Alfred Adler

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Alfred Adler

• Theoretical Ideas Easier to test than Freud's
• Tests have been developed based on Adler's theory
  measuring Style of Life, early memories, and
  other theoretical constructs.
• Adler's hypothesized relationship between birth
  order and personality has generated many
  empirical studies.
• Adler's theory extends the comprehensiveness of
  psychoanalytic theory by considering increased
  conscious thought and future goals.
• Adler's theory has been applied in educational
  environments for troubled students, and an
  Adlerian version of Psychotherapy has emerged.
• Adler, one of the first and most influential of
  the Freudian dissenters believed that individual
  uniqueness were primarily influential.
• Adler argued that people must be understood from
  a social perspective, not a biological one.

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Alfred Adler
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Alfred Adler
Individual Differences Individuals differ in
their goals and in how they try to
achieve them, their "style of
life." Adaptation and Adjustment Health involves
love, work, and social interaction and is the
responsibility of each individual. Social
interest, rather than selfishness, is
required for health. Cognitive
Processes Conscious experience and thought are
important and generally
trustworthy. Society Society influences
people through social roles, including sex
roles. Schools are especially influential. Biolog
ical Influences Organ inferiority provides the
direction of personality development as
the individual attempts to compensate for
the inferiority. Child Development Paren
ts have an important influence on children, and
better parenting techniques can be taught.
Extensive guidelines for childrearing are
provided, especially the caution to avoid
pampering. Relationships with siblings are
important birth order affects
personality. Adult Development Throughout
life, people create their own personalities
through goal-setting.
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Alfred Adler

• Born in Vienna middle class Jewish family
• Converted and became a Christian
• 2nd of six children-profound influence
• Felt in shadow of his older brother
• Invalid as child rickets, pneumonia
• Very close to his father-no oedipal need
• After World War I Gemeinshaftsgefuhl
  deep-seated concern for others and need to
  associate with them
• 1921-1934-30 mental health clinics in schools-
  closed by Nazis - drop in delinquency at time
• Came to USA in 1934 where he remained till his
  death

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Alfred Adler
ALFRED WAS A SICKLY, SMALL AND UGLY CHILD. HE IS
BEST KNOWN FOR THE INFERIORITY COMPLEX NOTION.
COMPENSATION COULD OVERCOME WEAKNESSES. PEOPLE
WERE NOT SLAVES TO BIOLOGY BUT COULD CREATE THEIR
OWN MEANING, FORMING A CREATIVE SELF. HIS REDUCED
EMPHASIS ON SEX LED TO A SPLIT WITH FREUD. FREUD
SAID, I HAVE MADE A PYGMY GREAT.
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Alfred Adler
Striving From Inferiority Toward Superiority
The Felt Minus Terminoligy Changed as Adler
developed his theory over the years. This term
begins his exploration of the helpless feelings
that infants feel due to their dependence on
others for survival.
Five Stages of Adler's Thought
Organ Inferiority Influenced by his medical
practice, he refered to organ inferiority as the
dource of the felt minus that all young
children experience. It is the subjective
experience of the individual that is determinate
in their sense of inferiority. Severe
socialization and environmental demands can
create a sense of inferiority that would not
occur with the same phydical condition in a more
benign environment. In a healthy adjustment the
child strives to compensate for the organ
inferiority. Adler believed that the need for
compensation was the motivation in which children
used in order to meet the challenges. If
children are unable to compensate, the children
may develop an inferiority complex.
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Alfred Adler
Five Stages of Adler's Thought
Aggressive Drive The struggle toward the felt
plus may take the form of fighting and cruelty,
or it may be expressed in a more socialized form
as athletic competition or other striving for
dominance, including politics. Masculine
Protest an assertion of manliness that implies
greater competence, superiority, and control.
Such traits as aggressiveness and activity are
seen as masculine, whereas submissiveness and
obedience are feminine. Adler discounted the
sex-roles of his time, believing that they were
adverse to both sexes. Both males and females
are motivated by masculine protest struggling
against the the constraints of the less socially
valued female role. Superiority Striving In
his later stage of thought, Adler thought that
the goal of personal growth is striving to
achieve one's own personal best, rather than
striving to be better than others. Perfection
Striving His final term of the process.
Perhaps more than any of his previous processes,
this connotes an inherent growth process within
the individual. It refers to an effort to improve
that is realistic, in contrast to a neurotic
perfectionism
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Alfred Adler
Inferiority Feelings and Personality
Feelings of inferiority are a natural part of
personality development. They start in childhood
when we compare ourselves to adults and continue
into adulthood when we discover limitations to
our abilities. The natural and healthy
reaction to inferiority feelings is Compensation,
efforts to overcome real or imagined inferiority
by developing ones abilities.
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Alfred Adler
Complexes

• Inferiority Complex normal feelings of
  incompetence are exaggerated due to feelings that
  the situation is too powerful to overcome them
  and belief that it is impossible to achieve the
  goals. This is becomes their accurate
  self-description.
• Superiority Complex Some neurotics repress their
  feelings of inferiority and believe themselves
  better than others. This is an unhealthy outcome,
  because this false sense of superiority is only a
  mask of their unconscious sense of inferiority.
  People with a superiority complex often behave
  arrogantly they exaggerate their achievements,
  which may be intellectual, athletic, or
  emotional, depending on the unique strengths of
  the individual.

