous one, we will
continue to get to know the Psychodynamic theorists from Melanie Klein
down to Erik Erikson and their personality theories. These are collection of
psychological theories which emphasize the importance of drives and other
forces in human functioning, especially unconscious drives. This approach
holds that childhood experience is the basis for adult personality and
relationships. This theory originated in Freud’s psychoanalytic theories and
includes any theories based on his ideas, including those by Anna Freud, Erik
Erikson, Carl Jung and more.

2.2 Topics/Discussion (with Assessment/Activities)

2.2.4 Klein: Object Relations Theory

Overview of Object Relations Theory

Many personality theorists have accepted some of Freud's basic assumptions while
rejecting others. One approach to extending psychodynamic theory has been the
object relations theories of Melanie Klein and others. Unlike Jung and Adler who came
to reject Freud's ideas, Klein tried to validate Freud's theories. In essence, Klein
extended Freud's developmental stages downward to the first 4 to 6 months after
birth.

Biography of Melanie Klein

Melanie Klein was born in Vienna in 1892, the youngest of four
children. She had neither a PhD nor an MD degree but became an
analyst through being psychoanalyzed by Sandor Ferenczi and
other Freudian analysts. As an analyst, she specialized in working
with young children. In 1927, she moved to London where she
practiced psychoanalysis until her death in 1960.

Introduction to Object Relations Theory

Object relations theory differs from Freudian theory in three important ways: (1) it places
more emphasis on interpersonal relationships, (2) it stresses the infant's relationship with the
mother rather
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than the father, and (3) it suggests that people are motivated primarily for human
contact rather than for sexual pleasure. The term object in object relations theory refers
to any person or part of a person that infants introject, or take into their psychic
structure and then later project onto other people.

Psychic Life of the Infant

Klein believed that infants begin life with an inherited predisposition to
reduce the anxiety that they experience as a consequence of the clash
between the life instinct and the death instinct.
A. Phantasies
Klein assumed that very young infants possess an active, unconscious
phantasy life. Their most basic fantasies are images of the "good" breast
and the "bad" breast.
B. Objects
Klein agreed with Freud that drives have an object, but she was
more likely to emphasize the child's relationship with these objects
(parents' face, hands, breast, penis, etc.), which she saw as having a
life of their own within the child's phantasy world.

Positions
In their attempts to reduce the conflict produced by good and bad images,
infants organize
their experience into positions, or ways of dealing with both internal and external
objects.
A. Paranoid-Schizoid Position
The struggles that infants experience with the good breast and the bad breast
lead to two separate and opposing feelings—a desire to harbor the breast and a
desire to bite or destroy it. To tolerate these two feelings, the ego splits itself by
retaining parts of its life and death instincts while projecting other parts onto the
breast. It then has a relationship with the ideal breast and the persecutory breast.
To control this situation, infants adopt the paranoid-schizoid position,
which is a tendency to see the world as having both destructive and omnipotent
qualities.
B. Depressive Position
By depressive position, Klein meant the anxiety that infants experience
around 6 months of age over losing their mother and yet, at the same time, wanting
to destroy her. The depressive position is resolved when infants phantasize that
they have made up for their previous
transgressions against their mother and also realize that their mother will not
abandon them.

Psychic Defense Mechanisms

According to Klein, children adopt various psychic defense mechanisms to protect their ego
against anxiety aroused by their own destructive fantasies.
A. Introjection
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Klein defined introjection as the phantasy of taking into one's own body the images that one
has of an external object, especially the mother's breast. Infants usually introject good
objects as a protection
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against anxiety, but they also introject bad objects in order to gain control of them.
B. Projection
The phantasy that one's own feelings and impulses reside within another person
is called projection. Children project both good and bad images, especially onto
their parents.
C. Splitting
Infants tolerate good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects by
splitting, or mentally keeping apart, incompatible images. Splitting can be
beneficial to both children and adults, because it allows them to like themselves
while still recognizing some unlikable qualities.
D. Projective Identification
Projective identification is the psychic defense mechanism whereby infants
split off unacceptable parts of themselves, project them onto another object,
and finally introject them in an altered form.

Internalizations
After introjecting external objects, infants organize them into a psychologically
meaningful framework, a process that Klein called internalization.
A. Ego
Internalizations are aided by the early ego's ability to feel anxiety, to use defense
mechanisms, and to form object relations in both phantasy and reality.
However, a unified ego emerges only after first splitting itself into the two parts
—those that deal with the life instinct and those that relate to the death instinct.
B. Superego
Klein believed that the superego emerged much earlier than Freud had held. To
her, the superego preceded rather than followed the Oedipus complex. Klein
also saw the superego as being quite harsh and cruel.
C. Oedipus Complex
Klein believed that the Oedipus complex begins during the first few months of
life, then reaches its zenith during the genital stage, at about 3 or 4 years of age
—the same time that Freud had suggested it began. Klein also believed that
much of the Oedipus complex is based on children's fear that their parents will
seek revenge against them for their phantasy of emptying the parent's body.
For healthy development during the Oedipal years, children should retain
positive feelings for each parent. According to Klein, the little boy adopts a
"feminine" position very early in life and has no fear of being castrated as
punishment for his sexual feelings toward his mother. Later, he projects his
destructive drive onto his father, whom he fears will bite or castrate him. The
male Oedipus complex is resolved when the boy establishes good relations with
both parents. The little girl also adopts a "feminine" position toward both
parents quite early in life. She has a positive feeling for both her mother's
breast and her father's penis, which she believes will feed her with babies.
Sometimes the girl develops hostility toward her mother, whom she fears
will retaliate
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against her and rob her of her babies, but in most cases, the female Oedipus
complex is resolved without any jealousy toward the mother.

Later Views of Object Relations

A number of other theorists have expanded and altered Klein's theory of object
relations. Notable among them are Margaret Mahler, Heinz Kohut, John Bowlby. and
Mary Ainsworth.

