The Austrian Neurologist, Sigmund Freud, stands as one of psychology’s most famous figures of the twentieth century. While his theories have been the subject of considerable controversy and debate, they have also helped to shape our views of childhood, personality, sexuality and therapy. As the founding father of psychoanalysis, Freud’s work pioneered the belief that not all mental health problems originate physiologically, but can also be the consequence of human experience, environment and culture. After studying medicine at the University of Vienna, Freud became fascinated with the emotional disorder known as Hysteria (known currently as Conversion Disorder) and through his mentor Dr. Josef Breuer became acquainted with the case study of a patient known as Anna O.  Anna O’s symptoms included paralysis (numbness), hallucinations, mood changes, and muteness. However, over the course of her treatment Anna recalled several traumatic experiences, such as the death of her father, which Freud and Breuer believed had contributed to the presentation of her symptoms. They also noted, importantly, that Anna’s symptoms were substantially relieved when she was allowed to talk at liberty about her memories, experiences and thoughts. The case of Anna O was published in Freud’s and Breuer’s 1895 work “Studies in Hysteria” and resulted in the developments of some key psychoanalytic concepts and techniques including free association, transference, unconscious resistance (Defence mechanisms) and neurosis. Other notable work included Freud’s ideas on dream interpretation, ‘Freudian slips’, stages of psychosexual development, the Oedipus complex and the inner workings of the id, ego and superego. Collectively, these works came together to form the foundations of psychoanalysis which went on to influence some of psychology’s greatest thinkers such as Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Anna Freud (Freud’s youngest daughter), Otto Rank and Ernst Jones.

Extra Reading:  “Freud: A Very Short Introduction” by Anthony Storr (2001)

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Initially, he was a great admirer of Freud’s work, and after meeting him in Vienna in 1907 the story goes that the two talked for 13 hours straight, resulting in an intense five year friendship.  However, while Freud had first thought Jung the heir apparent to psychoanalysis, the relationship between the two began to rapidly deteriorate. Freud, in particular, was unhappy with Jung’s disagreement with some of the key concepts and ideas of Freudian theory.  For example, Jung disagreed with Freud’s focus on sexuality as a key motivating behavioural force, as well as believing Freud’s concept of the unconscious as too limited and overly negative. In 1912, Jung published “Psychology of the Unconscious” outlining the clear theoretical divergence between himself and Freud, as well as forming the basic tenets of Analytical Psychology.  Jung believed the human psyche exists in three parts; the ego (the conscious mind), the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (which included Jung’s ideas concerning Archetypes). Jung likened the collective unconscious to a reservoir which stored all the experiences and knowledge of the human species, and was one of the clear distinctions between the Jungian definition of the unconscious and the Freudian.   Jung’s proof of the collective unconscious was his concept of synchronicity, or the unexplainable feelings of connectedness that we all share. Further, Jung had an inexhaustible knowledge of mythology, religion and philosophy, and was particularly knowledgeable in the symbolism connected to traditions such as Alchemy, Kabala, Buddhism and Hinduism. Utilising this vast knowledge, Jung consequently believed that humans experienced the unconscious through numerous symbols encountered in various aspects of life such as dreams, art, and religion.

While Jungian theory has numerous critics, Carl Jung’s work has left a notable impact on the field of psychology. His concepts of introversion and extraversion have contributed extensively to personality psychology and have also greatly influenced psychotherapy.

Extra Reading: “Jung: A Very Short Introduction” by Anthony Stevens (2001)

Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who was greatly influential in child psychology, particularly in her work devising therapeutic techniques for children and in her work on Object Relations Theory. Although she questioned some of the fundamental assumptions of Freudian theory, Klein was an avid admirer of Freud, and always considered herself faithful to Freudian ideology. As a divorced woman, with very few academic qualifications, Klein found herself at odds with a profession dominated by highly educated male physicians and during the start of her career this proved problematic. Despite this however, Klein had a huge impact on child psychology, particularly in Great Britain. She was the first person to use traditional psychoanalysis with young children, and after observing troubled children play with toys such as dolls, animals and plasticine, attempted to interpret the specific meaning behind children’s play. In 1932, Klein published “The Psychoanalysis of Children” presenting her observations and revisions to traditional psychoanalysis theory and method in relation to child analysis.  However, in 1938, Klein’s ideas came into conflict with those of Continental analysts such as Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalyst daughter) who had migrated to Britain.  Anna Freud was vehemently resistant to the revisions of both theory and method of psychoanalysis proposed by Klein in light of her work with young children.  After several heated debates during the 1940s between the followers of Klein and the followers of Anna Freud, the British Psychoanalytical Society split into three separate training divisions; Kleinian, Freudian (Anna) and Independent which remains to the current day.

Extra Reading: “Melanie Klein” by Dr. Julia Segal (2004)

Aaron Temkin Beck is an American psychiatrist and professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychotherapists of all time, and has been listed as one of the ten individuals who have shaped the face of American Psychiatry.  As a psychiatrist working in the early 1960s, Beck studied and practiced psychoanalysis. However, after undertaking a number of experiments to test the psychoanalytic concepts of depression, Beck found the results did not validate the theory of which he had trained and practiced.  Consequently, Beck began to investigate other ways of conceptualising depression. His investigations led him to discover that depressed patients often experienced spontaneous negative thoughts that were based around negative ideas about themselves, the world and the future. By identifying and evaluating these thoughts, Beck found that patients began to think more realistically and consequently their emotional and behavioural functioning began to improve. These observations formed the basic components of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which has been efficacious in application to a number of disorders such as depression, addiction, and anxiety.  Beck has also developed a number of self-report measures of depression and anxiety, including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Beck Youth Inventories. Beck has received numerous awards including the 2006 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for developing Cognitive Therapy, which fundamentally changed the way that psychopathology is viewed and treated. 

