INDIVIDUAL

PSYCHOLOGY

Alfred adler
(1870-1937)
 ALFRED ADLER
1870-1937
Adler stressed a positive view of
human nature. He believed that
individuals can control their
fate. They can do this in part by
trying to help others (social
interest). How they do this can
be understood through
analyzing their lifestyle. Early
interactions with family
members, peers, and teachers
help to determine the role of
inferiority and superiority in
their lives.
 Freud vs adler

 Reduced all motivation  People are motivated by

to sex and aggression social influences and
their striving for
superiority and success
 People have little or no
choice in shaping their  People are responsible
personality for who they are
 Present behavior is  Present behavior is
shaped by past shaped by people’s view
experiences of the future
 Psychologically healthy
 Put high emphasis on people are aware of
unconscious what they are doing and
why they are doing it
 biography

 Born: February 7, 1870 (Rudolfsheim, Vienna)

 Father: Leopold (merchant)
 Mother: Pauline (housewife)
 Has 6 siblings
 Nearly died at the age of 5.
 Has a brother named Sigmund
 Father’s favorite.
 biography

 At the age of 4, he decided to become

physician. (Rudolf)
 Pampered by his mother because of his
sickness, but was dethroned at the age of 2 by
the arrival of another baby
 Has vitamin D deficiency.
 Poor in academic
 Served military then began his private
practice as eye specialist.
 Psychiatry and general medicine.
 biography

 Member of Wednesday (Vienna) Psychological

Society.
 Society for Free Psychoanalytic Study (Society
for Individual Psychology).
 He taught Individual Psychology at Columbia
University.
 biography

 He married Raissa Epstein (Russian)

 Adler stayed in US while Raissa in Vienna.
 Had 4 children: Alexandra & Kurt
(psychiatrists), Valentine (political prisoner)
and Cornelia (aspired to be an actress).
 biography

 He died on May 28, 1937 because of heart

attack.
 The Six Tenets of
Adlerian Theory
 The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is
the striving for success or superiority
 People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior
and personality
 Personality is unified and self-consistent
 The value of all human activity must be seen from
the viewpoint of social interest
 The self consistent personality structure develops
into a person’s style of life.
 The style of life is molded by people’s creative
power
 STRIVING FOR
SUCCESS/SUPERIORITY
 Drive: striving for success/superiority
 Everyone begins life with physical deficiencies
that activate feelings of inferiority
 Inferiority feeling- the normal condition of all
people. It is the source of people human
striving.
 Inferiority complex- a condition that develops
when a person is unable to compensate for
normal inferiority feelings.
 STRIVING FOR
SUCCESS/SUPERIORITY
 Personal superiority- goal is towards to
personal gain (psychologically unhealthy)
 Striving for sucess-the urge towards perfection
or completion that motivates each of us.
 Superiority complex- a condition that develops
when a person overcompensates for normal
inferiority feelings.
Striving for success and
superiority
 Striving for superiority –people who
strive for personal superiority over
others
 Striving for success – actions of
people motivated by highly
developed social interest
 Both are guided by final goal
 The Final Goal

 Each person has the power to create a

personalized fictional goal
 Provided by heredity and environment
 Product of creative power – ability to freely shape their
behavior and create their own personality
 The 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
 The striving force is innate
but its nature and direction
are due to feelings of
inferiority and to the goal of
superiority
The Striving Force as
Compensation
 Without the innate movement
toward perfection , children would
never feel inferior, but without
feelings of inferiority they would
never set goal of superiority or
success
Striving for Personal
Superiority
 People strive for superiority with
little or no concern for others
 Goals are personal ones and
strivings are motivated by
exaggerated feelings of personal
inferiority or presence of
inferiority complex.
Striving for success

 Healthy individuals concerned with goals

beyond themselves – capable of helping
others without demanding or expecting a
personal payoff – able to see others not as
opponents but as people with whom they can
cooperate for social benefit
 Their own success is not gained at the
expense of others but is a natural tendency
to move toward completion or perfection
Striving for success

 They maintain a sense of self –

seldom see problems from point of
view of society’s development than
from a strictly personal vantage
point
 Social progress is more important to
them than personal credit
 PeoPle’s subjective
perception shape their
behavior and personality
 Fictional finalism- the idea that there is an
imagined or potential goal that guides our
behavior.
 Fictionalism

 Our most important fiction is the goal of superiority

or success – a goal we created early in life and may
not clearly understand
 This guides our style of life, gives unity to our
personality
 Fictions are ideas that have no real existence yet
they influence people as if they really existed
 Ex: Men are superior than women
Humans have freewill that enable them to make
choices
God rewards good and punishes evil
Fictionalism

 Adler’s teleological view of motivation

 Teleology – explanation of behavior in
terms of its final purpose or aim.
Concern with future goals or ends
 Causality – considers behavior as springing
from a specific cause. Concern with past
experiences that produce some present
effect
 Freud ‘s view of motivation is causal
while Adler is teleological
Physical Inferiorities