A. Margaret Mahler's View

Mahler, a native of Hungary who practiced psychoanalysis in both
Vienna and New York, developed her theory of object relations from
careful observations of infants as they bonded with their mothers
during their first 3 years of life. In their progress toward achieving a
sense of identity, children pass through a series of three major
developmental stages. First is normal autism, which covers the first 3
to 4 weeks of life, a time when infants satisfy their needs within the all-
powerful protective orbit of their mother's care. Second is normal
symbiosis, when infants
behave as if they and their mother were an omnipotent, symbiotic unit. Third is
separation- individuation, from about 4 months until about 3 years, a time when
children are becoming psychologically separated from their mothers and achieving
individuation, or a sense of personal identity.

B. Heinz Kohut's View

Kohut was a native of Vienna who spent most of his professional life in
the United States. More than any of the other object relations theorists,
Kohut emphasized the development of the self. In caring for their
physical and psychological needs, adults treat infants as if they had a
sense of self. The parents' behaviors and attitudes eventually help
children form a sense of self that gives unity and consistency to their
experiences.
C. John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
Bowlby, a native of England, received training in child psychiatry from
Melanie Klein. By studying human and other primate infants, Bowlby
observed three stages of separation anxiety: (1) protest, (2) apathy and
despair, and (3) emotional detachment from people, including the primary
caregiver. Children who reach the third stage lack warmth and emotion in
their later relationships.

D. Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth was born in Ohio in 1919 and died in 1999. She and her
colleagues developed a technique called the Strange Situation for
measuring one of three the types of attachment styles—secure
attachment, anxious-resistant attachment, and anxious- avoidant
attachment.
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Psychotherapy
The goal of Klein's therapy was to reduce depressive anxieties
and persecutory fears and to lessen the harshness of
internalized objects. To do this, Klein encouraged patients to
reexperience early fantasies and pointed out the differences
between conscious and unconscious wishes.

Related Research
Research on object relations has included a variety of topics, including eating disorders
and adult relationships. One study of both topics was conducted by Smolak and Levine
(1993) who found that bulimia was associated with detachment from parents, whereas
anorexia was associated with high levels of guilt and conflict over separation from
parents. More recently, Steven Huprich and colleges (Huprich, Stepp, Graham, &
Johnson, 2004) found that both men and women who were insecurely attached and self-
focused (egocentric) had greater difficulty in controlling their compulsive eating than did
those who were more securely attached and less self-focused. Attachment theory was
originally conceptualized by John Bowlby who emphasized the relationship between
parent and child. Since the 1980s, researchers have begun systematically to examine
attachment relationships in adults, especially in romantic relationships. The usefulness
of attachment theory was investigated in a classic study by Cindy Hazan and Phil Shaver
(1987). These researchers found that people with secure early attachments
experienced more trust, closeness, and positive emotions in their adult love
relationships than did other people.

Steven Rholes and colleagues have extended the research on attachment and adult
romantic relationships. They tested the relation of attachment style to the type of
information people seek or avoid regarding their romantic partner and relationship
(Rholes, Simpson, Tran, Martin, & Friedman, 2007). They found their predictions were
borne out in that avoidant people showed less interest in information about their
partner, while anxious people sought more information.

Other recent research has explored the role of attachment styles in the relationships of
military officers and their soldiers (Davidovitz, Mikulincer, Shaver, Izsak, & Popper,
2007; Popper & Mayseless, 2003) and other leader-follower relationships. Rivka
Davidovitz and colleagues used the same measure of attachment as Rholes et al’s
(2007, above) study. Their results gave further support of the generality and
importance of attachment style in various kinds of relationships.

Critique of Object Relations Theory

Object relations theory shares with Freudian theory an inability to be either falsified or
verified through empirical research. Nevertheless, some clinicians regard the theory as
being a useful guide to action and as possessing substantial internal consistency.
However, the theory must be rated low on parsimony and also low on its ability to
organize knowledge and to generate research.
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Concept of Humanity
Object relations theorists see personality as being a product of the early mother-child
relationship, and thus they stress determinism over free choice. The powerful influence
of early childhood also gives these theories a low rating on uniqueness, a very high
rating on social influences, and high ratings on causality and unconscious forces. Klein
and other object relations theorists rate average on optimism versus pessimism.
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2.2.5 Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Overview of Horney's Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Karen Horney built her psychoanalytic social theory on the assumption that social and
cultural conditions, especially during childhood, are primary influences on later
personality. Although Horney's books are concerned mostly with neurotic
personalities, many of her observations also apply to normal individuals. Like Klein,
Horney's early ideas were influenced by Freud. However, she objected to Freud's
basically masculine theory, which looked first at male development and then applied
those observations to women.

Biography of Karen Horney

Karen Horney was born in Germany in 1885, the younger of two
children born to a stern, devoutly religious old sea captain and
his young wife. Horney was one of the first women in Germany
admitted to medical school, where she specialized in
psychiatry. She also became acquainted with Freudian theory
and was analyzed by Karl Abraham, one of Freud's close
associates. In her mid-40s, Horney left Germany to settle in the
United States, first in Chicago and then in New York. She soon
abandoned orthodox psychoanalysis in favor of a more socially
oriented theory, one that also had a more positive view of
feminine development. Horney died in 1952 at age 65.

Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Although Horney's writings deal mostly with neuroses and neurotic personalities, her
theories are also appropriate to normal development. She agreed with Freud that early
childhood traumas are important, but she placed far more emphasis on social factors.

Horney and Freud Compared

Horney criticized Freudian theory on at least three accounts: (1) its rigidity toward new
ideas, (2) its skewed view of feminine psychology, and (3) its overemphasis on biology
and the pleasure principle.

The Impact of Culture

Horney insisted that modern culture is too competitive and that competition leads to
hostility and feelings of isolation. These conditions lead to exaggerated needs for
affection and cause people to overvalue love. Both normal and neurotic personalities
experience intrapsychic conflicts through their desperate attempts to find love.

