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ALFRED ADLER: INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

OVERVIEW
- The term individual psychology was used by Adler to stress his belief that each person is an integrated whole,
striving to attain future goals and attempting to find meaning in life while working harmoniously with others. It presents
an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all
humankind. Adler argued that people may become largely aware of their deepest impulses and fictional finalism and,
with conscious intent, create their own personalities and lifestyles that will achieve their highest goals. In the end,
Adler’s position was almost the complete antithesis of Freud’s which emphasized that our behavior is largely
determined by forces of which we are unaware.

FREUD vs. ADLER

- Freud reduced all motivation to sex and aggression while Adler said that people are motivated mostly by social
influences and by striving for superiority or success. Freud say that people have little or no choice in shaping their
personality while according to Adler, people are largely responsible for who they are. According to Freud, Present
behavior is caused by past experiences while Adler said that present behavior is shaped by people’s view of the
future. Freud has very heavy emphasis on unconscious components of behavior while Adler said that psychologically
healthy people are usually aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it.

FACT
- In 1937, a young Abraham Maslow was having dinner in a New York restaurant with a somewhat older colleague.
The older man was widely known for his earlier association with Sigmund Freud, and many people, including Maslow,
regarded him as a disciple of Freud. When Maslow casually asked the older man about being Freud’s follower, the
older man became quite angry, and according to Maslow, he nearly shouted. Maslow, who had known the older man
as an even-tempered, congenial person, was stunned by his outburst. The older man, of course, was Alfred Adler,
who battled throughout his professional life to dispel the notion that he had ever been a follower of Freud. However,
the warm association between Adler and Freud came to a bitter end, with both men hurling caustic remarks toward
the other.

BIOGRAPHY
- Alfred Adler was born on February 7, 1870, in Rudolfsheim, a village near Vienna. His mother, Pauline, was a hard-
working homemaker who kept busy with her seven children. His father, Leopold, was a middle-class Jewish grain
merchant from Hungary. As a young boy, Adler was weak and sickly and at age 5, he nearly died of pneumonia.
Adler’s poor health was in sharp contrast to the health of his older brother Sigmund. Several of Adler’s earliest
memories were concerned with the unhappy competition between his brother’s good health and his own illness.
Sigmund Adler, the childhood rival whom Adler attempted to surpass, remained a worthy opponent, and in later years
he became very successful in business and even helped Alfred financially.

- Adler married a fiercely independent Russian woman, Raissa Epstein, in December of 1897. Raissa was an early
feminist and much more political than her husband. In later years, while Adler lived in New York, she remained mostly
in Vienna and worked to promote Marxist-Leninist views that were quite different from Adler’s notion of individual
freedom and responsibility. Raissa and Alfred had four children: Alexandra and Kurt, who became psychiatrists and
continued their father’s work; Valentine (Vali), who died as a political prisoner of the Soviet Union in about 1942; and
Cornelia (Nelly), who aspired to be an actress.

- He identified himself closely with the common person, and his manner and appearance were consistent with that
identification. His patients included a high percentage of people from the lower and middle classes, a rarity among
psychiatrists of his time. His personal qualities included an optimistic attitude toward the human condition, an intense
competitiveness coupled with friendly congeniality, and a strong belief in the basic gender equality, which combined
with a willingness to forcefully advocate women’s rights.

TENETS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY: The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior.
a. Final Goal - The final goal of success or superiority toward which all people strive unifies personality and makes all
behavior meaningful.

b. Striving Force as Compensation - Because people are born with small, inferior bodies, they feel inferior and
attempt to overcome these feelings through their natural tendency to move toward completion. The striving force can
take one of two courses—personal gain (superiority) or community benefit (success).
c. Striving for Personal Superiority -Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority with little
concern for other people. Although they may appear to be interested in other people, their basic motivation is personal
benefit.
d. Striving for Success- In contrast, psychologically healthy people strive for the success of all humanity, but they do
so without losing their personal identity.

2. SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS: People's subjective view of the world—not reality—shapes their behavior.
According to Adler, people strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferiority but the manner in
which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjective perception.

A. Fictionalism - Fictions are people's expectations of the future. Adler held that fictions guide behavior, because
people act as if these fictions are true. Adler emphasized teleology over causality, or explanations of behavior in terms
of future goals rather than past causes.

B. Physical Inferiorities - Adler believed that all humans are "blessed" with physical inferiorities, which stimulate
subjective feelings of inferiority and move people toward perfection or completion.
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3. UNITY AND SELF-CONSISTENCY OF PERSONALITY

- Personality is unified and self-consistent.

- Adler believed that all behaviors are directed toward a single purpose. When seen in the light of that sole purpose,
seemingly contradictory behaviors can be seen as operating in a self-consistent manner.

a. ORGAN DIALECT- The disturbance of one part of the body affects the entire person. The deficient organ
expresses the direction of the individual’s goal. The body’s organ can speak a language which is usually more
expressive and discloses the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do.

Example: The case of very obedient boy who wet the bed at night sends a message that he does not wish to obey
parental wishes. The child is speaking with his bladder instead of his mouth.

b. CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS- Adler avoided a dichotomy between the unconscious and the conscious,
which he saw as two cooperating parts of the same unified system.

