Individual Psychology

• Born in Vienna in 1870 of a middle-class family

• Died in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1937 while on a lecture

tour

• Received a medical degree in 1895 from the

University of Vienna

• First specialized in Ophthalmology but after a period

of practice in general medicine, he became a

Psychiatrist

• One of the charter members of the Vienna

Psychoanalytic Society and later became its President

He soon began to develop ideas that were at variance

with those of Freud and others in the Vienna Society,

and when these differences became acute, he was asked

to present his views to the society. This was in 1911.

As a consequence of the vehement criticism and

denunciation of Adler’s position by other members of the

society, Adler resigned as President and a few months

later terminated his connection with Freudian

Psychoanalysis.

• Adler served as a Physician in the Austrian Army

during World War I.

• He became interested in child guidance and

established the first guidance clinics in connection with

the Viennese school system.

• Inspired the establishment of an experimental school in

Vienna that applied his theories of education

• In 1935, Adler settled in the United States, where he

continued his practice as a Psychiatrist and served as

Professor of Medical Psychology at the Long Island

College of Medicine.

1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is

the striving for success or superiority.

2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior

and personality.

3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.

4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the

viewpoint of social interest.

5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into

a person’s style of life.

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

Striving for Superiority

It is a striving for perfect completion.

Final Goal:

- To be aggressive

- To pe powerful

- To be superior

Fictional Finalism

Humans are motivated more by their expectations of the future than by experiences of the past.

(Influenced by Hans Vaihinger)

Ex: “All men are created equal.”

“Honesty is the best policy.”

“The end justifies the means.”

Final Goal:

A fiction, an ideal that is impossible to realize but that nonetheless is a very real spur to human striving and the ultimate explanation of conduct. Adler believed that the normal person could free him- or herself from the influence of these fictions and face reality when necessity demanded, something that the neurotic person is incapable of doing.

Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality

Thoughts, feelings, and actions are all directed toward a single

goal and serve a single purpose.

Organ Jargon or Organ Dialect

“speak a language which is usually more expressive and discloses

the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do”

(Adler, 1956, p. 223)

The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in

isolation; it affects the entire person. The deficient organ

expressed the direction of the individual’s goal.

Social Interest

Gemeinschaftsgefühl – “social feeling” or “community feeling”

- Oneness with all humanity

consists of the individual helping society to attain the goal of a

perfect society: “Social interest is the true and inevitable

compensation for all the natural weaknesses of individual

human beings” (Adler, 1929b, p. 31)

Style of Life

Flavor of a person’s life

explains the uniqueness of a person

no two people develop the same style

established by age 4 or 5

The whole that commands the parts.

Creative Power

Each person is empowered with the freedom to create her or

his own style of life. Ultimately, all people are responsible for

who they are and how they behave.

places people in control of their own lives, is responsible for

their final goal, determines their method of striving for that

goal, and contributes to the development of social interest

dynamic concept implying movement, and this movement is the

most salient characteristic of life

makes each person a free individual

Adler (1929/1964) used an interesting analogy, which he

called “the law of the low doorway.” If you are trying to walk

through a doorway four feet high, you have two basic choices.

First, you can use your creative power to bend down as you

approach the doorway, thereby successfully solving the problem.

This is the manner in which the psychologically healthy individual

solves most of life’s problems. Conversely, if you bump your head

and fall back, you must still solve the problem correctly or continue

bumping your head. Neurotics often choose to bump their head on

the realities of life.

When approaching the low doorway, you are neither

compelled to stoop nor forced to bump your head. You have a

creative power that permits you to follow either course.

1. Family Constellation

Adler almost always asked patients about their

family constellation, that is, their birth order, the gender

of their siblings, and the age spread between them.

Although people’s perception of the situation into which

they were born is more important than numerical rank,

Adler did form some general hypotheses about birth

order.

Adler’s View of Some Possible Traits by Birth Order

Positive Traits Negative Traits

Oldest Child Nurturing and protective of

others

Good organizer

Highly anxious

Exaggerated feelings of power

Unconscious hostility

Fights for acceptance

Must always be “right,” whereas

others are always “wrong”

Highly critical of others

Uncooperative

Second Child Highly motivated

Cooperative

Moderately competitive

Highly competitive

Easily discouraged

Youngest Child Realistically ambitious Pampered style of life

Dependent on others

Wants to excel in everything

Unrealistically ambitious

Only Child Socially Mature Exaggerated feelings of superiority

Low feelings of cooperation

Inflated sense of self

Pampered style of life

2. Early Recollections

To gain an understanding of patients’ personality

Although Adler believed that the recalled memories yield

clues for understanding patients’ style of life, he did not consider

these memories to have a causal effect. Whether the recalled

experiences correspond with objective reality or are complete

fantasies is of no importance. People reconstruct the events to

make them consistent with a theme or pattern that runs throughout

their lives.

3. Dreams

Although dreams cannot foretell the future, they

can provide clues for solving future problems.

If one interpretation doesn’t feel right, try another.

4. Psychotherapy

Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology results from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest. Thus, the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage social interest. This task, however, is not easy because patients struggle to hold on to their existing, comfortable view of themselves.