One of Freud's greatest mistakes was to assume that the same motive (anxiety reduction) accounts for both normal personality traits and mental illnesses. This assumption blurred the distinction between normal and abnormal. Over the years Freud's followers confused sadness for depression; organizing behavior for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; competitiveness for anger; autism for psychosis; and various autoimmune inflammations for psychosomatic disorder.
Freud made three assumptions that laid the basis for over-diagnoses of mental illness. First, he assumed that both normal personality traits and mental illness originate in childhood. Second, Freud asserted that both are caused by an unconscious mind. Third, he assumed that both are motivated by anxiety reduction.
In contrast to Freud's theory of the unconscious mind, the multifaceted theory of conscious intrinsic motivation implies that personality traits are normal expressions of intrinsically held values. Whereas some therapists say that Tiger Woods's philandering was motivated by an unconscious self-destructiveness or recklessness, motivation theory suggests that conscious sexual desire combined with low need for honor are more likely motives. Whereas some have suggested that basketball coach Bobby Knight's outbursts were caused by impulse or aggressive disorder, motivation theory suggests that conscious intrinsic valuation of winning is a more likely motive. To those who say that Michael Moore is a troublemaker, motivation theory says he may simply place a low valuation on status (high society, materialism) and a high valuation on fairness. Further, CEOs who work all the time may be motivated by high intrinsic valuation of achievement, not by an anxiety-reducing escape from home life.
Freud's idea -- that anxiety reduction motivates both personality traits and symptoms of mental illness -- makes no verifiable predictions about behavior. Psychodynamics is mostly just jargon: No matter what a person does, Freudians can explain the behavior after the fact, but they could not have predicted it beforehand. In contrast, assessment of a person's intrinsic motives predicts behavior in natural environments, everything from performance in corporations to athletic success.
Values, not unconscious psychodynamics, predict behavior in natural environments. Conscious purpose predicts what people will do in the future. If you want to understand another person, ask for his/her deeply held, enduring values and life goals. Once you understand a person's conscious mind, you can help the person solve many life problems, including relationship issues, problems at work, and problems at home.
In conclusion, motivation is an important consideration when deciding if a behavior or trait is normal versus abnormal. Freud explained a wide range of diverse personality traits in terms of a single unconscious motive, the desire to reduce anxiety. This assumption is invalid because anxiety reduction is not the universal motive for personality development. In contrast, multifaceted theory recognizes a wide range of normal intrinsic motives that not only explain personality traits, but also predict behaviors in natural environments. By focusing on conscious purposes and intrinsic values, we can demonstrate that much of what Freud called an abnormal expression of unconscious personality dynamics is really a normal expression of unconventional values. Once we replace Freud's abnormal motive (anxiety reduction) for personality development with normal motives (e.g., ambition, competition, idealism), we sharpen the distinction between normal and abnormal behavior.
(For a more detailed explanation of this viewpoint, see my book "The Normal Personality: A New Way of Thinking about People" published by Cambridge University. Also see my blog post on Human Purpose.)
