Born in 1870, Wien

Born in 1870, Wien

• Born in 1870, Wien

• Third child of seven
• Apparent physical comfort, but miserable
• in childhood
• Known for his efforts at outdoing his older brother

• Received a medical degree in 1895

• Married in 1897

• Eventually had four children
• Only son became a psychiatrist and continued Adler’s work

• Influenced by Marx’s philosophy

• Influence on Horney, Maslow, Rogers

Joined Freud’s discussion group in 1902

• Joined Freud’s discussion group in 1902

• Adler’s views were initially compatible with Freud’s

• Adler’s views changed and he began to criticize Freud’s theories

• In 1911, Adler and nine others broke away from Freud and formed “The Society for Individual Psychology”

• Involvement in WWI helped develop the concept of social interest

• Died in 1937

The one dynamic force behind people's behavior is the striving for success or superiority

• 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

• Style of life is molded by people's creative power

Aggression drive--- the reaction we have when other drives (e.g., the need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved) are frustrated

• Aggression drive--- the reaction we have when other drives (e.g., the need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved) are frustrated

• Masculine protest
• A universal drive
• Have role in abnormal development
• will to power or a domination of others
• E.g., In many cultures boys are often held in higher esteem than girls are

• Better be called the assertiveness drive

• Lastly, called striving for superiority

• Regardless of the motivation for striving, each individual is guided by a final goal

Final goal

• Final goal

• People strive toward a final goal of either personal superiority or the goal of success for all humankind
• fictional & no objective existence
• unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible
• Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal
• The product of the creative power; that is, people's ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality
• No effect of genetics or environment
• Set by the time children reach 4 or 5 years of age

Subjective perceptions

• Subjective perceptions

• the manner in which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjective perceptions of reality
• by their fictions
• expectations of the future

• Fictionalism

• This subjective, fictional final goal guides our style of life, gives unity to ow personality
• Not real, acting as if real
• People are motivated not by what is true but by their subjective perceptions of what is true

• Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of its final purpose or aim

• opposed to causality
• considers behavior as springing from a specific cause

• Physical deficiencies alone do not cause a particular style of life; they simply provide present motivation for reaching future goals

The term individual psychology

• The term individual psychology

• each person is unique and indivisible
• Becoming defensive against unpredictability

• Ways in which the entire person operates with unity and self-consistency

• Organ dialect
• all separate actions and functions can be understood only as parts of the goal
• The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in isolation
• the deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual's goal
• Concious & unconscious
• the harmony between conscious and unconscious actions
• the unconscious, part of the goal that is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual

Social interest

• Social interest

• Based on an innate disposition, but it has to be nurtured to survive
• Babies and small children often show sympathy for others without having been taught to do so
• Sense of caring for family, for community, for society, for humanity, and even for life
• a feeling of oneness with all humanity
• A matter of being useful to others
• perfection for all people in an ideal community
• marriage and parenthood is a task for social interest
• Influence of environment
• Barometer for normality

Style of life

• Style of life

• includes a person's goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world
• the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person's creative power
• established by age 4 or 5
• Ability to choose new ways of reacting to their environment
• express their social interest through action

• 3 major problems of life

• neighborly love
• sexual love
• occupation

Style of life

• Style of life

• Creative power
• the freedom to create her or his own style of life.
• all people are responsible for who they are and how they behave
• Way to solve problems
• ‘the law of the low doorway’
• Neuroticism

‘The creative power endows humans, within certain limits, with the freedom to be either psychologically healthy or unhealthy and to follow either a useful or useless style of life.’

• ‘The creative power endows humans, within certain limits, with the freedom to be either psychologically healthy or unhealthy and to follow either a useful or useless style of life.’

• Underdeveloped social interest

• Neurotics
• tend to set their goals too high
• live in their own private world
• Have rigid and dogmatic style of life
• Overconcerned w/ themselves & care little about others

Neurosis

• Neurosis

• a matter of insufficient social interest
• 3 types
• the ruling type
• the getting type
• the avoiding type

Neurosis: The Ruling Type

• Neurosis: The Ruling Type

• From childhood on, they are characterized by a tendency to be rather aggressive and dominant over others.
• The strength of their striving after personal power is so great that they tend to push over anything or anybody who gets in their way
• The most energetic of them are bullies and sadists;
• Somewhat less energetic ones hurt others by hurting themselves, and include alcoholics, drug addicts, and suicides

Neurosis: The getting type

• Neurosis: The getting type

• They are relatively passive
• make little effort to solve their own problems
• Instead, they rely on others to take care of them
• Frequently use charm to persuade others to help them

Neurosis: The avoiding type

• Neurosis: The avoiding type

• These have the lowest levels of energy and only survive by essentially avoiding life -- especially other people
• When pushed to the limits, they tend to become psychotic, retreating finally into their own personal worlds

Adler, like Freud, saw personality or lifestyle as something established quite early in life

• Adler, like Freud, saw personality or lifestyle as something established quite early in life

• Basic childhood situations that most contribute to a faulty lifestyle

• Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
• Pampered Style of Life
• Neglected Style of Life

Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies

• Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies

• must be accompanied by accentuated feelings of inferiority
• They tend to be overly concerned with themselves
• lack consideration for others
• feel as if they are living in enemy country
• fear defeat more than they desire success
• life's major problems can be solved only in a selfish manner

Pampered Style of Life

• Pampered Style of Life

• the heart of most neuroses
• weak social interest but a strong desire to perpetuate the pampered
• parasitic relationship with one or both of their parents
• expect others to look after them, overprotect them, and satisfy their needs
• characterized by extreme discouragement, indecisiveness, oversensitivity, impatience, and exaggerated emotion, especially anxiety

Neglected Style of Life

• Neglected Style of Life

• Children who feel unloved and unwanted
• Abused and mistreated children
• little confidence in themselves
• tend to overestimate difficulties connected with life's major problems
• distrustful of other people and are unable to cooperate for the common welfare
• feel alienated from all other people
• more suspicious

Enable people to hide their inflated self-image and to maintain their current style of life

• Enable people to hide their inflated self-image and to maintain their current style of life

• Kind of defense mechanisms

• symptoms are formed as a protection against anxiety

• Conscious & shield a person's fragile self-esteem from public disgrace

• Excuses, aggression, & withdrawal

Excuses

• Excuses

• state what they claim they would like to do
• Others then they follow with an excuse
• ‘Yes, but’ & ‘If only’

• Aggression

• To protect their fragile self-esteem, aggression may take the form of depreciation, accusation, or self-accusation
• criticism and gossip
• Unhealthy people invariably act to cause the people around them to suffer more than they do
• Self-torture & guilt including masochism, depression, and suicide as means of hurting people who are close to them

Withdrawal

• Withdrawal

• safeguarding through distance
• moving backward
• Like regression
• protects people against anxiety-filled experiences
• standing still
• Withdrawal tendency
• avoid all responsibility by ensuring themselves against any threat of failure
• never do anything to prove that they cannot accomplish their goals
• Hesitating
• procrastinations
• excuse, "It's too late now."
• most compulsive behaviors are attempt to waste time
• constructing obstacles
• Some people build a straw house to show that they can knock it down

birth order

• birth order

• the gender of their siblings

• the age spread between them

Only Child

• Only Child

• Family Situation
• Birth is a miracle
• Parents have no previous experience
• Retains 200% attention from both parents
• May become rival of one parent
• Can be over-protected and spoiled
• If the parents are abusive, the only child will have to bear that abuse alone
• Child’s Characteristics
• Likes being the center of adult attention
• Often has difficulty sharing with siblings and peers
• Prefers adult company and uses adult language

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• Dethroned by next child
• Has to learn to share
• Parent expectations are usually very high
• Often given responsibility and expected to set an example

• Child’s Characteristics

• May become authoritarian or strict
• be relatively solitary and more conservative than the other children in the family
• Feels power is his right
• Can become helpful if encouraged
• May turn to father after birth of next child
• Intensified feelings of power and superiority, high anxiety, and overprotective tendencies

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• Peacemaker
• There is always someone ahead

• Child’s Characteristics

• Is more competitive, wants to overtake older child
• May become a rebel or try to outdo everyone
• Competition can deteriorate into rivalry

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• Is “sandwiched” in
• May feel squeezed out of a position of privilege and significance

• Child’s Characteristics

• May be even-tempered, “take it or leave it” attitude
• May have trouble finding a place or become a fighter of injustice

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• Has many mothers and fathers
• Older children try to educate him
• Never dethroned

• Child’s Characteristics

• Wants to be bigger than the others
• May have huge plans that never work out
• Can stay the “baby”
• Frequently spoiled

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• One is usually stronger or more active
• Parents may see one as the older

• Child’s Characteristics

• Can have identity problems
• Stronger one may become the leader

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• Child born after the death of the first child may have a “ghost” in front of him
• Mother may become over-protective

• Child’s Characteristics

• Child may exploit mother’s over-concern for his well-being, or he may rebel, and protest the feeling of being compared to an idealized memory

Family Situation

• Family Situation

• Parents may be so thankful to have a child that they spoil him
• They may try to compensate for the loss of his biological parents

• Child’s Characteristics

• Child may become very spoiled and demanding
• He may resent or idealize the biological parents

Only boy among girls

• Only boy among girls

• Family Situation

• Usually with women all the time, if father is away

• Child’s Characteristics

• May try to prove he is the man in the family, or become effeminate

In order to help people to discover the "fictions" their lifestyle is based upon, Adler would look at a great variety of things:

• In order to help people to discover the "fictions" their lifestyle is based upon, Adler would look at a great variety of things:

• birth-order position
• Early recollections
• any childhood problems you may have had
• dreams and daydreams
• pay attention to how people express themselves.

Enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage social interest

• Enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage social interest

• ‘Everybody can accomplish everything.’

• The therapeutic relationship awakens their social interest in the same manner that children gain social interest from their parents

• Once awakened, the patients' social interest must spread to family, friends, and people outside the therapeutic relationship