The Importance of Childhood Experiences

Most neurotic conflict stems from childhood traumas, most of which are traced to lack of
genuine love. Children who do not receive genuine affection feel threatened and adopt
rigid behavioral patterns in an attempt to gain love.
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Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
All children need feelings of safety and security, but these can be
gained only through the love of their parents. Unfortunately, parents
often neglect, dominate, reject, or overindulge their child, conditions
that lead to the child's feelings of basic hostility toward the parents.
However, children often repress their feelings of basic hostility, which
leads to feelings of deep insecurity and a pervasive sense of
apprehension called basic anxiety. People can protect themselves
from basic anxiety by (1) affection, (2) submissiveness, (3) power or
prestige, and (4) withdrawal. Normal people have the flexibility to use any or all of
these approaches, but neurotics are compelled to rely rigidly on only one.

COMPULSIVE DRIVES
Neurotics frequently are trapped in a vicious circle in which their compulsive need to
reduce basic anxiety leads to a variety of self-defeating behaviors; these behaviors then
produce more basic anxiety, and the circle continues.

Neurotic Needs
In her early theory, Horney identified 10 neurotic needs that mark neurotics in their
attempt to reduce basic anxiety. These included the neurotic need (1) for affection and
approval, (2) for a powerful partner, (3) to restrict one's life within narrow borders, (4)
for power, (5) to exploit others, (6) for social recognition or prestige, (7) for personal
admiration, (8) for ambition and personal achievement, (9) for self-sufficiency and
independence, and (10) for perfection and unassailability.

Neurotic Trends
Later, Horney grouped these 10 neurotic needs into three basic neurotic trends, which
apply to both
normal and neurotic individuals in their attempt to solve basic conflict.
1. Moving Toward People
People often strive to protect themselves against basic anxiety and feelings of
helplessness by moving toward people. This strategy results in undue compliance to
others' wishes.
2. Moving Against People
Aggressive people assume that everyone is hostile, and, therefore, they adopt
the strategy of moving against people, exploiting them for their own benefit.
3. Moving Away From People
People who feel detached from others adopt the neurotic trend of moving away
from people,
insisting on privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency.

INTRAPSYCHIC CONFLICTS
Besides these culturally-induced needs and trends, people experience inner tensions or
intrapsychic conflicts. These intrapsychic conflicts become part of people's belief
system and take on a life of their own, separate from the interpersonal conflicts that
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created them.
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A. The Idealized Self-Image
People who do not receive love and affection during childhood are impeded in their
natural tendency toward self-realization and are blocked in their attempt to
acquire a stable sense of identity. Feeling alienated from self, they create an idealized
self-image, that is, an extravagantly positive picture of themselves that exists only in
their mind. Horney recognized three aspects of the
idealized self-image.
1. The Neurotic Search for Glory
As neurotic people begin to believe that their idealized self-image is real, they
try to incorporate it into all aspects of their lives. This leads to the neurotic search for
glory, or a comprehensive drive toward actualizing the ideal self. The neurotic search
for glory includes the
need for perfection (the tyranny of the should), neurotic ambition, and the drive
toward a vindictive triumph.
2. Neurotic Claims
Neurotic people believe that their idealized fantasy world is real and that the rest
of the world
is skewed. Consequently, they believe that they are entitled to special privileges and
make neurotic claims on other people that are consistent with their idealized view of
themselves.
3. Neurotic Pride
A third aspect of the idealized self-image is neurotic pride, or a false pride based
not on reality
but on a distorted and idealized view of self.

B. Self-Hatred
Neurotic individuals dislike themselves because reality always falls short of their
idealized view of self. Therefore, they learn self-hatred, which can be expressed as: (1)
relentless demands on self, (2) merciless self-accusation, (3) self-contempt, (4) self-
frustration, (5) self-torment or self-torture, and (6) self-destructive actions and impulses.

Feminine Psychology
Horney believed that psychological differences between men and women are not due to
anatomy but to culture and social expectations. Her view of the Oedipus complex
differed markedly from Freud's in that she again insisted that any sexual attraction or
hostility of child to parent would be the result of learning and not biology.

Psychotherapy
The goal of Horney's psychotherapy was to help patients grow toward self-realization,
give up their idealized self-image, relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and change
self-hatred to self- acceptance. Horney believed that, fortunately, patients wish to get
better, even though they may find comfort in their present misery. Horney also believed
that successful therapy is built on self-analysis and self-understanding.
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Related Research
Horney's theory has been one of the least productive of all personality theories in
generating research. However, her ideas on neuroticism are relevant to current
research. While much research on this topic focuses on its negative aspects (Borkoveec
& Sharpless, 2004; Elliot & Thrash, 2002), and this view fits with Horney’s model of
neurotic trends (1942), some recent research is looking at neuroticism with less of this
understandable negative bias. Under some conditions, neuroticism may have some
benefits. Michael Robinson and colleagues (Robinson, Ode, Wilkowski, & Amodio, 2007)
asked how one could be a “successful neurotic.” Since neurotics are predisposed to
avoid threats, Robinson and his colleagues predicted that the ability to recognize
threats and avoid them successfully could decrease negative mood. They found that
their experiments supported this prediction. Many neurotic people are skilled at
avoiding negative outcomes, and this avoidance does actually improve their daily
moods, making them feel better.

Critique of Horney
Although Horney's theory has not generated much research, it has provided an
interesting way of looking at humanity. The strength of her theory was her vivid
portrayal of the neurotic personality. As scientific theory, however, it rates very low in
generating research, low on its ability to be falsified, to organize knowledge, and to
serve as a guide to action. The theory receives a moderate rating on internal
consistency and parsimony.

