¶ … Psychoanalytic and Humanistic Perspectives on the Person Conflicting, Co-Existing or Complementary Psychoanalytic And Humanistic Perspectives On A Person

Humanistic and psychoanalytic perspectives have played an active role in influencing how we think of ourselves for a long time. Both humanistic and psychoanalytic psychology are perspectives that are conflicting, commentary and co-existing. According to scholars, the psychoanalytic perspective and revolves around an outsider's viewpoint and an insider's viewpoint of a psychoanalyst. Conversely, the humanistic standpoint privileges the insider viewpoint making an individual believe his or her own accounts to be unproblematic. This report endeavors to explain about the extent at which humanistic and psychoanalytic perspectives on an individual co-exist, complement, or conflict.

Extent at which they are conflicting

Both the humanistic and psychoanalytic psychology tend to have different models of what an individual entails. Both psychologies have different stands on fixity and the possibility of change. They also tend to produce distinctive ideas about the appropriate therapy types for any individual. Humanistic psychology tends to place greater emphasis on the potential of people and conscious awareness to initiate change in their lives deliberately. In contrast, psychoanalytic perspectives emphasize an individual's experience as well as on their assumption that individuals are never aware of the motivations that govern their experience and actions.

Humanistic psychologists believe that conscious awareness is vital to an individual's ability to accomplish personal growth. However, psychoanalysts...

This enables them to understand the processes of unconscious and their influence an individual's life.
Humanistic therapies use a patient's verbal cues of their inner involvements to focus on understanding of their subjectivity. This maintains the insider viewpoint of the client. Humanistic therapists do not step back into the outsider viewpoint. For this reason, they make their own elucidations as they distrust the validity and relevance of this. Instead, humanistic therapists encourage their patients to make their personal choices and work towards achieving awareness of their own feelings. In contrast, psychoanalysts use a diversity of information and consider insider accounts of their patients. They tend to listen to the inner experiences of their patients such as memories they had in childhood. They also use incomplete verbal reports such as dreams, free associations, slips of action and neurotic system.

Extent to which they are complementary

In the recent past, there has been an increase in the number of psychologists found outside psychoanalysis that use psychoanalytical methods and ideas in their research. This also applies for humanistic psychology where individuals tend to use psychoanalytical methods and ideas when carrying out their research. This cross-fertilization and eclecticism help in maintaining the social relevance of psychology and its cutting edge.

In relation to biological drives, humanistic perspectives view biology as one of the influences rather than a determinant of human psychology. They also believe that individuals help in shaping…