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[[Freudian ]] [[psychoanalytic ]] [[theory ]] did not long remain the only method of explaining the [[human ]] [[personality]]. Even during [[Freud]]'s lifetime, alternatives were offered by a [[number ]] of [[other ]] theorists, resulting in a splintering of [[psychological ]] [[thought]].

Freud's theory of [[psychoanalysis ]] was built on the assumption that human beings have an [[unconscious ]] [[mind]]. This [[unconscious mind]], with its hidden [[drives ]] and [[instincts]], is what drives [[behavior]]. And since the unconscious is so pervasive and directive, it determines behavior, or to say it more philosophically, is deterministic. Psychoanalysis is a highly deterministic approach to human behavior because it assumes that behavioral patterns established in youth determine one's behavior later in [[life]]. This deterministic presupposition is in large part what made Freud's theory so intriguing and controversial.

Yet despite the controversy, psychoanalysis spread rapidly within professional circles and attracted some of the brightest physicians of the day. This included both Alfred Adler and Carl [[Jung]], two names that would become synonymous with Freud as much for their alliance as for their eventual [[split]].

Alfred Adler, a medical doctor with a deep interest in [[psychology ]] and human [[nature]], met Freud in their native [[Vienna ]] in 1900 at a medical conference where Freud presented his new [[ideas ]] [[about ]] [[dreams ]] and the unconscious. Freud's radical ideas were met with scorn and open hostility, as they often were during these early years of the psychoanalytic movement. Adler, one of the few who had recognized the brilliance of Freud's first major [[work]], The [[Interpretation ]] of Dreams, was dismayed by the proceedings and came to Freud's [[defense ]] in an article he wrote for a medical journal. In the article, he demanded that Freud's views be given the respect and attention they deserved. Adler soon joined the circle of psychologists who gathered at Freud's home on Wednesday evenings for animated [[discussion]], debate, and collaboration about emerging [[psychoanalytic theory]]. Buttressed by his loyal supporters, many of [[them ]] insightful psychologists and original thinkers in their own [[right]], Freud's movement grew as his seminal ideas gradually [[captured ]] the [[imagination ]] of intellectuals throughout [[Europe]], England, and America. Adler was for a [[time ]] the president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic [[Association ]] and the editor of its journal. Yet there had always been differences between Adler's views and Freud's, and over the years, these differences became increasingly [[apparent ]] and problematic. First,A group of prominent psychologists at Clark [[University]], Massachusetts, in 1909. In the front row are ([[left ]] to right) [[Sigmund Freud]], G. Stanley Hall, and [[Carl Jung]]. (Copyright Bettmann/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.)A group of prominent psychologists at [[Clark University]], Massachusetts, in 1909. In the front row are (left to right) Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, and Carl Jung. (Copyright Bettmann/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.)Adler never accepted Freud's views about the overarching [[significance ]] of [[infantile ]] [[sexual ]] [[trauma]]. Freud was typically intolerant of disagreement, though, and in a dramatic and politically charged break, Adler resigned his posts in 1911, leaving Freud's circle along with a group of eight colleagues to found his own [[school ]] of psychology. He and Freud never met again.

[[Individual ]] psychology Adler then took his ideas and his followers and began what he called [[individual psychology]], which was based on the [[idea ]] of the indivisibility of the personality. His most significant divergence from Freud's theory was his [[belief ]] that the human [[being ]] is a [[whole ]] person, not a conglomeration of mechanisms, drives, or [[dynamic ]] parts. And in contrast to most psychological [[thinking ]] of the time, Adler believed that human beings are fundamentally [[self]]-determined. Central to his therapeutic approach, and in direct [[conflict ]] with Freud's views, was his belief that [[people ]] always have [[control ]] over their lives; their choices are what shape them. "Individual Psychology breaks through the theory of [[determinism]]," Jung wrote. "No [[experience ]] is a [[cause ]] of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences—the socalled trauma—but we make out of them just what suits our purposes. We are self-determined by the [[meaning ]] we give to our experiences." Adler's emphasis on the [[wholeness ]] of the person and the fact that our values inevitably shape our experience led to his conviction that, in the end, there is only one [[true ]] meaning to human life: care and [[love ]] for our fellow [[humans]]. "There have always been men who [[understood ]] this fact; who knew that the meaning of life is to be interested in the whole of mankind and who tried to develop [[social ]] interest and love. In all [[religions ]] we find this concern for the salvation of man." For Adler, it is only this meaning, this interpretation of our experience as it pertains to the whole of humankind that leads to the genuine [[mental ]] health and [[happiness ]] of the individual.