Concept of Humanity
Horney's concept of humanity was based mostly on her clinical experiences with
neurotic patients, but it can easily be extended to normal people. In summary, Horney's
view of humanity is rated high on free choice, optimism, unconscious influences, and
social factors; average on causality vs. teleology; and low on uniqueness.
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2.2.6 Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Overview of Fromm's Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Erich Fromm's humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from many perspectives,
including psychology, history, and anthropology. Although Fromm was influenced by
both Freud and Horney, his theory is much broader than Horney's and much more
socially oriented than Freud's.

Biography of Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1900, the only child
of orthodox Jewish parents. His humanistic philosophy grew out of an
early reading of the biblical prophets and an association with several
Talmudic scholars. A thoughtful young man, Fromm was also
influenced by the writings of Freud and Marx, as well as by the
socialist ideology. After receiving his PhD, Fromm began studying
psychoanalysis and was eventually analyzed by Hanns Sachs, a
student of Freud. Fromm's first wife was Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, a
psychoanalyst whose techniques and procedures diverged somewhat
from those of Freud. However the marriage between Fromm and
Fromm-Reichmann eventually ended in divorce. In 1934, Fromm
moved to the United States and began a psychoanalytic practice in
New York, where he resumed his friendship with Karen Horney, whom
he had known in Germany. Much of his later years were spent in
Mexico and Switzerland where he continued to write books that
gained him a worldwide reputation beyond psychology and
psychoanalysis. He died in Switzerland in 1980.

Fromm's Basic Assumptions

Fromm assumed that human personality can only be understood in the light of history.
He believed that humans have been torn away from their prehistoric union with nature
and left with no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world. On the other hand,
they have acquired the ability to reason, which means they can think about their
isolated condition. Fromm called this situation the human dilemma.

HUMAN NEEDS
Our human dilemma cannot be solved by satisfying our animal needs, but it can only
be addressed
by fulfilling our human needs, which would move us toward a reunification with the
natural world. Fromm also referred to these distinctively human needs as existential
needs.
A. Relatedness
Fromm called our desire for union with another person relatedness. We can
relate to others through (1) submission, (2) power, or (3) love. However, love is the
only relatedness need that can solve our basic human dilemma. Fromm defined love
as the ability to unite with another while
retaining one's own individuality and integrity.
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B. Transcendence
Being thrown into the world without their consent, humans have the need to rise
above their passive and accidental existence, that is, to transcend their nature by
destroying or creating people or things. Humans can destroy through malignant
aggression (killing for reasons other than survival) but they can also create and care
about their creations
C. Rootedness
By rootedness Fromm meant the need to establish roots and to feel at home
again in the world. Like the other existential needs, rootedness can take either a
productive or a nonproductive mode. With the productive strategy we grow beyond
the security of our mother and establish ties with the outside world. With the
nonproductive strategy, we become fixated and afraid to move
beyond the security and safety of our mother or a mother substitute.
D. Sense of Identity
The fourth human need is for a sense of identity, or an awareness of ourselves as
a separate person. The drive for a sense of identity is expressed nonproductively as
conformity to a group and
productively as individuality.
E. Frame of Orientation
By frame of orientation, Fromm meant a road map or consistent philosophy by
which we
find our way through the world. This need is expressed nonproductively as a striving
for irrational goals and productively as movement toward rational goals.
F. Summary of Human Needs
People are highly motivated to satisfy the five existential, or human, needs
because if they are unsatisfied in these needs, they are driven to insanity. Each of the
needs has both a positive and
a negative component, but only the satisfaction of positive needs leads to
psychological health.

The Burden of Freedom

As the only animal possessing self-awareness, humans are the freaks of the universe.
Historically, as people gained more political freedom, they began to experience more
isolation from others and from the world and to feel free from the security of a
permanent place in the world. As a result, freedom becomes a burden, and people
experience basic anxiety, or a feeling of being alone in the world.
A. Mechanisms of Escape
To reduce the frightening sense of isolation and aloneness, people may adopt
one of three mechanisms of escape.
1. Authoritarianism
The tendency to give up one's independence and to unite with a powerful partner
is called authoritarianism. Fromm believed that authoritarianism take the form of
either masochism or
sadism. Masochism stems from feelings of powerlessness and can be disguised as love
or loyalty. Sadism involves attempts to achieve unity through dominating, exploiting,
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or hurting others.
2. Destructiveness
Feelings of isolation can also produce destructiveness, an escape mechanism
that is aimed at
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doing away with other people or things.
3. Conformity
A third mechanism of escape is conformity, or surrendering of one's individuality
in order to
meet the wishes of others.

B. Positive Freedom
Positive freedom is the spontaneous activity of the whole, integrated personality,
which is achieved when a person becomes reunited with others and with the world. It is
the successful solution to the human dilemma of being part of the natural world and yet
separate from it.

CHARACTER ORIENTATIONS
People relate to the world by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by
relating to self
and others (socialization), and they can do so either nonproductively or productively.
A. Nonproductive Orientations
Fromm discussed four nonproductive orientations, or strategies and one
productive one. The
nonproductive strategies are those that fail to move people closer to positive
freedom and self- realization. They include the receptive, exploitative, hoarding, and
marketing strategies.
1. Receptive
People who rely on the receptive orientation believe that the source of all good
lies outside themselves and that the only way they can relate to the world is to
receive things, including love,
knowledge, and material objects. Positive qualities include loyalty and trust;
negative ones are passivity and submissiveness.
2. Exploitative
People with an exploitative orientation also believe that the source of good lies
outside themselves, but they aggressively take what they want rather than passively
receiving it. Positive qualities of exploitative people include pride and self-confidence;
negative ones are arrogance and
conceit.
3. Hoarding
Hoarding characters try to save what they have already obtained, including their
opinions,
feelings, and material possessions. Positive qualities include loyalty, negative
ones are obsessiveness and possessiveness.
4. Marketing
People with a marketing orientation see themselves as commodities and value
themselves against the criterion of their ability to sell themselves. They have fewer
positive qualities than the other orientations, because they are essentially empty.
However, they can be open-minded and
adaptable, as well as opportunistic and wasteful.
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B. The Productive Orientation

Psychologically healthy people work toward positive freedom through productive work,
love, and
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thoughts. Productive love necessitates a passionate love of all life and is called biophilia.

