Freud and Jung

Introduction At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new revolutionary way of understanding the mind had a great impact, not only in the science of psychology, but in all Western culture and in most of the aspects of society. Psychoanalysis adopted an important role, which still remains in our modern life, and Sigmund Freud was the responsible for it. Nevertheless, during this time, Carl Gustav Jung developed an important theory, making an immense contribution to psychology. Jung didn’t just criticize psychoanalysis in order to improve it but he also provided different perspectives and new ideas with the aim of trying to understand in a more complete sense the human being, its abysmal inside world and its relations with the outside world. Jung established the pillars of the school of “Analytical Psychology”. In the following paragraphs different aspects of the theories of these two important figures in the history of psychology will be revised and contrasted. Finally, the main weakness of Freud’s and Jung’s ideas will be presented in order to explain why it is complicated to consider their work and theories as science in its proper sense.

Theories and contrasts Freud developed a dynamic psychology in which the individual is seen as an energy system. He named the energy dedicated for mental processes and psychological work: ‘psychic energy’ and completed his theory by establishing a structure of the personality, composed by three systems (Id, Ego and Superego) through which the psychic energy is transformed and exchanged. Therefore, to Freud, a mentally healthy person was an individual with a “unified and harmonious organization” (Hall, 1964, p. 43) of these three structures. The Id, Ego and Superego co-operate allowing the individual to transit satisfactorily through its environment in order to achieve his/her desires and needs. Jung focused his work in the understanding and development of what he called the arquetypes, as he considered them really