Freud is today firmly established as the greatest thinker of the 20th century, along with Marx and Darwin. However, the reality is that Freud’s ideas are rarely used to explain coaching. Why is that?
Freud’s “The Dream Judgment,” written in 1900, is heavily criticized, partly because it offered an interpretation that was incompatible with the common sense of the time. The book did not sell at all, and it is said that Freud himself became depressed because of it. Then, Adler appeared on the scene. He highly praised Freud’s “The Dream Judgment” and presented an argument in defense of the criticism and slander. Freud was pleased and invited Adler to the “Wednesday Night Club” in November 1902.
As Freud’s reputation grew, the “Wednesday Night Club” developed into the famous “Psychoanalytic Circle,” and in 1910 the “International Psychoanalytic Association” was founded.
However, Adler defected from Freud in 1911? It is pointed out that this was partly because the two men’s views on human nature had become markedly different, but also because Freud had nominated Jung, who was not Jewish, to be the first president of the association.
Jung also later parted company with Freud. Jung will be discussed in the Coaching Encyclopedia.
In treating patients, Freud went back to the past and focused on the relationship with parents in childhood. He uses the “free association method,” a psychoanalytic technique, to understand the “emotional transference,” in which the patient directs his feelings toward a specific person, such as his parents, etc. He then approaches the unconscious layer of the patient, appropriately handling the “resistance” that the patient falls into for reasons such as “I don’t want to continue this because it is painful” or “I am afraid to know my own inner self.
Now, please pay attention to the word “patient. The English word is patient. In coaching, it becomes client. In coaching, it becomes a client, a customer. In other words, for Freud, the patient is the one who needs to be treated, and he is the doctor, the teacher.
Adler, however, goes beyond that. Adler, like Freud, is a doctor, but he is more concerned with healthy people. In other words, Adler was a “social enlightener,” a man who expanded his circle of activities in the hope that a “sense of community” would spread and take root in society as a whole. Adler is “future-oriented. We can see in him the “father of coaching,” who had a great influence on the formation of the concept of coaching.
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This article was written in Japanese and converted into English using a translation tool. We hope you will forgive us for any inadequacies.
Coach Business Laboratory, Inc., which operates the Coaching Information Bureau, provides coaching training for companies, business coaching for business people, and life coaching for individuals. In addition, we operate a coaching school for those who want to learn coaching and hold seminars for executives and business leaders. If you are interested or have any questions, please feel free to contact us for further information and consultation.
