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To resolve neuroses, patient on couch tells in free association all that comes into his mind, especially about early trauma (shock). Since infancy and much of childhood are consciously "forgotten," these experiences must be recaptured with the help of the language of dreams—perhaps the most important single tool of analysis. There is no absolute symbolism (snakes may be phallic to one dreamer but to another merely reminiscent of a trip to the zoo), hence no universal key to the meaning of dreams. Analysis is complete when the patient has developed social responsibility, having dredged up all pertinent childhood traumas, recognized his unconscious Oedipal and other socially unacceptable impulses, and learned at a deep emotional level rather than a superficial intellectual level to live with such id-bits.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937) developed "individual psychology," which denies the overriding importance of infantile sexuality, argues that sexual maladjustments are a symptom, not a cause of neurosis. Adler gave inferiority complex to the language, said infants have inferiority feelings because they are small, helpless. Lack of parental tenderness, neglect or ridicule may make these feelings neurotic. Natural tendency is to seek compensation by becoming superior, hence open struggle for naked power. Power drives are often neurotic because directed to impractical goals. Emphasized ego over id.
Carl Gustav Jung of Zurich holds that primal libido, or life force, is composed of both sexual and nonsexual energy, accepts an individual unconscious similar to Freud's but sees also a collective unconscious containing man's "racial memories." Within this are emotional stereotypes (archetypes) common to all races of man, e.g., the Jovian figure of the "old, wise man," the earth-mother. In Jungian "analytical psychology," the analyst participates more actively than in Freudian analysis. Jung aims especially at people over 40, largely because he believes they most feel the need of a religious outlook, which he encourages.
Otto Rank (1884-1939) went Freud one better, held that Oedipal feelings came too late to be decisive. Real trouble, said he, was birth trauma—the shock of having to leave the warm security of the womb for the harsh reality of separate life. Anxiety caused by this experience formed sort of reservoir which should seep away gradually during maturation. If it persisted, then neurosis set in. Rank hoped to shorten analysis by going back to birth trauma, ignoring most of childhood.
Karen Horney (1885-1952) applied the thinking of anthropologists and sociologists to psychoanalysis, gave great weight to cultural factors in neurosis. Rejected Freud's biological orientation, emphasized importance of present life situation. Modified Adler's concept of neurotic goals, adding that these contain their own sources of anxiety. Thus in coping with one difficulty, patient may set up neurotic defenses which bring on new difficulties, and so on. Widely remembered for her unfortunately titled book, Self-Analysis (1942), which is no do-it-yourself kit for cracks in the psyche.