20th century Psychology
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20th century Psychology


Leaving 19th century

Romantic thinkers revived interest in dreams as gateways to the soul and creativity.

Inspired by positivist currents (e.g. psychophysics), some early psychologists (e.g., Maury) began recording dream content and sleep phenomena.

The boundary between pseudoscience and emerging science of psychology remained blurred.

Dreams were still largely anecdotal and lacked scientific methodology.

Psychoanalysis

„Das Ich ist nicht Herr im eigenen Hause.“
"The ego is not master in its own house."

(Siegmund Freud, 1917)

Freud

ilustration%20(gustav%20dore%20style)%20of%20young%20freud%20cutting%20myriads%20of%20eels%20during%20his%20internship%20at%20Trieste

ilustration (gustav dore style) of young freud cutting myriads of eels during his internship at Trieste

Born in 1856 in Příbor, Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire), into a Jewish family.

Moved to Vienna at age four, where he lived most of his life.

Studied medicine at the University of Vienna, eel-cutting internship at Trieste (Italy).

Worked with Ernst Brücke and later studied hysteria under Jean-Martin Charcot in Paris.

Developed the method of free association and the concept of the unconscious.

Published *The Interpretation of Dreams* in 1900, initially ignored, later celebrated.

Gradually became a central figure in Viennese intellectual life and founder of psychoanalysis.

Adler

Alfred Adler was an early member of Freud’s psychoanalytic circle in Vienna. He initially supported Freud’s ideas but disagreed on the centrality of sexual drives.

Adler emphasized social interest, community feeling, and the drive for superiority. Focus shifted to conscious goals, lifestyle, and purposeful behavior.

Adler introduced the concept of the INFERIORITY COMPLEX AS A MOTIVATOR FOR GROWTH.

His break with Freud led to the founding of **individual psychology**, a rival school.

Adler’s ideas influenced education, counseling, and humanistic psychology.

Jung

Embracing Freud’s emphasis on the unconscious Carl Gustav Jung (CGJ) was initially a close collaborator and admirer of Freud.

Jung proposed a broader concept: the **collective unconscious**, shared by all humans and soon started challenging Freud’s sexual theory.

Emphasizing spirituality, mythology, and the process of self-realization (#INDIVIDUATION#), CGJ introduced archetypes—universal symbolic images and motifs that shape human experience. He .

Jung's break with Freud marked the birth of **analytical psychology**, a distinct school.

Inidividual Psychology

Adler's psychology differs from the Freudian standpoint, which bases a person's psychology on sex and libido. Instead, Adler's psychology focuses on the individual's evaluation of the world with special attention to societal factors. According to Adler, a person must confront three forces: the societal, the love-related, and the vocational.These confrontations shape the final nature of a personality. Adler based his theories on a person's pre-adulthood development, emphasizing factors such as unwanted children, physical deformities at birth, and birth order.

Analytical Psychology

Analytical Psychology is Carl Jung’s system for understanding the human psyche through symbols and deep unconscious processes.

It distinguishes between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious, the latter being shared across humanity.

Core concepts include Individuation, Projection, archetypes (Shadow, Anima/Animus, the Self), Psychological types (introvert/extrovert) and functions (sensation, intuition, thinking, feeling) and Synchronicity.

Analytical Psychology values dream interpretation, active imagination, and symbolic amplification as tools for self-realization.

Individuation

Albrecht%20D%C3%BCrer%E2%80%99s%20%22Melencolia%20I%22%20(1514)

Albrecht Dürer’s "Melencolia I" (1514)

In Jungian psychology, individuation is the lifelong process of becoming one’s true self by integrating the conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche. It involves confronting inner conflicts, embracing shadow elements, and recognizing archetypal patterns to move toward psychological wholeness.

Note: Individuation is not isolation but differentiation—developing a unique identity while remaining connected to and with the collective.

Projection

Projection is the unconscious transfer of one's inner content onto others or the outer world.

It externalizes traits, desires, fears, or conflicts the ego cannot accept.

Common targets include partners, politicians, enemies, spiritual figures, and social groups.

Projection shapes relationships, perceptions, and emotional reactions without conscious awareness.

Withdrawing projections is key to individuation—becoming more whole and self-aware.

“Everything that is unconscious in ourselves we discover in our neighbor.” — C.G. Jung

Active imagination

Active imagination is a conscious method of engaging with the unconscious.

It begins with a dream image, fantasy, or emotion and unfolds through inner dialogue or creative expression.

The ego participates without controlling—allowing unconscious figures to speak for themselves.

This process can take the form of writing, drawing, movement, or visualization.

It deepens self-knowledge and integrates Shadow, Anima/Animus, or Self aspects.

Jung called it a “confrontation with the unconscious” and practiced it extensively in his Red Book.

Archetypes

“The archetype is a tendency to form such representations of a motif—representations that can vary a great deal in detail without losing their basic pattern. They are inborn forms of ‘intuition’, they are perceptions ‘a priori’, and even though the forms are unconscious, they nonetheless behave as if they were conscious ideas in that they seem to pursue certain goals. They are, indeed, an instinctive trend, as marked as the impulse of birds to build nests, or ants to form organized colonies.” (The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious §91)

Behaviorism

Behaviorism

Experimental Psychology


Constructivist Psychology

Constructivist Psychology

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic Psychology

Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Transpersonal Psychology

Transpersonal Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

Biological Psychology

Biological Psychology

Social Psychology

Social Psychology

Cultural Psychology

Cultural Psychology

Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology