Monday, March 25, 2013

Who am I, and how do I fix that?

There are many different ways to think about you, dozens of different psychological theories.  I love theories. I love big picture. I like to understand everything at a high level.  If I could be in college for the rest of my life and study whatever I found interesting, I probably would. Unfortunately, they try to make you specialize and spend 5 years getting a Ph.D. and doing research in a specialized field.  I don't think I could ever commit my life researching a single topic, let alone a specialized sub-topic. As one of my favorite professors liked to say(shout), "but I digress!"

I have yet to find a solid outline of the different psychological theories, and I want to consolidate my understanding of how to think about my self, so I'm taking an amateurish shot at writing one that covers the points I think are important to help me understand me. So enjoy, future me! And thanks to wikipedia.

Freud-
You are an Id, Ego, and Superego. Your issues are a result of your subconscious drives and conflicts between the three parts of you. In order to understand 'you', you must understand your subconscious.  Freud liked to cite the subconscious drive to reproduce as the underlying reason for many issues. Most people don't think that sex is the underlying purpose for everything, as Freud did. He makes a some good cases though, and is humble enough to admit that 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.'

Rogers-
You are a unified, singular, person.Your issues are a result of 'incongruence'. People want 'self actualization' and 'positive self regard', often people sacrifice one of these for the other, leading to incongruence.  For example, a young student thinks that the most important goal in life is starting a career. This young student is trading the pursuit of 'self-actualization' and process of finding himself by taking liberal arts classes and freely spending time on individual interests, for the 'positive self regard' that comes from getting a job in Manhattan with an international auditing and consulting firm.  These incongruencies manifest as defense mechanisms such as 'distortion' and 'denial', which are used to protect the 'self concept'.  For example, that student with the positive self regard as a result of his pursuit of the career has distortion issues where he thinks his public accounting career path to be the absolute best and the only way to success in accounting.

Adler-
All people strive to belong and feel significant. A lot of your personality is influenced by the social context of your life such as birth order, lifestyle, parent's education level, etc. The primary 'inferiority complex' born out of your years as a helpless child. The secondary 'inferiority complex' results from your inability to live up to your 'idealized self'. The degree to which your perceived self varies from your idealized self is the degree to which you have some psychological issues.



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