Personality Disorders
Unhealthy people are characterized by failures to work, think, and especially to love
productively. Fromm recognized three major personality disorders: necrophilia,
malignant narcissism, and
incestuous symbiosis.
A. Necrophilia
In Fromm's framework necrophilia is the love of death and the hatred of all
humanity.
Necrophilious people do not simply behave in a destructive manner; their
destructiveness is a reflection of a basic character.
B. Malignant Narcissism
Some people become convinced that everything belonging to them is of
great value and anything belonging to others is worthless. Fromm called this
disorder malignant narcissism.
Narcissistic people often suffer from moral hypochondrias, or preoccupation with
excessive guilt.
C. Incestuous Symbiosis
Extreme dependence on one's mother or mother surrogate to the extent that
one's personality is blended with that of the host person is called incestuous
symbiosis. Fromm believed that a few people, such as Hitler, possessed all three of
these disorders, a condition he termed the syndrome
of decay.

Psychotherapy
The goal of Fromm's psychotherapy was to work toward satisfaction of the basic human
needs of relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of
orientation. The therapist tries to accomplish this through shared communication in
which the therapist is simply a human being rather than a scientist.

Fromm's Methods of Investigation

Fromm's personality theory rests on data he gathered from a variety of sources,
including
psychotherapy, cultural anthropology, and psychohistory.
A. Social Character in a Mexican Village
Fromm and his associates spent several years investigating social character in a
isolated farming village in Mexico and found evidence of all the character orientations
except the marketing one. In general, this anthropological study's findings were
consistent with Fromm's theoretical views on social character.
B. A Psychohistorical Study of Hitler
Fromm applied the techniques of psychohistory to the study of several historical
people, including Adolf Hitler—the person Fromm regarded as the world's most
conspicuous example of someone with the syndrome of decay. In this account
Fromm traces and describes Hitler's
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necrophilia, malignant narcissism, and incestuous symbiosis.
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Related Research
Fromm did not express his ideas for the purpose of generating research, and this theory
is among the least productive of empirical study. Thus, although his writings are brilliant
and insightful, Fromm's theory ranks near the bottom of personality theories with regard
to stimulating research. However, broad sociological topics such as those Fromm
addressed can also be important to personality psychology. Two examples of such
topics are estrangement from one’s culture and its impact on well- being; and the
development of political beliefs as related to personality.

Mark Bernard and colleagues (Bernard, Gebauer, & Maio, 2006) wanted to test whether
discrepancies between a person’s own beliefs and the person’s perception of society’s
beliefs caused feelings of estrangement, as estrangement and alienation are central
themes to Fromm’s theory of personality. Their findings supported Fromm’s ideas: The
more discrepant one’s values are from those of one’s culture, the more estranged and
isolated one feels. They also found that these feelings of estrangement were
accompanied by increased feelings of anxiety and depression.

Fromm’s influence is still felt, and is being studied, in the area of political beliefs (de
Zavala & Van Bergh, 2007; Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003; Oesterreich,
2005). Fromm (1941) wrote about how people might be drawn strongly to one political
party over another, but not about which kind of person(ality) is likely to be drawn to
which party. Jack and Jeanne Block (2006) did a 20-year longitudinal study, comparing
preschool personality assessments to self-reports of political beliefs 20 years later by
the former preschoolers, now young adults. They found that those who were described
as easily offended, indecisive, fearful, and rigid in preschool were more likely to be
politically conservative in their 20s, while preschoolers described as self-reliant,
energetic, somewhat dominating, and relatively under-controlled, tended to be more
liberal as adults. This research shows how people grow up to deal differently with what
Fromm called their “burden of freedom;” it also shows how personality, even when
measured at a young age, has remarkable predictive power.

Critique of Fromm
Fromm evolved a theory that provide insightful ways of looking at humanity. The
strength of his theory is his lucid writings on a broad range of human issues. As a
scientific theory, however, Fromm's assumptions rate very low on their ability to
generate research and to lend themselves to falsification; Fromm rates low on
usefulness to the practitioner, internal consistency, and parsimony. Because it is quite
broad in scope, Fromm's theory rates high on organizing existing knowledge.

Concept of Humanity
Fromm's concept of humanity came from a rich variety of sources—history,
anthropology, economics, and clinical work. Because humans have the ability to reason
but few strong instincts, they are the freaks of nature. To achieve self-actualization,
they must satisfy their human, or existential, needs through productive love and work.
In summary, we rated Fromm's theory as average on free choice, optimism,
unconscious influences, and uniqueness; low on causality; and very high on social
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influences.
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2.2.7 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory
Overview of Sullivan's Interpersonal Theory
Although Sullivan had a lonely and isolated childhood, he evolved a theory of
personality that emphasized the importance of interpersonal relations. He insisted
that personality is shaped almost entirely by the relationships we have with other
people. Sullivan's principal contribution to personality theory was his conception
of developmental stages.

