Alfred Adler
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Transcript of Alfred Adler
• Born in Vienna in 1870 of a middle-class family
• Died in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1937 while on a lecture
tour
• Received a medical degree in 1895 from the
University of Vienna
• First specialized in Ophthalmology but after a period
of practice in general medicine, he became a
Psychiatrist
• One of the charter members of the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society and later became its President
He soon began to develop ideas that were at variance
with those of Freud and others in the Vienna Society,
and when these differences became acute, he was asked
to present his views to the society. This was in 1911.
As a consequence of the vehement criticism and
denunciation of Adler’s position by other members of the
society, Adler resigned as President and a few months
later terminated his connection with Freudian
Psychoanalysis.
• Adler served as a Physician in the Austrian Army
during World War I.
• He became interested in child guidance and
established the first guidance clinics in connection with
the Viennese school system.
• Inspired the establishment of an experimental school in
Vienna that applied his theories of education
• In 1935, Adler settled in the United States, where he
continued his practice as a Psychiatrist and served as
Professor of Medical Psychology at the Long Island
College of Medicine.
1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is
the striving for success or superiority.
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior
and personality.
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the
viewpoint of social interest.
5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into
a person’s style of life.
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power.
Striving for Superiority
It is a striving for perfect completion.
Final Goal:
- To be aggressive
- To pe powerful
- To be superior
Fictional Finalism
Humans are motivated more by their expectations of the future than by experiences of the past.
(Influenced by Hans Vaihinger)
Ex: “All men are created equal.”
“Honesty is the best policy.”
“The end justifies the means.”
Final Goal:
A fiction, an ideal that is impossible to realize but that nonetheless is a very real spur to human striving and the ultimate explanation of conduct. Adler believed that the normal person could free him- or herself from the influence of these fictions and face reality when necessity demanded, something that the neurotic person is incapable of doing.
Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
Thoughts, feelings, and actions are all directed toward a single
goal and serve a single purpose.
Organ Jargon or Organ Dialect
“speak a language which is usually more expressive and discloses
the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do”
(Adler, 1956, p. 223)
The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in
isolation; it affects the entire person. The deficient organ
expressed the direction of the individual’s goal.
Social Interest
Gemeinschaftsgefühl – “social feeling” or “community feeling”
- Oneness with all humanity
consists of the individual helping society to attain the goal of a
perfect society: “Social interest is the true and inevitable
compensation for all the natural weaknesses of individual
human beings” (Adler, 1929b, p. 31)
Style of Life
Flavor of a person’s life
explains the uniqueness of a person
no two people develop the same style
established by age 4 or 5
The whole that commands the parts.
Creative Power
Each person is empowered with the freedom to create her or
his own style of life. Ultimately, all people are responsible for
who they are and how they behave.
places people in control of their own lives, is responsible for
their final goal, determines their method of striving for that
goal, and contributes to the development of social interest
dynamic concept implying movement, and this movement is the
most salient characteristic of life
makes each person a free individual
Adler (1929/1964) used an interesting analogy, which he
called “the law of the low doorway.” If you are trying to walk
through a doorway four feet high, you have two basic choices.
First, you can use your creative power to bend down as you
approach the doorway, thereby successfully solving the problem.
This is the manner in which the psychologically healthy individual
solves most of life’s problems. Conversely, if you bump your head
and fall back, you must still solve the problem correctly or continue
bumping your head. Neurotics often choose to bump their head on
the realities of life.
When approaching the low doorway, you are neither
compelled to stoop nor forced to bump your head. You have a
creative power that permits you to follow either course.
1. Family Constellation
Adler almost always asked patients about their
family constellation, that is, their birth order, the gender
of their siblings, and the age spread between them.
Although people’s perception of the situation into which
they were born is more important than numerical rank,
Adler did form some general hypotheses about birth
order.
Adler’s View of Some Possible Traits by Birth Order
Positive Traits Negative Traits
Oldest Child Nurturing and protective of
others
Good organizer
Highly anxious
Exaggerated feelings of power
Unconscious hostility
Fights for acceptance
Must always be “right,” whereas
others are always “wrong”
Highly critical of others
Uncooperative
Second Child Highly motivated
Cooperative
Moderately competitive
Highly competitive
Easily discouraged
Youngest Child Realistically ambitious Pampered style of life
Dependent on others
Wants to excel in everything
Unrealistically ambitious
Only Child Socially Mature Exaggerated feelings of superiority
Low feelings of cooperation
Inflated sense of self
Pampered style of life
2. Early Recollections
To gain an understanding of patients’ personality
Although Adler believed that the recalled memories yield
clues for understanding patients’ style of life, he did not consider
these memories to have a causal effect. Whether the recalled
experiences correspond with objective reality or are complete
fantasies is of no importance. People reconstruct the events to
make them consistent with a theme or pattern that runs throughout
their lives.
3. Dreams
Although dreams cannot foretell the future, they
can provide clues for solving future problems.
If one interpretation doesn’t feel right, try another.
4. Psychotherapy
Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology results from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest. Thus, the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage social interest. This task, however, is not easy because patients struggle to hold on to their existing, comfortable view of themselves.