Sandor Rado's Research On Psychoanalysis

Sandor Rado(1890-1972)was an Hungarian psychoanalyst and educator. He belonged to the second generation of psychoanalytic pioneers, he began as a thorough and loyal follower of Freud, and had made a significant contribution to the psychoanalytic theory and clinical technologies. In terms of theory, on the basis of following, absorbing, and making an doubt of Freud's theory, Rado formulated his adaptational psychodynamics. He claimed that the adaptational psychodynamics should be looked at as the basic component of a comprehensive dynamics of human behavior, its emphasis is on the part played by motivation and control in the organism's interaction with its cultural environment. Rado's frame of reference for evaluation of behavior was adaptation, the evaluation included the changes the individual makes to internal stimuli and to his external environment which help him "to survive, to reproduce, and to realize himself culturally." He felt man's greatest aid in solving internal struggles was conscience developed through man's adaptation. Not only did Rado stress the adaptive and integrative function of the emotions in normal behavior, but he also made them the source of abnormal behavior.Rado's most contribution to clinical technology was his adaptational technique, it worked on the "self-reliant level" and "aspiring level" of treatment behavior. This approach emphasized "welfare emotions(pleasurable desire, joy, love and pride)", it was a "re-educational process" as Freud had called it, as Rado added, is an "emotional re-educational process". Moreover, Rado objected to transference, he claimed that the doctor should pay attention to the current life performance of the patient, without being the scapegoat of their rage.Rado's contributions to psychoanalysis primarily cover enriching the theory of classical psychoanalysis, developing psychoanalytic treatment techniques and innovating the psychoanalytic training curriculum. The main limitations of his theory consisted in the following aspects, having not got rid of the tendency of biology in Freud's theory and not formed his own theoretical system. In addition, Rado had an influence of ego psychology to some degree.