Analytical psychology Carl Jung met Freud in 1907, after he sent Freud a report on some of his early research in the psychotherapeutic [[technique ]] of [[word ]] association, to which Freud responded with an invitation to meet him in Vienna. Jung lived in Zurich, where he was practicing [[psychiatry ]] and teaching at Zurich University. At that first meeting in Freud's home, the two men talked "virtually without a pause for thirteen hours." Each was captivated by the other's [[genius ]] and passionate interest in psychology, and they began a close correspondence in which they exchanged letters as often as [[three ]] [[times ]] a week. Jung quickly stepped into a leading [[role ]] in the psychoanalytic movement, becoming a staunch defender and chief disseminator of Freud's ideas. Freud confided to Jung that he saw him as his "successor and crown prince," and Jung became, for all concerned, Freud's heir apparent. From the beginning, Jung found Freud's theories about [[repression ]] and the unconsciousto be ingenious explanations of much of what he was finding in his work with his own [[patients]]. But, as Adler did, he struggled with Freud's [[insistence ]] on the primacy of the sexual [[drive]].

There was [[another ]] significant tension between Freud and Jung, however. Jung had a burgeoning interest in [[world ]] religions, mythology, and [[alchemy]], interests with which Freud had little patience. In fact, Freud was by this time openly atheistic and viewed [[religion ]] as inferior to [[science]]. In contrast, [[religious ]] imagery and occultism had in fact been a recurring [[fascination ]] for Jung, and he had had several "paranormal" experiences and encounters with [[psychic ]] mediums during his youth.

A major turning point in Jung's [[intellectual ]] career was his book [[Symbols ]] of Transformation, researched and written between 1909 and 1912, while he was still Freud's champion spokesman and organizer. Jung immersed himself in a world of mythology, [[fantasy]], and preverbal imagery. "The whole [[thing ]] came upon me like a landslide that cannot be stopped," he wrote of his work during this period. "It was the explosion of all those psychic [[contents ]] which could find no room, no breathing [[space]], in the constricting atmosphere of Freudian psychology and its narrow outlook."

In 1914 Jung broke with Freud to develop his own school of psychology. His analytical psychology emphasized the interpretation of the [[psyche]]'s symbols from a [[universal ]] mythological perspective rather than a personal biographical one. Jung believed that the psyche has a collective ancestry that goes back millions of years. He argued that the psyche was made up of what he termed archetypes, which are primordial [[images ]] inherited from our ancestors. As support for such a theory, he spoke of the immediate attachment infants have for their [[mother]], the inevitable [[fear ]] of the dark seen in young [[children]], and how images such as the sun, moon, wise old man, angels, and [[evil ]] all seem to be predominant themes throughout [[history]]. The aim of life, according to Jung, is to [[know ]] oneself. He thought the best way to do that is to explore both the personal unconscious and the [[collective unconscious]].Other [[schools ]] of thought

[[Object ]] relations Freud used the word "object" to refer to any person, object, or [[activity ]] that can [[satisfy ]] an instinctive [[desire]]. In his view, the first object in an [[infant]]'s life that can gratify such a desire is the mother's [[breast]]. As the [[child ]] grows, other people become desire-gratifying [[objects ]] in a variety of different ways.

[[Object relations ]] theory owes its roots to Freud but diverged on a different path. Its core principles focus on interpersonal relationships with these objects, whereas Freud emphasized the [[instinctual ]] drives themselves with little attention given to a child's actual [[relationship ]] to the object. Object relations theorists see the social and environmental influences on personality, particularly between the mother and child, as crucial to the [[development ]] of personality and the child's [[sense ]] of self or ego. Object relations is closely aligned with what is also known in professional circles as [[ego psychology]]. Two well-known pioneers in [[object relations theory ]] are Melanie [[Klein ]] and Heinz Kohut. Klein's early career overlapped Freud's later years, and Kohut's began around the time of Freud's [[death]].

Karen Horney Karen Horney was trained as a Freudian [[psychoanalyst ]] in Berlin and is considered one of the first modern feminists. From 1914 to 1918 she underwent psychoanalytic [[training ]] at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute and later became a faculty member there. Though initially devoted to Freud's systematic paradigm of psychoanalysis, she eventually disputed several of his key [[concepts]]. In [[particular ]] she took issue with his view on unchanging [[biological ]] forces as the determining factors for personality development. She denied the high status of sexual factors in his theory, including the [[Oedipal ]] [[complex]], the concepts of [[libido]], and the three-part [[structure ]] of the personality (id, ego, and [[superego]]). In fact, she left Freud's psychoanalytic circle over his views that [[women ]] have poorly developed superegos and [[inferiority ]] [[feelings ]] about their bodies because they [[lack ]] a [[penis]]. She countered Freud's view by saying that men have "womb [[envy]]," an unconscious desire for a womb.

