The Three Viennese Schools of Psychotherapy: What Drives Human Behaviour – The Career Project

Vienna, the capital city of Austria, was the hometown of three of the most famous psychotherapists who have formed much of how the modern-day western world views psychiatric therapy. Together the theories and work of Freud, Adler and Frankl comprise what is referred to as the 3 Viennese Schools of Psychiatric Therapy.

We’ll examine and compare each school of thought in a minute. Very first let’s think about the question: what is psychiatric therapy?

What is Pyschotherapy?

The term ‘psychotherapy’ covers a wide variety of techniques and approaches utilized in therapy. These methods can use sessions that involve one to one talking. Or, more active and larger group therapies that utilize role-play, or even dance.

The overall objective of psychotherapy is help us to explore our emotions. With the help of certified experts, psychiatric therapy aids us in learning how to express our emotions. It likewise teaches us to increase our self-confidence and to acquire a much deeper insight into the concerns we face.

Psychiatric therapies and theories have been established all over the world as attempts to discuss what inspires behavior. Behavioral treatment, cognitive analytic therapy or transpersonal psychotherapy are all examples of widely known treatments that fall under the psychotherapeutic umbrella.

One particular European city that has played a big part in the development of psychotherapy is Vienna. Throughout the previous one hundred years, Vienna has actually introduced three schools of psychotherapy by 3 really famous (or infamous) Gentlemen.

Initially an individual anecdote that I should confess … I spent a weekend in Vienna once and found it a fairly dull city. Perhaps perhaps I was trying to find fun in the wrong locations (nightclubs and not museums). I do want I ‘d invested more time knowing and checking out the influential work of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and Viktor Frankl. Let’s do that together right now.

1. Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis

Possibly a little infamous, Sigmund Freud has to be among the most discussed and disputed psychologists of perpetuity. Many academics dislike him, calling him out for having little scientific support and for being a bit delusional and totally mad. Personally, I do think his ideas are a little bit strange and controversial. Yet, I admire his creativity, vitality and his contribution to psychology and western culture.

Sigmund Freud was the starting daddy of ‘psychoanalysis’ in 1896. Which, at the time, was a completely new method to the understanding of human character and was the very first Viennese school of psychiatric therapy.

Undeniably, Freuds most enduring and recognized idea was that the human psyche (our character) is composed of more than just one aspect. Freud proposed there are three parts of our personality: the id, the ego and the superego.

According to Freud, the id is the instinctual part of the mind. It includes our sexual and aggressive drives and our deeply concealed and repressed memories. Lots of envision this id as a child, desperate for immediate pleasure. The super-ego is more like a smart angel. It operates as our ethical conscience and is motivated by always doing what is right.

Finally, our ego is the reasonable and conscious part of our personality. The ego has the tricky task of moderating and fixing the dispute between the desires of the id and super-ego. This is what inspires our behavior, in addition to experiences from our youth.

Regardless of our ego inspiring our behavior, Freud proposed that due to the fact that so much of our behavior is unconscious, when we explain our inspirational behavior we hardly ever provide a real account of our inspiration.

2. Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology

A little less known than Freud, Alfred Adler was a joint founder of the psychoanalytic movement. Adler went a different way to Freud and introduced the concept of private psychology. Adler declares that our behavior is encouraged by our striving for superiority and power, based upon this point of view,.

Adler’s approach is focused around the idea that the primary driving force of our behavior is the principle of inferiority. Adler explains that we are all born into the world with a sense of inferiority as we are born weak and helpless. As we don’t like to feel weak or inferior, we invest our lives aiming to conquer this sense of inferiority and to reach our self-ideal. In general, this inspiration is good and motivates us to be the very best versions of our self.

In excess we can establish an inferiority complex. This means we end up being overwhelmed with the efforts to end up being the best variation of our self. Adler’s model of individual psychology is a holistic design, because he thinks that we operate at an uncomfortable and entire system. Social interaction and relationships with others are what Adler firmly thinks help our comprehend of human habits. And due to this, we have our will to power and the desire to move towards our objectives and better ourselves.

Alder described that every individual is distinct and that our personality structure is unique. In order to understand what inspires us, we need to discover our worths and presumptions.

3. Viktor Frankl and Logotherapy

The 3rd and last Viennese school of psychiatric therapy is logotherapy, introduced by Viktor Frankl after he spent lots of years of suffering in a prisoner-of-war camp.

Logotherapy is based on the concept that the main driving aspect of human habits and our inspiration is our look for meaning. Frankl strongly believed that life has suggesting under all circumstances which it is our one job to discover this significance. Frankl’s therapy focuses on the concept that we will all deal with some sort of suffering in our lives. But, it is not our suffering that causes despair, rather it is the feeling that we have absolutely nothing left to live for throughout our time of suffering.

Once we have actually discovered the meaning in our situations, our life quality will be significantly enhanced. Hence, we are inspired to discover this meaning. Importantly, Frankl believed that when people stop working to discover significance, they will turn to the pursuit of enjoyment or power (see Freud and Adler) in the wish to fill a space.

For Frankl, significance is the crucial and the pursuit of enjoyment or power comes just in the absence of finding true significance.

Concluding the three Viennese schools of psychiatric therapy

Thanks for tuning in and I hope you have discovered this article is insightful and valuable. Lots of individuals don’t understand about the three Viennese schools of psychotherapy. So, I hope this post has actually provided you with a brief, however interesting, insight.