Extra Reading: “Aaron T. Beck” by Professor Marjorie Weishaar (1993).

Alfred Adler was an Austrian psychotherapist and founder of the School of Individual Psychology. Along with Freud and Jung, he is considered one of the key members of the psychoanalytic movement which formed a core of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. However, Freud deemed Adler’s ideas too contrary, leading to Adler breaking away from psychoanalysis to form an independent school of psychotherapy. Adler’s ideas were concerned with promoting equality in therapy, and he was one of the first psychotherapists to discard the infamous analytic couch so that the clinician and the client could sit together as equals. His most famous work is that of the inferiority complex and the problems of self esteem, which Adler linked to a number of negative human problems. Adler also argued for holism, in which therapists should view an individual holistically rather than reductively, as well as being one of the first to argue in favour of feminism. Consequently, Adler’s work and ideas are some of the most significant for modern day counselling and psychotherapy.

Extra Reading: “Understanding Life: An Introduction to the Psychology of Alfred Adler” by Alfred Adler (2009)

Albert Ellis was an American psychologist and founder of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). Based on a 1982 professional survey of US and Canadian psychologists, he was considered as the second most influential psychotherapist in history. While initially, Ellis was interested predominately in the theories of Sigmund Freud, his interests in modern and ancient philosophy as well as his own personal experiences began to influence a new theoretical direction. By 1955, Ellis had founded Rational Therapy which stressed working to change an individual’s self-defeating beliefs and behaviours by demonstrating their irrationality and rigidity. Ellis believed that through rational analysis and cognitive reconstruction, people could understand their self-defeatingness in light of their core irrational beliefs and then develop more rational thoughts and beliefs. While many of his ideas were criticised during the 1950s and 60s by the psychotherapeutic establishment, his reputation grew immensely during the preceding decades as the cognitive behavioural therapies were gaining further theoretical and scientific ground. Today, cognitive therapies are one of the most popular and efficacious treatments to mental health problems.

Extra Reading: “All Out: An Autobiography” by Albert Ellis (2009)

Martin Seligman is an American psychologist and director of the Positive psychology centre at the University of Pennsylvania. His theory of “learned helplessness” has been one of the key findings of the twentieth century and is one of the most frequently cited in introductory psychology textbooks. Seligman discovered that when an animal was repeatedly subjected to an unpleasant stimulus (and from which it cannot escape), eventually the animal will stop trying to avoid the stimulus and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation. Seligman also noted that even when an opportunity to escape was presented, “learned helplessness” will prevent the animal from doing so. From this Seligman saw strong similarities with severely depressed patients and argued that when people feel as they have no control over their circumstances they may also behave in a helpless manner and overlook opportunities to improve their situation. The implications of such work have not only been greatly influential across depressive disorders but also across a wide range of mental health problems.

Extra Reading: “Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control” by Christopher Peterson, Steven Maier and Martin Seligman (1996)

Carl Ransom Rogers was a greatly influential American psychologist and is widely considered to be of the most eminent psychologists of the 20^th century. He was among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology and his person-centred approach to understanding human personality and relationships has seen wide application in a variety of domains such as psychotherapy and education. Rogers began forming his humanistic ideas whilst working with abused children. He noted that the authoritative analysis conducted by psychoanalytical therapists prevented their clients from ever reaching what Rogers termed their self-actualization or self growth. Rogers believed that each person has within them an inherent tendency to grow, develop and change and by creating a comfortable, non-judgmental environment, the therapist can aid individuals find their own solutions to their problems. Rogers believed that for an individual to experience self-actualization they must experience “unconditional positive regard” from their therapist, which essentially means that the therapist must express complete acceptance of the client.  By having this accepting and understanding therapeutic relationship, individuals can gain the necessary insight to resolve any difficulties they may be facing.

While the person-centred approach is one of the most widely used and most popular models in psychotherapy and counselling, it has also seen significant application in cross cultural relations particularly the conflicts and challenges in South Africa and Northern Ireland. This work resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Rogers.

Extra Reading: “The Life and Work of Carl Rogers” by Howard Kirschenbaum (2007)

Edward “John” Mostyn Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and particularly his work in attachment theory.  After working with children suffering from a number of behavioural problems and the outbreak of World War II, Bowlby became particularly interested in the problem of separation and the work of other psychoanalysts looking at evacuees and orphans. By the late 1950s, he had accumulated a vast body of observational and theoretical work to indicate the fundamental importance for human development of attachment between a child and a caregiver. From this work, Bowlby formulated his theory of attachment where he believed the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers (particularly their mothers) had a tremendous impact that stayed with them throughout their life and formed a basis for later relationships. Additionally, Bowlby also proposed that attachment serves to keep the infant close to the mother and so improves the child’s chances of survival. As such, Bowlby proposed that mothers who are available and responsive to their infant’s needs establish a sense of security. Put simply, the child knows that the mother is dependable, and so by having a secure base is able to explore the world around them without fear. These ideas were taken up by Bowlby’s colleague, Mary Ainsworth, who developed a research tool called the “Strange Situation Procedure” which allowed researchers to examine the attachment bond between child and caregiver by periodically making the caregiver leave a room and leaving a stranger with the child. By monitoring the child’s response to the caregiver upon their return, researchers are able to gain an idea of the strength of attachment between caregiver and child.

Although Bowlby’s attachment theory has received numerous criticisms, not least for its focus upon the mother as the primary caregiver, attachment theory has given rise to a great surge of empirical research surrounding early child development and remains one of the key theories in the formation of children’s close relationships.

Extra Reading: “John Bowlby and Attachment Theory” by Jeremy Holmes (1993)