Biography of Harry Stack Sullivan

Harry Stack Sullivan, the first American to develop a comprehensive
personality theory, was born in a small farming community in upstate
New York in 1892.
A socially immature and isolated child, Sullivan nevertheless formed
one close interpersonal relationship with a boy five years older than
himself. In his interpersonal theory, Sullivan believed that such a
relationship has the power to transform an immature preadolescent
into a psychologically healthy individual. Six years after becoming a
physician, and with no training in psychiatry, Sullivan gained a position
at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., as a psychiatrist. There,
his ability to work with schizophrenic patients won him a reputation as
a therapeutic wizard. However, despite achieving much respect from
an influential group of associates, Sullivan had few close interpersonal
relations with any of his peers. He died alone in Paris in 1949, at age
TENSIONS
Sullivan conceptualized personality as an energy system, with energy existing either
as tension (potentiality for action) or as energy transformations (the actions
themselves). He further divided
tensions into needs and anxiety.
A. Needs
Needs can relate either to the general well-being of a person or to specific zones, such
as the mouth
or genitals. General needs can be either physiological, such as food or oxygen, or
they can be interpersonal, such as tenderness and intimacy.
B. Anxiety
Unlike needs-which are conjunctive and call for specific actions to reduce them-
anxiety is disjunctive and calls for no consistent actions for its relief. All infants learn
to be anxious through the empathic relationship that they have with their mothering
one. Sullivan called anxiety the chief disruptive force in interpersonal relations. A
complete absence of anxiety and other tensions is called euphoria.
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DYNAMISMS
Sullivan used the term dynamism to refer to a typical pattern of behavior. Dynamisms
may relate either to
specific zones of the body or to tensions.
A. Malevolence
The disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred is called malevolence, defined by Sullivan
as a feeling of living among one's enemies. Those children who become malevolent
have much difficulty giving
and receiving tenderness or being intimate with other people.
B. Intimacy
The conjunctive dynamism marked by a close personal relationship between two
people of equal status is called intimacy. Intimacy facilitates interpersonal
development while decreasing both
anxiety and loneliness.
C. Lust
In contrast to both malevolence and intimacy, lust is an isolating dynamism. That is,
lust is a self- centered need that can be satisfied in the absence of an intimate
interpersonal relationship. In other words, although intimacy presupposes tenderness
or love, lust is based solely on sexual gratification and requires no other person for its
satisfaction.
D. Self-System
The most inclusive of all dynamisms is the self-system, or that pattern of behaviors
that protects us against anxiety and maintains our interpersonal security. The self-
system is a conjunctive dynamism, but because its primary job is to protect the self
from anxiety, it tends to stifle personality change. Experiences that are inconsistent
with our self-system threaten our security and necessitate our use of security
operations, which consist of behaviors designed to reduce interpersonal tensions. One
such security operation is dissociation, which includes all those experiences that we
block from awareness. Another is selective inattention, which involves blocking only
certain experiences from
awareness.

PERSONIFICATIONS
Sullivan believed that people acquire certain images of self and others
throughout the developmental stages, and he referred to these subjective perceptions
as personifications.
A. Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
The bad-mother personification grows out of infants' experiences with a nipple that
does not satisfy their hunger needs. All infants experience the bad-mother
personification, even though their real mothers may be loving and nurturing. Later,
infants acquire a good-mother personification as they become mature enough to
recognize the tender and cooperative behavior of their mothering one.
Still later, these two personifications combine to form a complex and contrasting
image of the real mother.
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B. Me Personifications
During infancy, children acquire three "me" personifications: (1) the bad-me, which
grows from experiences of punishment and disapproval, (2) the good-me, which
results from experiences with reward and approval, and (3) the not-me, which allows a
person to dissociate or selectively inattend the experiences related to anxiety.
C. Eidetic Personifications
One of Sullivan's most interesting observations was that people often create
imaginary traits that they project onto others. Included in these eidetic
personifications are the imaginary playmates that preschool-aged children often have.
These imaginary friends enable children to have a safe, secure relationship with
another person, even though that person is imaginary.

Levels of Cognition
Sullivan recognized three levels of cognition, or ways of perceiving things-prototaxic,
parataxic, and
syntaxic.
A. Prototaxic Level
Experiences that are impossible to put into words or to communicate to others are
called prototaxic.
Newborn infants experience images mostly on a prototaxic level, but adults, too,
frequently have preverbal experiences that are momentary and incapable of being
communicated.
B. Parataxic Level
Experiences that are prelogical and nearly impossible to accurately communicate to
others are called parataxic. Included in these are erroneous assumptions about
cause and effect, which Sullivan
termed parataxic distortions.
C. Syntaxic Level
Experiences that can be accurately communicated to others are called syntaxic.
Children become capable of syntaxic language at about 12 to 18 months of age when
words begin to have the same
meaning for them that they do for others.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Sullivan saw interpersonal development as taking place over seven stages, from
infancy to mature
adulthood. Personality changes can take place at any time but are more likely to
occur during transitions between stages.
A. Infancy
The period from birth until the emergence of syntaxic language is called infancy, a
time when the child receives tenderness from the mothering one while also learning
anxiety through an empathic linkage with the mother. Anxiety may increase to the
point of terror, but such terror is controlled by the built-in protections of apathy and
somnolent detachment that allow the baby to go to sleep.
During infancy children use autistic language, which takes place on a prototaxic or
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parataxic level.
B. Childhood
The stage that lasts from the beginning of syntaxic language until the need for
playmates of equal
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status is called childhood. The child's primary interpersonal relationship continues to
be with the mother, who is now differentiated from other persons who nurture the
child.
C. Juvenile Era
The juvenile stage begins with the need for peers of equal status and continues until
the child develops a need for an intimate relationship with a chum. At this time,
children should learn how to compete, to compromise, and to cooperate. These three
abilities, as well as an orientation toward
living, help a child develop intimacy, the chief dynamism of the next developmental
stage.
D. Preadolescence
Perhaps the most crucial stage is preadolescence, because mistakes made earlier can
be corrected during preadolescence, but errors made during preadolescence are
nearly impossible to overcome in later life. Preadolescence spans the time from the
need for a single best friend until puberty. Children who do not learn intimacy during
preadolescence have added difficulties relating to potential sexual partners during
later stages.
E. Early Adolescence
With puberty comes the lust dynamism and the beginning of early adolescence.
Development during this stage is ordinarily marked by a coexistence of intimacy with
a single friend of the same gender and sexual interest in many persons of the
opposite gender. However, if children have no preexisting capacity for intimacy, they
may confuse lust with love and develop sexual relationships
that are devoid of true intimacy.
F. Late Adolescence
Chronologically, late adolescence may start at any time after about age 16, but Late
Adolescence Chronologically, late adolescence may start at any time after about age
16, but psychologically, it begins when a person is able to feel both intimacy and lust
toward the same person. Late adolescence is characterized by a stable pattern of
sexual activity and the growth of the syntaxic mode, as young people learn how to live
in the adult world.
G. Adulthood
Late adolescence flows into adulthood, a time when a person establishes a stable
relationship with
a significant other person and develops a consistent pattern of viewing the world.