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Alfred Adler
Healthy Versus Unhealthy Processes
Compensation
Self -Improvement
Compensation
Inferiority Complex
Overcompensation Trying to
appear stronger by striving for power, putting
other people down, or showing off hypersensitive
about self-esteem.
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Alfred Adler
creative self the person who acts to determine
his or her own life fictional finalism a
person's image of the goal of his or her
striving. It gives direction to the individual's
striving. Since an individual's fundamental
motivation is to move toward this fictional
finalism, a person cannot be understood without
knowing the unique goal. Once it is understood,
it explains the consistency of a person's
striving. Style of Life The style of life
begins as a compensatory process, making up for a
particular inferiority. It leads to consistency
of personality as the person compensates, even
overcompensates, for this inferiority. The style
of life includes the individual's concepts about
the self and the world and his or her unique way
of striving toward the personal goal in that
world. Some people adopt antisocial styles of
life, cheating and aggressively seeking their own
satisfaction others are cooperative and
hard-working.
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Alfred Adler
"Heredity and environment provide the
bricks the final form of the building is up to
us".
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Mistaken and Healthy Styles of Life

• Not all styles of life are desirable
• Sometimes early in life maladaptive strategies
  are developed for improving their situation.

Mistaken Styles of Life
Ruling Type Seek to dominate others. Behave
selfishly, express superiority by belittling
others. Depreciation Complex. Getting
Type Dependent, leaning on others, adoptive of
passive rather than active attitute toward life.
More prone for depression. Adler said pampered
children and women are subject to environmental
pressures that encourage this neurotic
style. Avoiding Type Attempt to not deal with
their problems, thereby avoiding the possibility
of defeat. Agoraphobia is one form of this
maladaptive style of life.
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The Healthy Style of Life
The Socially Useful Type An adaptive way of
approaching problems. A person is characterized
as adaptive if they act in ways that are
beneficial to others.
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Parental Behavior
Table 4.2. Advice for Raising Healthy Children,
Derived from Adler's Approach Encourage the
child, rather than simply punishing. Be firm,
but not dominating. Show respect for the
child. Maintain routine. Emphasize
cooperation. Don't give the child too much
attention. Don't become engaged in power
struggles with the child. Show by your actions,
not by your words. Don't offer excessive
sympathy. Be consistent. (Adapted from Dreikurs
Soltz, 1964).
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Parental Behavior
The Pampered Child Children who are treated with
overindulgence come to expect that others will
cater to their needs. They are, in a word,
spoiled. Because of their unrealistic demands
they will not be loved. The Negleted
Child Parental neglect also contributes to
maladaptive development. Children who have been
neglected, including orphans and unwanted or
illegitimate children, are likely to believe that
others will not support them. The tasks of life
seem overwhelmingly difficult. Response
Parental Training Programs Adler's approach has
led to many parent training programs that are
offered in a wide variety of environments and
styles.
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Alfred Adler

• Role of Birth Order-motivates later behavior
• First-born favored, only, pseudo-parent-high
  achievers
• Second-born rivalry competition
• Last-born more pampered, baby-creative,
  rebellious, revolutionary, avant-garde
• Positive Goal Oriented Humanity- people
  striving to overcome weaknesses to function
  productively-contributing to society

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Types of Psychological Dysfunction
Neurosis Rooted in childhood Organ
inferiority Pampered child Neglected
child Tendency to evade life tasks Strive for
personal superiority The yes, but personality
Psychosis The goal to be godlike in order to fend
off very deep feelings of inferiority Withdraws
from others because he does not have the
interpersonal skills, occupational interests,
and/or confidence to deal with life
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Nature of TherapyTherapeutic Atmosphere
Faith Client must have faith in the
counselor Hope Counselor should encourage the
client to accept the challenges of life and
therapy Develops in the client as a result of
feeling understood Love Client MUST feel that the
counselor cares about him
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Table 4.4. Stages of Adlerian Psychotherapy
1. Empathy and Relationship Stage Offer empathy
to the client and establish a working
relationship. 2. Information Stage Gather
information about the problem and the client's
past history, early memories, and current
functioning. 3. Clarification Stage Clarify
the client's core beliefs about self, others, and
life. 4. Encouragement Stage Encourage the
client for progress. 5. Interpretation and
Recognition Stage Interpret the client's
behavior and help the client recognize, and
reconsider his or her fictional goal. 6.
Knowing Stage The client knows more about his or
her behavior and goals, without so much
therapist interpretation. 7. Emotional
Breakthrough Stage Old, unhealthy patterns are
expressed in emotional breakthroughs and are
replaced by new ones, sometimes aided by imagery
and role play. 8. Doing Differently Stage
The client gradually starts to behave differently
in life. 9. Reinforcement Stage The client
begins paying more attention to other people's
needs, not only his or her own. 10. Social
Interest Stage A feeling of community is
strengthened. 11. Goal Redirection Stage The
client finds a new goal to strive toward. 12.
Support and Launching Stage The client is
striving toward the new goal in a spirit of
social interest. (Prepared from Stein, 1988, and
Stein Edwards, 1998.)
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Nature of Therapy
Role of the counselor An educator An
encourager Admits own fallibility Models a
courageous approach to life Role of the
client Learn about faulty lifestyle
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Nature of Therapy
Goals of Therapy Help client uncover and resolve
unconscious conflicts Psychoanalytic
Constructs Insight Resistance Transference Counter
transference
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Process of Therapy
Establishing the relationship Analysis and
assessment Development of insight Reorientation
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Therapeutic Techniques
Interpretation Counselor uses information to
form hypotheses about the clients
lifestyle Encouragement Helps client find his
own strengths and recognize his power to affect
the world through choices
Consequences Natural Logical Acting As If Pushing
the Button Catching Oneself Creating
Images Pleasing Someone Paradoxical Intention