As more has been learned about child development since Freud's theories were first launched, there has been an increasing lack of support for some of his assumptions about the human personality. Perhaps none of his ideas have met with as much criticism as his [[psychosexual ]] [[stages ]] of development. While many modern-day clinicians still find aspects of his stages helpful, most do not adhere to the presupposition of sexual conflict being the central task of [[developmental ]] maturity. Thus, concepts like Oedipal and Electra [[complexes ]] are held by a very small minority of professionals overall.

Another criticism of Freud concerns his training as a physician and his extensive reliance on a medical [[model ]] to develop his theory of psychoanalysis. His strong emphasis on [[pathology ]] causes him to label behavior as "problematic" or "inappropriate" that most in contemporary times would classify as [[normative ]] or common to the [[human condition]]. In other [[words]], he is accused by some of "creating" [[psychopathology ]] when it may not be anything out of the ordinary human experience.

Example: Data collection and report Freud's methods of collecting data from his patients have also drawn much criticism by scholars. The following [[represent ]] some of the most prominent concerns:

Freud did not make verbatim transcripts of his conversations with patients. If he made [[notes ]] at all it was typically hours after the interaction. Critics [[claim ]] that important data would inevitably be lost because [[recall ]] of specific details would fade the longer the interval between [[analysis ]] and recording. This opened up the possibility that there were important omissions and distortions of the original data.

Because a central component of Freud's theory involved interpretation of a [[patient]]'s disclosures, some critics claim that Freud could have easily [[recalled ]] and recorded only what he wanted to hear or selectively chosen those aspects that would support his assumptions.

Freud claimed that a high percentage of his [[female ]] clients had experienced sexual abuse as children, often by their fathers. Some have suggested that Freud used suggestive or even coercive procedures to elicit or plant [[memories ]] of child sexual abuse in his patients. Freud himself later acknowledged that some recollections by his patients may have been [[fantasies ]] they imagined. He even left the door open to the possibility, though he did not explicitly [[state ]] it as fact, that he may have influenced their [[recollection ]] in a coercive way.

Researchers have found discrepancies between Freud's notes and those cases histories on which those notes were supposedly based. This is a difficult problem to trace because Freud destroyed most of his patient files. Freud only published six [[case ]] histories, and none are considered to be compelling evidence for the soundness of psychoanalysis. One of the cases he published was not even one of his patient, but that of another physician.

Even if Freud's recollections of events discussed in [[therapy ]] were completely accurate, the reports given to him by patients may not have matched [[reality]]. Freud is known to have spent little time verifying accounts about patient's [[childhood ]] experiences, especially those accusing [[family ]] members of sexual abuse. Critics argue that he should have questioned family members to determine the accuracy of patient reports.

Critics have also pointed out that Freud's theories are based upon a very small homogenous sample group made up almost exclusively of upper-[[class ]] Austrian women. Not only is it limited in [[gender ]] and geographical location, but it is also influenced by a late nineteenth century [[society ]] that was Victorian in manner, which manifested as sexually [[repressed]]. Such a sample, many contend, made Freud's focus on sex simply a [[reflection ]] of the time period more than a determinant of personality.

Example: Is psychoanalysis science? Some psychologists claim that psychoanalysis is [[good ]] science, [[others ]] that it is bad science, and still others that it is not science at all. Those who believe psychoanalysis is good science are no [[doubt ]] the minority based on findings in the latter half of the twentieth century. Surprisingly, not all [[psychoanalysts ]] fall into this group. Rather, a fair number of psychoanalysts are willing to concede that psychoanalysis is not science and that it was never meant to be science. Instead, they claim that it is more like a worldview that helps people see connections that they otherwise would miss.

It is questionable whether Freud himself thought of his theory of psychoanalysis as science. Despite the growing popularity of psychoanalysis for therapy during his lifetime and beyond, Freud admittedly had little personal interest in the potential [[treatment ]] [[value ]] of his [[system]]. His primary concern was not to [[cure ]] his patients but rather to explain the dynamics of human behavior. Though he thought of himself as a [[scientist ]] more than a therapist, he did not apply [[scientific ]] methods to how he gathered or [[analyzed ]] the work upon which his theory was built.