*CONSCIOUS- Those that are understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in striving for success.
*UNCONSCIOUS- Part of the goal that is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual.

4. SOCIAL INTEREST
- A person with well-developed Gemeinschaftsgefuhl or social feeling strives for personal superiority but for perfection
for all people in an ideal community. It is an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general as well as empathy for
each member of the human community. It manifests itself as cooperation with others for social advancement rather
than for any personal gain.

a. ORIGINS OF SOCIAL INTEREST

- It originates from the mother-child relationship during the early months of infancy. Every person who has survived
infancy was kept alive by a mothering person who possessed some amount of social interest. It is a mother’s job to
develop a bond that encourages the child’s mature social interest and fosters a sense of cooperation. A successful
father avoids the dual errors of emotional detachment and paternal authoritarianism.

*Emotional Detachment- to influence the child to develop a warped sense of social interest, a feeling of neglect, and
possibly parasitic attachments to the mother.
*Paternal Authoritarianism- Creates a goal of personal superiority rather than one based on social interest.

b. IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL INTEREST

- To Adler, Social interest is the only gauge to be used in judging the worth of a person. Social Interest is not
synonymous with charity and unselfishness. Acts of philanthropy and kindness may or may not be motivated by
Gemeinschaftsgefuhl. Healthy people are motivated by normal feelings of incompleteness and high levels of social
interest. Healthy people achieve the goal of success in terms of perfection and completion for everyone. Exaggerated
feelings of inferiority lead to neurotic style of life. Normal feelings of incompletion lead to a healthy style of life.

C. THREE MAJOR TASKS IN LIFE TO BE ABLE TO DEVELOP SOCIAL INTEREST

1. Occupational Tasks – through constructive work, the person helps to advance society.
2. Social Tasks – this requires cooperation with fellow humans (division of labor).
3. Love and Marriage Tasks – relationship between this tasks and the continuance of society is clear.

D. FOUR TYPES OF PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THEIR DEGREE OF SOCIAL INTEREST

a. Ruling – Dominant Type – attempts to rule or dominate people; has low social interest.
b. Getting – Learning Type – expects everything from others and gets everything he/she can from them; has low
social interest.
c. Avoiding Type – such a person avoids failure by never attempting anything; has low social interest.
d. Socially Useful Type – confronts problems and attempts to solve them in a socially useful way; has high social
interest.
The first three types have faulty lifestyles because they lack proper social interest. Only the socially useful type can
cope to live a rich, purposeful life.

5. STYLE OF LIFE
- Considered as the flavor of a person’s life. It includes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others
and attitude toward the world. It is well established by age 4 or 5. Although the final goal is singular, style of
life need not be narrow or rigid. Healthy people see many ways of striving for success and continually seek
to create new options for them. Though their final goal remains constant, the way in which they perceive it
constantly changes. People with a healthy, socially useful style of life express their social interest through
action.

6. CREATIVE POWER
- All people are responsible for who they are and how they behave. It places people in control of their own
lives and is responsible for their final goal, determines their method of striving for that goal, and contributes
to the development of social interest. It makes each person a free individual. It is not what people have
been given but how they put their materials to use.

ADLER’S CONCEPT OF ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT

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A. GENERAL DESCRIPTION- Underdeveloped social interest is one factor underlying all types of maladjustment.
Besides of lacking social interest, neurotics tend to:
1. Set their goals too high- They set extravagant goals as overcompensation for exaggerated feelings of
inferiority.
2. Live in their own private life- The exaggerated and unrealistic nature of neurotics’ goals set them apart from
the community and other people. They possess what Adler called ―private meaning‖. These people find
everyday living to be hard work, requiring great effort.
3. Have a rigid and dogmatic style of life- lofty goals in dogmatic behavior, and the higher the goal, the more
rigid the striving. To compensate for deeply rooted feelings of inadequacy and basic insecurity, these
individuals narrow their perspective and strive compulsively and rigidly for unrealistic goals.
People become failures in life because they are over-concerned with themselves and care little about others.
B. EXTERNAL FACTORS IN MALADJUSTMENT
1. EXAGGERATED PHYSICAL DEFICIENCIES- People with exaggerated physical deficiencies sometimes develop
exaggerated feelings of inferiority because they overcompensate for their inadequacy. They tend to be overly
concerned with themselves and lack consideration for others.
They are convinced that life’s major problems can be solved only in a selfish manner.

2. PAMPERED STYLE OF LIFE- Lies at the heart of most neuroses. They have a weak social interest but a strong
desire to perpetuate the pampered, parasitic relationship they originally had with one or both parents. They expect
others to look for them, overprotect them and satisfy their needs. They see the world with private vision and believe
that they are entitled to be first in everything. They have not received too much love rather, they feel unloved.
Their parents have demonstrated a lack of love by doing too much for them and by treating them as if they were
incapable of solving their own problems. They may also feel neglected, whenever they must fend for themselves, they
feel left out, mistreated and neglected which adds up to the pampered child’s feelings of inferiority.

