What Is Confidence? — The Three Views Left by Jung, Freud, and Adler

"Be confident" is not a command anyone can obey. "That person has confidence"; "I don't have confidence" — the binary in which we usually speak about confidence conceals the phenomenon itself. As the starting point of this series, we untangle confidence by setting it against the inheritance of the three giants of depth psychology — Freud, Jung, and Adler — and then overlaying the late-twentieth-century concepts of self-efficacy (Bandura) and self-acceptance (Rogers). What emerges is that confidence is not a matter of "having" or "not having," but a structure composed of several layers that operate together. For the regulatory reviewer as a professional, what is confidence, and where does its source lie? This volume builds the foundation for the ten that follow.

01Beyond the Binary of "Having" or "Not Having" Confidence

"Please judge with confidence" — when a supervisor says this, we are often at a loss. If confidence could be summoned by being told to summon it, no one would struggle. Conversely, beneath a colleague who looks confident, the anxiety only they can see may be churning. Confidence is spoken of far too much in the language of "having or not having."

The hypothesis this series proposes is the following. Confidence is not a single mental state but a phenomenon in which several layers function in concert. What Freud saw, what Jung saw, what Adler saw — each of the three giants was observing a different layer. Disentangling these and understanding them separately is the precondition for "gaining" confidence. In the pharmaceutical workplace, the experience that "confidence in reviewing," "confidence in speaking before others," and "confidence in deciding" feel like different things is probably a reflection of this layered structure.

02Three Layers of Confidence — Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, Self-Acceptance

Let us first set out three constructs of confidence that contemporary psychology has organised over long years of research.

These three layers move independently. Self-esteem can be high while self-efficacy for a particular task is low. Conversely, self-efficacy in a particular domain may be high while self-acceptance is shallow, so that a small failure shakes the whole person. The first step in observing confidence is to discern which layer is being discussed.

03Freud's Ego Strength — Between Anxiety and Defence

The founder of depth psychology, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), did not make confidence a direct theme; but within the structural theory he set out in Das Ich und das Es (1923), he embedded a concept that grounds confidence — Ich-Stärke, ego strength.

"The ego is the agency that mediates the pressures coming from three sides — the id, the superego, and external reality. If the ego is strong, it can stand against these pressures without being swept away, observe reality, render judgement, and take action." — paraphrase of Sigmund Freud, The Ego and the Id (1923)

The ego strength Freud meant is one of the concepts that comes closest to the modern term "confidence." To be confident is to possess a steady ego that can observe reality amid anxiety, drive, and norm. Conversely, to lack confidence is to be in a state where the ego is fragile and easily shaken by internal and external pressures. Freud also observed the defence mechanisms (repression, projection, rationalisation, and so on) as the apparatus by which a fragile ego protects itself.

In the pharmaceutical workplace, the moment when "lack of confidence" is expressed as "someone else's fault" or "the situation's fault" — seen through Freud, this may be a sign that the ego has become fragile and the defence mechanisms are at work. The fifth sub-series of this work, "Recognising One's Own Overconfidence," will treat this territory in depth.

04Jung's Individuation and Confidence — Neither Persona nor Shadow

Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) observed confidence in the context of individuation. His core claim takes life as a process in which a human being spends a lifetime integrating the various elements within — consciousness, unconscious, persona, shadow, archetypes — and arrives at a more complete self (Selbst, the Self).

"The aim of individuation is not to destroy the ego (Ich). It is to relocate the ego within the greater whole that is the Self (Selbst). One in whom the Self and the ego are rightly related possesses an unshaken stillness." — condensed paraphrase from arguments akin to Jung's writings on archetypes

Jung's implication is deep. Confidence is not a matter of the persona (the social mask one performs), nor a matter of the shadow (the repressed parts of oneself). It is a deeper-layer sensation, born from connection with the Self (Selbst) that has integrated both.

To "act confidently" on the surface is, in Jungian terms, a strengthening of the persona. That in itself is not bad, but it alone is fragile. Conversely, denying the shadow (one's own anxieties and weaknesses) entirely and repeating "I am strong" does not last either. To acknowledge the shadow, acknowledge the persona, and feel the connection with the Self that includes both — this is the form of confidence that has passed through individuation. Vol. 3, "Between Interior and Exterior," will take this up in detail.

05Adler's Compensation for Inferiority — Confidence as Crystallised Courage

Alfred Adler (1870–1937) is the giant who entered the problem of confidence most directly. His core concept of Minderwertigkeitsgefühl (the feeling of inferiority) is the engine of human growth.