 People begin life small, weak and

inferior, they develop a fiction or
belief system about how to
overcome these physical
deficiencies and become big,
strong and superior
 But even if they attain size,
strength and superiority, they may
act as if they are still small, weak
and inferior
Physical Inferiorities

 He believed that the whole human race is

blessed with organ inferiorities. These
physical handicaps have little or no
importance but become meaningful when
they stimulate subjective feelings of
inferiority which serve as impetus toward
perfection or completion.
 Physical Inferiorities

 Some people compensate for these feelings of

inferiority by moving toward psychological health
and useful style of life
 Ex: Beethoven overcame his handicap and made
significant contribution to society
Adler was weak as a child, and his illness
moved him to overcome death by becoming a
physician and competing with his older brother
and with Freud
 Personality is unified
and self-consistent

 Fundamental unity of personality and the

notion that inconsistent behavior does not
exist.
 Organ dialect- the disturbance of one part of
the body cannot be viewed in isolation, it
affects the entire person.
-The body organs speak a language which is
usually more expressive and discloses the
individual’s opinion more clearly than words are
able to do.
Organ dialect

 Ex: a man suffering from

rheumatoid arthritis in his hands.
His stiff and deformed joints voice
his whole style of life. Without any
words, his hands speak of his desire
for sympathy from others.
Ex: A very obedient boy who wet
the bed at night send a message
that he does not wish to obey
parental wishes
 Personality is unified
and self-consistent

 Harmony between unconscious and

unconscious.
 Conscious-regarded as helpful in striving for
success.
 Unconscious- thoughts that are not helpful.
Conscious and unconscious

 Adler believed that conscious and

unconscious are two cooperating
parts of the same unified system
 Whether people’s behavior lead to a
healthy or an unhealthy style of life
depends on the degree of social
interest that they developed during
their childhood years.
 Social interest

 Gemeinschaftsgefuhl (German term)

 “Community feeling” or social feeling.
 Feeling of oneness with all humanity.
 Attitude of relatedness with humanity in
general as an empathy for each member of
the human community.
Origins of Social Interest

 Rooted as potentiality in everyone, originated

from the mother-child relationship during
early months of infancy.
 Every person has had the seeds of social
interest sown during those early months.
 Marriage and parenthood is a task for two:
 Mother’s job is to develop a bond that
encourages the child’s mature social interest and
fosters a sense of cooperation.
 The healthy love relationship develops from a
true caring for her child, her husband and other
people
Paternal detachment
creates a goal of personal
superiority
Paternal authoritarianism
may lead to an unhealthy
style of life
A child who sees the father
as a tyrant learns to strive
for power and personal
superiority
 Social interest

 Innate potential to cooperate with other

people to achieve personal and societal goals.
 Mother’s role is very important in developing
social interest.
 Importance of Social Interest

 Social interest is the only gauge to be used in

judging the worth of a person
 People who posses social interest are
psychologically mature
 Immature people lack social interest are self-
centered and strive for personal power over others
 Healthy individuals are genuinely concerned with
about people and have a goal of success that
encompasses the well being of all people
 Social interest is not synonymous with charity and
unselfishness
 Style of life

 A unique character structure or pattern of

personal behaviors and characteristics by
which each of us strives for perfection.
 Everything we do is shaped and defined by
our style of life.
 Product of interaction of heredity,
environment and person’s creative power.
 Starts at the age of 4 or 5.
 Style of life

FOUR BASIC STYLES OF LIFE FOR DEALING

WITH PROBLEMS
 Dominant type
 Getting type
 Avoiding type
 Socially useful type
 Style of life

FOUR BASIC STYLES OF LIFE FOR DEALING

WITH PROBLEMS
 Dominant type
- ruling attitude with little social awareness.
- person behaves without regard for others.
 Getting type
- expects to receive satisfaction from other
people and so becomes dependent on them.
 Style of life

FOUR BASIC STYLES OF LIFE FOR DEALING

WITH PROBLEMS
 Avoiding type
- makes no attempt to face life problems.
- they avoid difficulties and avoids any
possibility of failure.
 Style of life

FOUR BASIC STYLES OF LIFE FOR DEALING

WITH PROBLEMS
 These three types are not prepared to cope
with the problems of everyday life. They are
unable to cooperate with other people and the
clash between their style of life and the real
world results in abnormal behavior, which is
manifested in neuroses and psychoses. They
lack what Adler came to call social interest.
 Style of life

FOUR BASIC STYLES OF LIFE FOR DEALING

WITH PROBLEMS
 Socially useful type
- cooperates with others and acts in
accordance with their needs.
- Such persons cope with problems within a
well-developed framework of social interest.
 Creative power

 The ability to create an appropriate style of

life.
 It makes each person a free individual.
 A dynamic concept of implying movement which is
the most salient characteristic of life
 Psychic life involves movement toward a goal
 People are creative beings much more than a
product of heredity and environment who do not
only react to their environment but also act on it
and cause it to react to them
 Adler used the analogy “ the law of the doorway”
 The Six Tenets of
Adlerian Theory
 The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is
the striving for success or superiority
 People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior
and personality
 Personality is unified and self-consistent
 The value of all human activity must be seen from
the viewpoint of social interest
 The self consistent personality structure develops
into a person’s style of life.
 The style of life is molded by people’s creative
power
 Abnormal development

 Underdeveloped social interest is the factor

underlying all types of maladjustments.
 Neurotics tend to:
 Set their goals too high.

