ALFRED ADLER: The Final Goal
 either personal superiority or the goal of
INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Overview of Individual Psychology
 people as being motivated mostly by
social influences and by their striving
for superiority or success
 people are largely responsible for who
they are
 present behavior is shaped by people’s
view of the future
 psychologically healthy people are
usually aware of what they are doing
and why they are doing it.
BIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED ADLER
 he saw the death of his brother Rudolf
and his near death from pneumonia as a
challenge to overcome death
 feeling more comfortable in group
situations
 began private practice as an eye
specialist after receiving his medical
degree and military
 turned to psychiatry and general
medicine
 Society for/ Free Psychoanalytic Study/
Individual Psychology
INTRODUCTION TO ADLERIAN
THEORY
 people are born with weak, inferior
bodies—a condition that leads to
feelings of inferiority and a consequent
dependence on other people.
1. The one dynamic force behind people’s
behavior is the striving for success or
superiority.
 Psychologically unhealthy individuals
strive for personal superiority, whereas
psychologically healthy people seek
success for all humanity.
success for all humankind
 fictional and has no objective existence.
 unifies personality and renders all
behavior comprehensible
 it is the product of the creative power
(people’s ability to freely shape their
behavior and create their own
personality)
 a person’s final goal reduces the pain of
inferiority feelings and points that
person in the direction of either
superiority or success.
The Striving Force as Compensation
 People strive for superiority or success
as a means of compensation for feelings
of inferiority or weakness
 need to overcome inferiority feelings
and pulled by the desire for completion
 Success is an individualized concept and
all people formulate their own definition
of it.
Striving for Personal Superiority
 with little or no concern for others
 goals are personal ones, and their
strivings are motivated largely by
exaggerated feelings of personal
inferiority, or the presence of an
inferiority complex (murders, thieves)
 consciously or unconsciously hide their
self-centeredness behind the cloak of
social concern.
Striving for success
 maintain a sense of self
 concerned with goals beyond
themselves
 helping others without demanding or
expecting a personal payoff
 able to see others not as opponents
 own success is a natural tendency to
move toward completion or perfection.
 Social progress is more important to
them than personal credit
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their
behavior and personality.
 the manner in which they strive is not
shaped by reality but by their fictions or
expectations of the future.
Fictionalism
 are ideas that have no real existence, yet
they influence people as if they really
existed.
 People are motivated not by what is true
but by their subjective perceptions of
what is true (Ex. God)
 people are motivated by present
 perceptions of the future.
Physical Inferiorities
 insisted that the whole human race is
“blessed” with organ inferiorities.
 people compensate for these feelings of
inferiority by moving toward
psychological health and a useful style
of
 physical deficiencies alone do not cause
a particular style of life; they simply
provide present motivation for reaching
future goals.
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
Organ Dialect
 the deficient organ expresses the
direction of the individual’s goal
 the whole person strives in a self-
consistent fashion toward a single goal,
and all separate actions and functions
can be understood only as parts of this
goal.
 Disturbance of one part of the body
affects the entire person
 the body’s organs “speak a language
which is usually more expressive and
discloses the individual’s opinion more
clearly than words are able to do”
 Ex. A man with arthritis speaks for his
whole style of life and desires sympathy
Conscious and Unconscious
 harmony between conscious and
unconscious actions.
 Unconscious becomes conscious and
conscious becomes unconscious if we
fail to understand it
Unconscious - neither clearly formulated nor
completely understood, not helpful
Conscious - understood and regarded by the
individual as helpful in striving for success
4. The value of all human activity must be seen
from the viewpoint of social interest.
Social Interest / Gemeinschaftsgefühl
 Gemeinschaftsgefühl a feeling of
oneness with all humanity; it implies
membership in the social community of
all people.
 perfection for all people in an ideal
community
 attitude of relatedness with humanity
and empathy for each member
 cooperation with others for social
advancement
 natural condition of the human species
that binds society together
 necessity for perpetuating the human
species.
Origins of Social Interest
 originates from the mother-child
relationship during the early months of
infancy
 an infant survived because of a mother
who possesses a social interest
 every person has had the seeds of social
interest sown during early months.
 mother – well-being not needs or wants.
Balance of love
father – caring attitude to the mother and
other peeps
 The relationship a child has with the
mother and father is so powerful that it
smothers the effects of heredity.
Importance of Social Interest
 the sole criterion of human values
  standard to be used in determining the causality, which considers behavior as springing
usefulness of a life from a specific cause.
 Social interest = psychologically mature

5. The self-consistent personality structure

develops into a person’s style of life.
 refers to the flavor of a person’s life.
(person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for
others, and attitude toward the world.)
 established by age 4 or 5.
 People with healthy lifestyle actively
solves the three major problems of life;
neighborly love, sexual love, and
occupation
o represent the highest form of
humanity

6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative

power.

Creative Power
 each person is empowered with the
freedom to create his own style of life
 places us in control of our lives and is
responsible for our final goal
 is a dynamic concept implying
movement
 heredity and environment (bricks and
mortar)

ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT

External Factors in Maladjustment

1. Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies

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Terminology

Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms

of its final purpose or aim.