"To be human is to feel that one is inferior. And it is to strive to surpass that feeling. Every culture, every advance, was born from this compensation for inferiority." — paraphrase of Alfred Adler, What Life Should Mean to You (1931)

Adler's paradox is important. The feeling of inferiority itself is a healthy force. From the honest recognition "I cannot yet do this," the energy of improvement is born. Conversely, the person who "feels no inferiority" is in the more worrying state. Only those who can look the feeling of inferiority straight in the face can move in the direction of compensating it.

However, when the feeling of inferiority is transmuted into an inferiority complex, a different problem arises. The inferiority complex is the feeling of inferiority used as an evasive excuse, "I cannot do it, so I will not try." Adlerian confidence is to look inferiority in the face and possess the courage to compensate for it. The concept of Mut (courage) that he emphasised in his later years is the name for the strength to express confidence as action. To "have confidence" is, in Adlerian terms, synonymous with "to have courage."

06The Intersection of the Three Giants — One Place in Different Words

Freud, Jung, and Adler clashed on theories of personality structure, but on the core of confidence they pointed to a startlingly similar place. Let us organise the common ground.

The "confidence" this series depicts is the confidence-as-posture the three giants pointed to in common. Not a fixed character trait, but a capacity that can be observed, trained, and cultivated. This is the foundational hypothesis underlying the whole series.

07Bandura's Self-Efficacy — Four Sources for a Science of Confidence

In the late twentieth century, the one who studied confidence scientifically was the Canadian-American social psychologist Albert Bandura (1925–2021). In his 1977 paper "Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change" he presented the concept of self-efficacy, and brought half a century of subsequent research together in his 1997 magnum opus Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control.

"Self-efficacy is cultivated from four sources — (1) mastery experience, (2) vicarious experience, (3) verbal persuasion, and (4) physiological and emotional states." — paraphrase from Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control (1997)

Bandura's contribution was to transform confidence from a vague concept into a skill that can be cultivated. Of the four sources, the strongest is mastery experience — the experience of carrying something through oneself. Next is vicarious experience — observing someone like oneself succeed. Verbal persuasion — encouragement from a trusted person. And physiological and emotional states — a calm body and mind that supports the sense "I can do this."

For the pharmaceutical workplace, the implication is concrete: persuading a new reviewer "be confident" by words (source 3) is far weaker than letting them accumulate small successes (source 1). Vol. 8, "The Science of Confidence," brings Bandura's framework down to practice.

08Rogers's Self-Acceptance — The Quiet Core of Confidence

One more concept that forms the root of confidence: self-acceptance and the paradox of acceptance, set out by the American clinical psychologist Carl Rogers (1902–1987).

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." — paraphrase from Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person (1961)

What Rogers's clinical experience demonstrated is the paradox that those who accept themselves are the ones most open to change and challenge. It is not that they can take on challenges because they have confidence; it is that, because they accept themselves, they are not shaken by the failures that come midway through a challenge — and as a result, confidence is cultivated.

This points, in different words, to the same place as Freud's "ego strength that has accepted weakness," Jung's "Self that has integrated the shadow," and Adler's "courage that has faced the feeling of inferiority." Self-acceptance is the quiet core of the confidence this series points to in its entirety. Vol. 10, "The Practice of Lasting Confidence," will return here.

09In the Pharmaceutical Workplace — What Is Confidence for the Reviewer?

Let us bring the abstract down to the field. For the regulatory reviewer, there are several scenes in which confidence is at stake. Each corresponds to a different layer treated in this volume.

The four scenes each demand a different layer of confidence. Even in moments when one feels lumpenly that "I have no confidence," it is possible to observe, layer by layer, which of the four is faltering. This is the entry point into the practice of the whole series.

10Four Questions for Observing Confidence

To bring the same place to which the five traditions pointed down into daily practice, four questions are set here.

Confidence has been spoken of far too much in the binary of "having or not having." Freud's ego strength, Jung's individuation, Adler's compensation for inferiority, Bandura's self-efficacy, Rogers's self-acceptance — the five traditions have shown, each in their own words, that confidence is a dynamic posture composed of several layers. Confidence is not an innate character trait but a capacity that can be observed, trained, and cultivated. From the next volume onward, layer by layer — voice, expression, atmosphere, gaze as body language; the science of confidence; the negotiating advantage of confidence — we will descend through the levels and assemble the tools for implementing confidence.

When you are told "be confident" and feel lost, ask again. "Which layer of confidence does this concern? Which layer is faltering in me right now?" The moment of asking is the entry to a science of confidence.