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Psychoanalytic and Neopsychoanlytic approaches to Freud, Jung, and Adler

Psychoanalytic and Neo-Psychoanalytic Approaches to Fantasy

Fairy tales play a vital role in the child 's life . Fairy tales fantasies , offer sanctity and peace in a world full of chaos . They provide an enjoyable source of entertainment . They play an integral role in children 's growth and development . In this , the Freudian and Neo-Freudian perspectives given by Jung and Adler will be analyzed in relation to fantasies . Freud regarded fantasies as the chief content of dreams and as a means of escape from reality . He described id as the biological drive , which

has an innate craving for pleasure . In the absence of gratification , id produces fantasies of satisfaction Children many a times satisfy their longings by fantasizing themselves in place of some fairy tale character . Ego , on the other hand , provides the reality check and superego is the storehouse of moral conduct Anxiety results from the tussle between the three states : id , ego , and superego . Britzman (1998 ) explained these three states as follows

The unconscious wishes to do whatever it wants without regard for others , consequences , social convention , logic . One might call this wish the "force of Eros " But this interferes with the ego 's wish to forget , ignore , and turn away from that which the ego cannot stand or bear to know . In this conflicted through indirection , in new and disguised forms such as negation , dreams , slips of the tongue , baffling and bungled actions , jokes , fantasy , irreverence (p .7

Freud said that there are many sources of suffering , fantasy being one of them (Britzman , 1998 ,

. 9 . Freud 's theory of Oedipus complex based on a myth , is about the story of a Greek king Oedipus who married his own mother after massacring his father . Freud based his theories on the concept of fantasies akin to myths , though myths are more dramatic versions of fantasies , which act as an escape mechanism for children and grown ups

Jung 's theory dealt with collective unconscious and archetypes . The contents of collective unconscious are called archetypes (Boeree 2006 . Grander examples ' of collective unconscious are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times , or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions , or the parallels in dreams , fantasies , mythologies , fairy tales , and literature (2006 . Likewise , fairy tales are the symbolic representation of all the good , bad , evil in the world . Adler , inspired by Hans Vaihinger , propounded the Philosophy of As If . They together proposed that we use fictions ' in daily life in the absence of ultimate truths , which Adler called , fictional finalism (Boeree 2006

These theories stated above , demonstrate the basis of the fear of fantasy by parents . However , it is justified only to the extent that the children refuse to outgrow them and use it as a way to avoid facing reality . According to Freud , people use defense mechanisms to control their anxiety . The various ego defense mechanisms which are used in dealing with anxiety are sublimation , repression , projection , denial etc . Denial is...

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