3. NEGLECTED STYLE OF LIFE- Children who feel unloved and unwanted are likely to borrow heavily from these
feelings in creating a neglected style of life. The fact that a child survived infancy is proof that someone cared for that
child and that the seed of social interest has been planted. Abused and mistreated children develop little social
interest and tend to create a neglected style of life. They have little confidence in themselves and tend to overestimate
difficulties connected with life’s major problems. They are distrustful of other people and are unable to cooperate for
the common welfare. They feel alienated from all other people and experience a strong envy towards the success of
others. Neglected children have many characteristics of the pampered one, but generally, they are more suspicious
and more likely to be dangerous to others.

C. SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES- patterns of behavior to protect exaggerated sense of self-esteem

against public disgrace. These protective devices enable people to hide their inflated self-image and to maintain their
current style of life. The following are the common safeguarding tendencies
Alfred Adler’s Safeguarding Tendencies vs. Sigmund Freud’s Defense Mechanisms
SIGMUND FREUD ALFRED ADLER
It operates unconsciously. Largely conscious and shields a person’s fragile self-esteem
from public disgrace.
It is common to everyone. With reference to the construction of neurotic symptoms.

1. EXCUSES- It is the most common of the safeguarding tendencies. It is expressed in the ―Yes, But‖ or ―If Only‖
format. These excuses protect the weak but artificially inflated self-worth and deceive people into believing that they
are more superior than they really are.

2. AGGRESSION
a. Depreciation- It is the tendency to undervalue other people’s achievements and to overvalue one’s own.
b. Accusation- It is the tendency to blame others from one’s failure and to seek revenge.
c. Self-Accusation- It is marked by self-torture and guilt. Some people use self-torture, including masochism,
depression and suicide as means of hurting people who are close to them.

3. WITHDRAWAL- Safeguarding through distance.

a. MOVING BACKWARD- Psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life. It is similar to Freud’s regression.
It is conscious and is directed at maintaining an inflated goal of superiority. It is designed to elicit sympathy, offered so
generously to pampered children.
b. STANDING STILL- Do not moves in any direction. They avoid all responsibility by ensuring themselves against any
threat of failure. They safeguard fictional aspirations because they never do anything to prove that they cannot
accomplish their goals.
c. HESITATING- Their procrastinations eventually give them excuse like ―It’s too late now‖. Adler believed that most
compulsive behaviors are attempts to waste time.
d. CONSTRUCTING OBSTACLES- Least severe of withdrawal safeguarding tendencies. By overcoming the
obstacle, they protect their self-esteem and their prestige. If they fail to hurdle the barrier, they can always resort to an
excuse.

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 Cultural and social
practices, not anatomy, influence many men and women to overemphasize the importance of being manly.
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ADLER, FREUD and the MASCULINE PROTEST

Freud: Regarded women as the ―Dark Continent of Psychology‖
Adler: Assumed that women want more or less the same things that men want.

These opposing views on femininity magnified in the women Freud and Adler married:
Martha Bernays Freud- A housewife dedicated to her children and husband, but she had no interest in her
husband’s professional work.
Raissa Epstein Adler- An intensely independent woman who abhorred the traditional domestic role, preferring a
politically active career.

APPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS/BIRTH ORDER

a. FIRST BORN CHILDREN- are most likely to have intensified feelings of power and superiority, high anxiety, and
overprotective tendencies. Firstborn children occupy a unique position, being an only child for a time and then
experiencing a traumatic dethronement when a younger sibling is born. This event dramatically changes the situation
and the child’s view of the world.

b. SECOND BORN CHILDREN begin life in a better situation for developing cooperation and social interest.
Typically, the second born children mature towards moderated competitiveness, having a healthy desire to overtake
the older rival.

c. YOUNGEST CHILDREN are often the most pampered and, consequently, run a high risk of being problem
children. They are likely to have strong feelings of inferiority and to lack a sense of independence. They are often
highly motivated to exceed older siblings and to become the fastest runner, the best musician, the most skilled
athlete, or the most ambitious student.

d. ONLY CHILDREN are in a unique position of competing, not against brothers and sisters, but against father and
mother. Living in an adult world, they often develop an exaggerated sense of superiority an inflated self-concept.

B. Early Recollections (ERs)- these are the recalled memories which can yield clues for understanding patients’
style of life. Adler did not consider these memories to have a causal effect to personality.

C. Dream Analysis- is a method wherein a person’s dreams are used to provide a way of dealing with the person’s
life problems. By analyzing how to confront problems and how to plan future events through dream analysis, a great
deal could be learned about the person’s style of life.

Adlerian Psychotherapy- the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority, and encourage social interest. Through the use of humor and warmth, Adler tried to increase the patient’s
courage, self-esteem, and social interest. He believed that a warm, nurturing attitude by the therapist encourages
patients to expand their social interest. Adler innovated a unique method of therapy with problematic children by
treating them in front of an audience of parents, teachers, and health professionals. He believed that this procedure
would enhance children’s social interest by allowing them to feel that they belong to a community of concerned adults.