What is the difference between the psychoanalytic perspective and behaviorism?

Before moving on to the topic of the Behavioral School of Psychology (first half of the twentieth century) I want to make a brief comparison between the two competing schools, the former emerging from the field of Mental Health and Mental Illness, and the latter emerging within the field of  Science. Both were a departure from traditional dualist models of mind, the key difference is that Psychoanalysis began as a theory of both mind and behaviour, while the Behaviourists focused exclusively on behaviour believing that it was impossible to study the mind directly in the scientific sense because it was not objectively observable or measurable.

In a sense both were right but they were also both wrong. Here’s how:

1. Freud’s theory (Psychoanalysis) was theoretical, derived mainly from experience and case study research. Although it’s arguably the first bio-psycho-social theory, it relied predominantly on a theory about the structure of the unconscious mind, which tells us nothing about how the mind works in a scientific sense. Freud’s theory of development attempted to explain the mind at a time when no one actually knew anything about the nature of the human mind in terms of how it actually develops and how it functions. Assumptions led to a focus that was exclusively about childhood and personality development. It resulted in a lot of blaming of parents, especially mothers because the main assumption was the that the parent-child relationship was at the core of psychological development. No one would argue that parent-child relationships are not extremely important, but many therapists assume that all psychological problems have their origins in parent-child relationships.   Actually, infants come into the world with biological traits and predispositions to develop in particular directions and although childhood is a critical time for development we continue to develop throughout our lives. Freud was wrong about personality, and his concept of ‘ego’ or ‘self’ is not supported by scientific research. Nonetheless, Psychoanalysis was certainly a move in the direction of science having been influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was a complete theory that attempted to explain everything about human behaviour, and remains popular to the present day, although not in the mainstream of psychology which is now a scientific field. Psychoanalysis has continued to exist as an independent school of Psychology greatly influencing therapy, social science, and the arts.
2. Behaviourism also fell short when compared to the way that we carry out scientific research today. It started with a belief that all human behaviour is learned and conditioned through the environment, and set out to demonstrate how this works. Nowadays, scientists test theories and attempt to disprove them rather than the other way round. In a sense, Behaviorism was more like Psychoanalysis than contemporary Psychology. Both were strongly influenced by the same cultural view of human nature. Yet the Behaviorists only focused on one side of the equation. In fairness, the famous Behaviorist John Watson wrote in 1913 that psychology researchers would eventually discover methods to study phenomena like mind and language. Similar to the Behaviourists, Freud maintained that internalised behaviours were essential so that people could adapt their natural inclinations to the needs of society allowing them to function effectively in the world.  Behaviourists were able to explain how this internalisation works, but in time psychologists and scientists discovered that there’s a lot more involved. Behaviourism did not survive as an independent school of Psychology. However, their discoveries, which have been greatly refined by testing, remain important in the field of psychology today.