Psychological Disorders
Sullivan believed that disordered behavior has an interpersonal origin, and can only be
understood with reference to a person's social environment.

Psychotherapy
Sullivan pioneered the notion of the therapist as a participant observer, who establishes
an interpersonal relationship with the patient. He was primarily concerned with
understanding patients and helping them develop foresight, improve interpersonal
relations, and restore their ability to operate mostly on a syntaxic level.
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Related Research
In recent years, a number of researchers have studied the impact of two-person
relationships, involving both therapy and non-therapy encounters.
A. Therapist-Patient Relationships
Hans Strupp, William Henry, and associates at Vanderbilt developed the Structural
Analysis of Social Behavior, an instrument for studying the dynamics between
therapist and patient. This group of researchers found that patients tended to have
relatively stable behaviors that were consistent with the way their therapists treated
them. Later, these researchers reported therapists' professional
training was less important to successful therapy than the therapists' own
developmental history.
B. Intimate Relationships with Friends
Elizabeth Yaughn and Stephen Nowicki studied intimate interpersonal relationships in
same- gender dyads and found that women-but not men-had complementary
interpersonal styles with their close women friends. Also, women were more likely
than men to engage in a wide variety of activities with their intimate friend, a finding
that suggests that women develop deeper same-
gender friendships than do men.
C. Imaginary Friends
Other researchers have studied Sullivan's notion of imaginary playmates and have
found that children who have identifiable eidetic playmates tend to be more
socialized, less aggressive, more intelligent, and to have a better sense of humor than
children who do not report having an imaginary
playmate.

Critique of Sullivan
Despite Sullivan's insights into the importance of interpersonal relations, his theory of
personality and his approach to psychotherapy have lost popularity in recent years. In
summary, his theory rates very low in falsifiability, low in its ability to generate
research, and average in its capacity to organize knowledge and to guide action. In
addition, it is only average in self-consistency and low in parsimony.

Concept of Humanity
Because Sullivan saw human personality as being largely formed from interpersonal
relations, his theory rates very high on social influences and very low on biological ones.
In addition, it rates high on unconscious determinants, average on free choice,
optimism, and causality, and low on uniqueness.
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2.2.8 Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory
Overview of Erikson's Post-Freudian Theory
Erikson postulated eight stages of psychosocial development through which people
progress. Although he differed from Freud in his emphasis on the ego and on social
influences, his theory is an extension, not a repudiation, of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Biography of Erik Erikson

When Erik Erikson was born in Germany in 1902 his name
was Erik Salomonsen. After his mother married Theodor
Homberger, Erik eventually took his stepfather's name. At
age 18 he left home to pursue the life of a wandering artist
and to search for self-identity. He gave up that life to teach
young children in Vienna, where he met Anna Freud. Still
searching for his personal identity, he was psychoanalyzed
by Ms. Freud, an experience that allowed him to become a
psychoanalyst. In mid-life, Erik Homberger moved to the
United States, changed his name to Erikson, and took a
position at the Harvard Medical School. Later, he taught at
Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, and several
other universities. He died in 1994, a month short of his
92nd birthday.
The Ego in Post-Freudian Psychology
One of Erikson's chief contributions to personality theory was his emphasis on ego
rather than id
functions. According to Erikson, the ego is the center of personality and is responsible
for a unified sense of self. It consists of three interrelated facets: the body ego, the ego
ideal, and ego identity.
A. Society's Influence
The ego develops within a given society and is influenced by child-rearing
practices and
other cultural customs. All cultures and nations develop a pseudospecies, or a fictional
notion that they are superior to other cultures.
B. Epigenetic Principle
The ego develops according to the epigenetic principle; that is, it grows
according to a
genetically established rate and in a fixed sequence.

