Alfred Adler Individual Psychology

Alfred Adler Individual Psychology
Key Concepts of Individual Psychology
Adlerian counselling
Striving for Superiority (The Striving for Perfection, Striving for Self-Enhancement, Inferiority Feeling, Drive Satisfaction)
Styles of Life
Fictional Finalism

1. ALFRED ADLER INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY Nidhin Chandrasekharan M.Sc . Applied Psychology Department of Psychology Kerala University

2. ALFRED ADLER (1870- 1937) was born in a suburb of Vienna, the son of a Jewish grain merchant. He became a medical doctor and was one of the first to take a serious interest in the theories of Sigmund Freud, recognizing that they opened up a new phase in the development of psychiatry and psychology . He joined Freud's discussion group and in 1910 became President of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Shortly afterwards the divergence between his views and those of Freud and Jung led to his resignation .

3. Alfred Adler believed that Freud's theories focused too heavily on sex as the primary motivator for human behavior.

4. H e had an independent approach to formulating the problems of human psychology and finding solutions to them . In 1912 he formed the Society for Individual Psychology He is one of the three great fathers of modern psychotherapy .

5. Key Concepts of Individual Psychology

6. Individual Psychology is a social psychology we need each other , for without each other we would not survive . Thus one of the main precepts of Individual Psychology is social interest . Individual Psychology teaches us that we are all goal-directed beings , that is we move purposefully through life towards goals which attract us.

7. Closely connected with personal goals and purpose is the concept of inferiority. We become ill or old and die. One of these is the myth of social inferiority, where we believe that certain people are 'worse' than others, worth less than other people. If we (and they) hold such a belief, even if it is not true, we (and they) will act accordingly.

8. As we are social beings and do not wish other people to see that we feel inferior, we try to cover this up by developing and displaying some form of superiority . We have a number of ways of doing this, one of which is overcompensation (i.e. doing something more than the situation demands) This , in turn, means that the felt sense of inferiority is useful, as we wish to move away from it, and in doing so we develop ourselves and society.

9. We have seen above that the concept of moving towards a goal is fundamental to Individual Psychology. Courage is the fuel that we use to move us towards our socially useful goals . Being courageous, i.e. believing in ourselves, implies being independent of success and failure, that our self-worth does not depend on getting it right or being right, but on doing what we can do when the situation demands our input. Failure to an Adlerian is not succeeding , but rather not trying.

10. Encouragement , then, is seen as the development of self-esteem, growth in the belief that 'I am good enough as I am '. Individual Psychology teaches that we are what we believe In part our beliefs will match those held by the people around us, and this we refer to as common sense . The area in which our belief system differs from other people's is referred to as private logic . My beliefs become the source of my inabilities.

11. The purpose of Adlerian counselling and therapy is to disclose to clients their private logic , help them to understand which of their privately held beliefs are actually ideas which interfere with their daily functioning, and, through a carefully planned series of actions, to lessen the exclusive quality of the private logic and help them to lead more fulfilled lives.

12. This is a psychology of use, not possession . Important to an Adlerian is not so much what abilities each of us has been born with or developed, but rather what we do with what we have. Similarly , what we do is more important than what we say; Adler's advice is, when in doubt, 'close your ears and observe': when the lady protests too much, ask yourself why she is doing this.

13. Perception, or the way we see ourselves, the world and people, is fundamental to this psychology. Adlerian counsellors do not try to change life, but the way someone experiences life. The purpose of Adlerian therapy is to help clients change their perceptive frameworks, i.e. to see things differently.

14. Like other psychologies, Individual Psychology sometimes speaks in generalizations. Nonetheless, it stresses the uniqueness of the individual and his or her creative abilities, and can therefore only give guidelines for our thinking . Adler very wisely said ' alles kann immer anders sein (things can always be different)', which prevents Adlerians from using classifications and putting their clients into hard and fast categories. things can always be different

15. Topics we are going to discuss according to our syllabus S triving for Superiority S tyles of Life F ictional F inalism

16. S triving for Superiority The Striving for Perfection Striving for Self-Enhancement Inferiority Feeling Drive Satisfaction

17. G oal is one of superiority , that consequently the striving is toward superiority, and finally that the striving is compensatory, originating in a feeling of inferiority .

18. A. The Striving for Perfection 1. THE CEASELESSNESS OF STRIVING All our functions follow its direction. They strive for conquest, security, increase, either in the right or in the wrong direction. The urge from below to above never ceases. From this network, which in the last analysis is simply given with the man-cosmos relationship, no one may hope to escape. Even if anyone wanted to escape, even if he could escape, he would still find himself in the general system, striving upward from below. This not only states a fundamental category of thought, a thought construct, but, what is more, represents the fundamental fact of our life.

19. The origin of humanity and the ever-repeated beginning of infant life impresses with every psychological act: “Achieve! Arise! Conquer !”

20. 2. THE UNIVERSALITY OF STRIVING The striving for perfection is innate in the sense that it is a part of life, a striving, an urge, a something without which life would be unthinkable . Therefor it is universal

21. 3. S triving as Ultimate adaptation The continuous striving for security urges toward the overcoming of the present reality in favor of a better one. No one knows which is the only correct way. Mankind has frequently made attempts to imagine this final goal of human development.

22. Man as an ever striving being cannot be like God. God who is eternally complete , who directs the stars, who is the master of fates, who elevates man from his lowliness to Himself, who speaks from the cosmos to every single human soul, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection to date. The human soul, as a part of the movement of life, is endowed with the ability to participate in the uplift, elevation, perfection, and completion.

