Neo-Freudianism

Neo-Freudianism is a psychoanalytic movement that revised Freud’s theories by giving greater weight to social relationships, culture, and interpersonal development in shaping personality.

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Karen Horney: A German-American psychoanalyst who emphasized cultural pressures, basic anxiety, and interpersonal strategies. She rejected Freud’s account of female psychology and explained neurosis through social relationships.
Psychoanalysis: A theory and therapeutic practice that investigates unconscious mental processes, conflict, and early experience. Neo-Freudianism is a revision within the broader psychoanalytic tradition.
Freudianism: The body of theories and practices developed from Freud’s psychoanalysis, including its emphasis on unconscious conflict and drives. Neo-Freudianism modifies rather than simply reproduces Freud’s original framework.
Psychosocial development: Development through interactions between psychological needs and the social demands of successive life stages. Erikson gave this model its influential stage structure and extended it across the lifespan.
Erik Erikson: A German-American psychoanalyst who described personality development through psychosocial stages across the lifespan. His lifespan model extended psychoanalytic development beyond childhood and instinctual conflict.
Sigmund Freud: An Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis and proposed influential theories of the unconscious and personality. His theories supplied the framework that Neo-Freudian thinkers adapted and criticized.
Object relations theory: A psychoanalytic tradition that explains personality through internalized relationships with significant others, especially caregivers. It shares an interpersonal focus but developed as a distinct theoretical tradition.
Interpersonal psychoanalysis: A psychoanalytic approach that explains personality and distress through recurring patterns of relationships. Sullivan’s work became a distinct tradition built around the movement’s relational emphasis.
Alfred Adler: An Austrian physician who founded individual psychology, emphasizing social interest and striving to overcome inferiority. His break with Freud helped establish the social emphasis later associated with Neo-Freudianism.
Unconscious mind: Mental processes and contents that influence thought and behavior without being consciously accessible. Neo-Freudians retained unconscious motivation while broadening its social and cultural sources.