Stages of Psychosocial Development

Each of the eight stages of development is marked by a conflict between a syntonic
(harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) element, which produces a basic
strength or ego quality. Also, from adolescence on, each stage is characterized by an
identity crisis or turning point, which may produce either adaptive or maladaptive
adjustment.
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A. Infancy
Erikson's view of infancy (the 1st year of life) was similar to Freud's concept of
the oral stage, except that Erikson expanded the notion of incorporation beyond the
mouth to include sense organs such as the eyes and ears. The psychosexual mode of
infancy is oral-sensory, which is characterized by both receiving and accepting. The
psychosocial crisis of infancy is basic trust versus basic mistrust. From the crisis
between basic trust and basic mistrust emerges hope, the basic strength of infancy.
Infants who do not develop hope retreat from the world, and this withdrawal is the
core
pathology of infancy.
B. Early Childhood
The 2nd to 3rd year of life is early childhood, a period that compares to Freud's
anal stage, but it also includes mastery of other body functions such as walking,
urinating, and holding. The psychosexual mode of early childhood is anal-urethral-
muscular, and children of this age behave both impulsively and compulsively. The
psychosocial crisis of early childhood is autonomy versus shame and doubt. The
psychosocial crisis between autonomy on the one hand and shame and doubt
on the other produces will, the basic strength of early childhood. The core pathology
of early childhood is compulsion.
C. Play Age
From about the 3rd to the 5th year, children experience the play age, a
period that parallels Freud's phallic phase. Unlike Freud, however, Erikson saw the
Oedipus complex as an early model of lifelong playfulness and a drama played out in
children's minds as they attempt to understand the basic facts of life. The primary
psychosexual mode of the play age is genital- locomotor, meaning that children have
both an interest in genital activity and an increasing ability to move around. The
psychosocial crisis of the play age is initiative versus guilt.. The conflict between
initiative and guilt helps children to act with purpose and to set goals. But if children
have
too little purpose, they develop inhibition, the core pathology of the play age.
D. School Age
The period from about 6 to about 13 is called the school age, a time of
psychosexual latency, but it is also a time of psychosocial growth beyond the family.
Because sexual development is latent during the school age, children can use their
energies to learn the customs of their culture, including both formal and informal
education. The psychosocial crisis of this age is industry versus inferiority. Children
need to learn to work hard, but they also must develop some sense of inferiority. From
the conflict of industry and inferiority emerges competence, the basic strength of
school age. Lack of
industry leads to inertia, the core pathology of this stage.
E. Adolescence
Adolescence begins with puberty and is marked by a person's struggle to find
ego identity. It is a time of psychosexual growth, but it is also a period of psychosocial
latency. The psychosexual mode of adolescence is puberty or genital maturation. The
psychosocial crisis of adolescence is identity versus identity confusion. Psychologically
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healthy individuals emerge from adolescence with a sense of who they are and what
they believe; but some identity confusion is normal. The
conflict between identity and identity confusion produces fidelity, or faith in some
ideological view
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of the future. Lack of belief in one's own selfhood results in role repudiation, or an
inability to bring together one's various self-images.
F. Young Adulthood
Young adulthood begins with the acquisition of intimacy at about age 18 and
ends with the development of generativity at about age 30. The psychosexual mode
of young adulthood is genitality, which is expressed as mutual trust between partners
in a stable sexual relationship. Its psychosocial crisis is intimacy versus isolation.
Intimacy is the ability to fuse one's identity with that of another person without fear of
losing it; whereas isolation is the fear of losing one's identity in an intimate
relationship. The crisis between intimacy and isolation results in the capacity to love.
The core pathology of young adulthood is exclusivity, or inability to love.
G. Adulthood
The period from about 31 to 60 years of age is adulthood, a time when people
make significant contributions to society. The psychosexual mode of adulthood is
procreativity, or the caring for one's children, the children of others, and the material
products of one's society. The psychosocial crisis of adulthood is generativity versus
stagnation, and the successful resolution of this crisis results in care. Erikson saw care
as taking care of the persons and products that one has learned to care for. The core
pathology of adulthood is rejectivity, or the rejection of certain individuals or groups
that
one is unwilling to take care of.
H. Old Age
The final stage of development is old age, from about age 60 until death. The
psychosexual mode of old age is generalized sensuality; that is, taking pleasure in a
variety of sensations and an appreciation of the traditional life style of people of the
other gender. The psychosocial crisis of old age is the struggle between integrity (the
maintenance of ego-identity) and despair (the surrender of hope). The struggle
between integrity and despair may produce wisdom (the basic strength of old age),
but it may also lead to disdain (a core pathology marked by feelings of being finished
or helpless). As Erikson himself aged, he and his wife began to describe a ninth stage
—a period of very old age when physical and mental infirmities rob people of their
generative abilities and reduce them to waiting for death. Joan, especially, was
interested in this ninth stage as she watched her
husband's health rapidly deteriorate during the last few years of his life.

Erikson's Methods of Investigation

Erikson relied mostly on anthropology and psychohistory to explain and describe human
personality.
A. Anthropological Studies
Erikson's two most important anthropological studies were of the Sioux of South
Dakota and the Yurok tribe of northern California. Both studies demonstrated his notion
that culture and history help shape personality.
B. Psychohistory
Erikson combined the methods of psychoanalysis and historical research to study
several personalities, most notably Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther. In both cases,
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the central figure experienced an identity crisis that produced a basic strength rather
than a core pathology.
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Related Research
Erikson's theory has generated a moderately large body of research, much of it
investigating the concepts of identity and generativity. In this section, the authors
focused on generativity and
parenting, and on generativity vs. stagnation.
A. Generativity and Parenting
Dan McAdams and colleagues have been major figures in research on generativity and
have developed the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) to measure it (McAdams, 1999;
McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992; Bauer & McAdams, 2004b).

Using the LGS, Bill Peterson (2006) tested his prediction that parents with a high
sense of generativity should produce well-adjusted offspring who were happier and
more optimistic about the future. The results supported the idea that a sense of
generativity is important to effective
parenting. Children of highly generative parents had greater senses of confidence,
freedom and happiness, as well as a stronger future time orientation. These findings
conform to Erikson’s theory.
B. Generativity vs. Stagnation
Erikson generally considered generativity and stagnation to be opposite ends of the
same continuum. But recently, researchers have begun to wonder if generativity and
stagnation could be viewed as somewhat independent constructs (Van Hiel, Mervielde,
De Fruyt, 2006). These researchers created a self-report based on Bradley & Marcia’s
(1998) description of stagnation. They measured generativity using the LGS.

The results of this study supported the proposition that generativity and stagnation
should be considered independently. The researchers found stagnation is related to
problems in emotional regulation. They also found that some people are high on
measures of both generativity and stagnation, and that this profile is associated with
difficulty in regulating emotions and difficulties with intimacy. This research does not
differ much conceptually from Erikson’s model, but it does show that for practical
research purposes and to understand adult personality more fully, generativity and
stagnation sometimes operate separately.

Critique of Erikson
Although Erikson's work is a logical extension of Freud's psychoanalysis, it offers a new
way of looking at human development. As a useful theory, it rates high on its ability to
generate research, about average on its ability to be falsified, to organize knowledge,
and to guide the practitioner. It rates high on internal consistency and about average on
parsimony.

Concept of Humanity
Erikson saw humans as basically social animals who have limited free choice and who
are motivated by past experiences, which may be either conscious or unconscious. In
addition, Erikson is rated high on both optimism and uniqueness of individuals.