23. 4. Perfection in the Abnormal domineer over others to violate reality , and to protect himself fearfully against the truth and those who stand up to it. X

24. B . Striving for Self-Enhancement 1. Enhancement of the Self-esteem All neurotic phenomena originate from these preparatory means which strive toward the final purpose of superiority. They are psychological readinesses for initiating the struggle for self-esteem . The safeguarding tendency which originates in the feeling of insecurity forces us all, especially the child and the neurotic, to leave the more obvious ways of induction and deduction and to use such devices as the schematic fiction. 2. Safeguarding the Self-esteem

25. 3 . Striving for Power “ will to power” and “will to seem.” the neurotic strives for increased possession, power, and influence, and for the disparagement and cheating of other persons.

26. 4. self-enhancement and the normal striving T he normal individual strives toward the perfection which benefits all. The views of Individual Psychology demand the unconditional reduction of striving for power and the development of social interest.

27. c. Inferiority Feeling 1. the normal inferiority feeling Inferiority feelings are not in themselves abnormal. They are the cause of all improvements in the position of mankind. Science itself, for example

28. the abnormal inferiority feeling It is such children who become the criminals, problem children, neurotics, and suicides. They are lacking in social interest and therefore in courage and self-confidence. burden and pessimistic view originates also when the environment is unfavorable .

29. d. Drive Satisfaction 1. subordination of drives From where drive gets direction? nature, like the character, thinking, feeling, volition, doubt, emotion, or action, is a part of the self-consistent personality, and as such depends on the law of movement of the individual . Children already possesses readinesses , psychological gestures, and attitudes

30. 2. subordination of pleasure and self-preservation all volition is dominated by feelings of pleasure and displeasure . For self preservation

31. 3. Inferiority feeling as displeasure The feeling of one’s own inferiority and unfitness, the sense of weakness, of being little, of insecurity, through its inherent feelings of displeasure and dissatisfaction, becomes a suitable basis for goal striving in that it permits the inner impulses to come closer to a fictional final goal.

32. S tyles of Life

33. Pine tree in mountain and pine tree in valley Example for “style of life “d efinition

34. As long as a person is in a favorable situation, we cannot see his style of life clearly. In new situations, however, where he is confronted with difficulties, the style of life appears clearly and distinctly. b. Unity and Sovereignty of the Self 1. Unity and Sovereignty C onditioned reflexes or with innate abilities of child in new problems. Unity in Self-consistency of individual is called the style of life of the individual.

35. 2. creativity We concede that every child is born with potentialities different from those of any other child . purposeful movements require of him the continuous adherence to a self-consistent goal. 3. The forgotten child Who moves the mental life ? and in which direction does he move it? The mover is always the self . This provocation and the child’s opinion of life and opinion of himself are creations of the mostly forgotten child.

36. C . U niqueness and Subjectivity 1. The individual as the Variant The task of Individual Psychology is to comprehend the individual variant . . It attempts to gain, from the separate life manifestations and forms of expression the picture of the self-consistent personality as a variant, by presupposing the unity and self-consistency of the individuality . The separate traits are then compared with one another, are reduced to their common denominator, and are combined in an individualizing manner into a total portrait.

37. 2. Uniqueness of the goal The dynamic value of mental, emotional, and attitudinal movements consists of their direction toward, or determination by, a goal which has for the individual the meaning of securing for him what he regards as his position in life . The goal of superiority with each individual is personal and unique. It depends upon the meaning he gives to life

38. 3. The schema of Apperception a. Opinion of Oneself and the World. The first four to five years are enough for the child to complete his specific and arbitrary training in the face of impressions from his body and the environment . b. The Complex as Attitudinal Position The attitudinal position of a person includes the development of psychological complexes for reasons of psychological economy.

39. d. Development of the Style of Life 1. Origin ( child gets movement in life striving for perfection, completion, superiority, or evolution .) 2 . Self-consistency (Once the goal of superiority has been made concrete, the habit and symptoms towards goal is concrete.) 3. Constancy (When the prototype that early personality which embodies the goal is formed, the line of direction is established and the individual becomes definitely oriented .) 4. Factors making for constancy and change (The child builds up his whole life, which we have called concretely style of life, at a time when he has neither adequate language nor adequate concepts. )

40. Fictional Finalism

41. A. Fictionalism forms of perception and thought, and certain concepts and other logical constructs. Constructing , forming, giving shape, elaborating, presenting, artistically fashioning, conceiving , thinking, imagining, assuming, planning, devising, inventing. The statement “All men are created equal” would be an example of a fiction.

42. 2. Types of Fictions Abstractive ( Neglective ). Symbolic (Analogical ) Heuristic ([serving and facilitating discovery]) Practical (Ethical ) Aesthetic. (concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.)

43. Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal Provided by heredity and environment Product of creative power (ability to freely shape 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.)

44. Inferiority and fictional final goal

45. We all have a myriad of short, medium and long-term goals in our lives , and all these goals will have one thing in common. This is what Adler referred to as the 'long-term goal' or the 'fictional final goal'. An example of a 'fictional final goal' might be: 'I want to be good'; it is final, because it is the ultimate achievement of our lives, and fictional because we can never achieve it. The study of the long-term goal is called teleology .

46. Reference Ansbacher, H. L., Ph.D., & Ansbacher, R. R., Ph.D (Eds.). (1956). T he individual psychology of Alfred A dler , (New Y ork basic books, Inc. publishers). Colin Bret (Eds.). (1997). Understanding Life Alfred Adler , (One world Publications, Inc. Publishers).

47. THANK YOU