 Live in their own private world.

 Have a rigid and dogmatic style of life.
 Abnormal development

EXTERNAL FACTORS IN MALADJUSTMENT

 Pampered style of life
- has a weak social interest.
- overprotected and has parasitic relationship
with one or both parents.
 Exaggerated physical deficiencies
- Has exaggerated feeling of inferiority.
 Abnormal development

EXTERNAL FACTORS IN MALADJUSTMENT

 Neglected style of life
- children who feel unloved and unwanted
- will developed little social interest.
- abused and mistreated children.
Safeguarding Tendencies

 Patterns of behavior that protect a

person’s exaggerated sense of self-
esteem against public damage
 Enables people to hide their
inflated self-image and to maintain
their current life style
 Similar to Freud’s defense
mechanism
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Excuses
- expressed in “yes, but..” or “if only”.
- these excuses protect a weak sense of self-
worth.
“Yes, I would like to go to college,but my children demand too
much of my attention.”
“If only I did not have this physical deficiency, I could compete
successfully for a job.”
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Aggression
- use to safeguard their exaggerated
superiority complex.
*depreciation- undervalue other people’s
achievements and to overvalue one’s own.
-belittle another person.
“The only reason Kenneth got the job I applied for is because
he is an African American.”
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Aggression
- use to safeguard their exaggerated
superiority complex.
*accusation- tendency to blame others for one’s
failure and seek revenge.
 “I wanted to be an artist, but my parents forced me to go to
medical school. Now I have a job that makes me miserable”
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Aggression
- use to safeguard their exaggerated
superiority complex.
*self-accusation-mark by self-torture and guilt.
“I feel distressed because I wasn’t nicer to my grandmother while
she was still living. Now, it’s too late.”
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Withdrawal
- it occurs when people run away from
difficulties.
- setting up a distance between themselves
and their problem.
*moving backward, standing still, hesitating and
constructing obstacles.
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Withdrawal
*moving backward- psychologically reverting to
a more secure period of life.
*standing still- people do not move in any
direction thus they avoid responsibilities by
ensuring themselves against any threat of
failure.
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Withdrawal
*hesitating- people hesitate or vacillate when
faced with difficult problems. Their
procrastinations give them the excuse “It’s too
late now”. Compulsive behaviors are attempts
to waste time.
 Abnormal development

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Withdrawal
*constructing obstacles- least severe.
-they protect their self-esteem and their
prestige by overcoming obstacles.
 Freudian’s defense mechanism
operate unconsciously to protect
the ego against anxiety
 Adlerian’s safeguarding tendencies
are largely conscious and shield a
person’s fragile self-esteem from
public defiance
 Masculine protest

MASCULINE PROTEST
 Adler believed that the psychic life of women
is essentially the same as that of men and that
a male-dominated society is not natural but
rather an artificial product of historical
development.
 Masculine protest

MASCULINE PROTEST
 Cultural and social practices not anatomy
influence men and women to overemphasize
the importance of being manly
 Boys – being masculine means being
courageous, strong and dominant. Epitome
of success for boys is to win, to be powerful,
to be on top.
 Girls – to be passive, and to accept an
inferior position in society
 Applications of individual
psychology
AREAS OF PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
- FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS
- EARLY COLLECTIONS
- DREAMS
- PSYCHOTHERAPY
 Applications of individual
psychology
FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS’
 Refers to birth order, gender of siblings and age
spread between them
 The number and birth order, as well as the
personality characteristics of members of a
family is important in determining lifestyle.
 The family and reciprocal relationships with
siblings and parents determine how a person
finds a place in the family and what he learns
about finding a place in the world.
Birth Order
Positive Traits Negative Traits
Oldest Child
Nurturing and protective of others Highly anxious
Good organizer Exaggerated feeling of power
Responsible Unconscious hostility
Achiever Fights for acceptance
Must always be “right” whereas
others are always “wrong”
Uncooperative

Second Child/Middle Child

Highly motivated Highly competitive

Mediator Easily discouraged
Birth Order

Positive Traits Negative Traits

Youngest Child
Realistically ambitious Pampered style of life
Dependent on others
Wants to excel in everything

Only Child

Independent Exaggerated feelings of

superiority
Low feelings of cooperation
Inflated sense of self
Pampered style of life
Early Recollections

 Refers to recalled memories that yield

clues for understanding both patient’s
final goal and their present style of life.
 DREAMS
 Dreams cannot foretell the future but they can
provide clues for solving future problems
 Any interpretation of any dream must be
tentative and open to reinterpretation
 Everything can be different
 If one interpretation doesn’t feel right, try
another
 Dreams are self-deceptions and not easily
understood by the dreamer
 Dreams are disguised to deceive the dreamer,
making self interpretation difficult