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Alfred Adler – An Approach to Individual PsychologyJanuary 2012

Team:• Abhishek Sehgal• Aniket Shah• Anit Singh• Hershita Singh• Pragya Singh

Contents

1. Background & Context

2. Adler’s Theories & Concepts

3. Criticism & Objections

Slide 2

Contents

1. Background & Context

2. Adler’s Theories & Concepts

3. Criticism & Objections

Slide 3

Background and Context – Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

• Austrian Citizen

• Medical Degree - 1895

• Started Career as Ophthalmologist, moved to General Practice

• Turned to Psychiatry - 1907

• Freud – Psychoanalytic movement

• President of the Viennese Analytic Society by Freud

• Broke up –Difference of opinion –

• Aggression Instinct

• Children’s feeling of inferiority

• Founded the School of Individual Psychology – His Belief

• Moved to the U.S as a professor

• Came up with Theories & Concepts pertaining to Psychology

Slide 4

Contents

1. Context & Background

2. Adler’s Theories

3. Criticism & Objections

Slide 5

Adler’s Theories & Concepts

Slide 6

Striving for Perfection

Strive for Superiority

Compensation

Masculine ProtestChildhood & Birth

Order

Psychological Types

Teleology

Social Interest & LifestyleInferiority

Adler’s Theories & Concepts – A Prelude

Slide 7

Earliest phrase was the Aggression Drive a.k.a Assertiveness 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”

Motivation Drive -

A single "drive" or motivating force lies behind all our behavior and experience

Striving for Perfection -

The desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal.

Compensation defined Motivation – Rejected Later

Personalities could be accounted for by the ways in which we do -- or do not -- compensate or overcome those problems

Compensation was rejected as a premise for motivation

“Compensation makes it seem like people’s problems caused them to be what they are”

Drew an analogy with Self Actualization

Finally, The Underlying Objective : People want to be better than others, rather than better in their own right

Adler’s Theories & Concepts – A Prelude

Slide 8

Masculine Protest:

Men in many cultures often do have the power, the education, and the talent and motivation needed to do "great things," and women do not.

Men’s Success Innate Superiority

Some reasons cited were:

•Boys are encouraged to be assertive in life, and girls are discouraged

•People want, often desperately, to be thought of as strong, aggressive, (i.e. "masculine”) and not weak, passive, or dependent (i.e. "feminine”).

Lifestyle:

How people live life, how they handle problems and interpersonal relations.

Developing a perspective beyond the traditional parameters:

•Internal traits,

•Structures•,•Dynamics

•Conflicts.

An Illustration:

“ The style of life of a tree is the individuality of a tree expressing itself and molding itself in an environment. We recognize a style when we see it against a background of an environment different from what we expect, for then we realize that every tree has a life pattern and is not merely a mechanical reaction to the environment."

Adler’s Theories & Concepts – A Prelude

Slide 9

Teleology:`“Motivation is a matter of moving towards the future, rather than being driven, mechanistically, by the past”

Human Drivers

Past

Fictional Finalism:`“Ultimate truth would always be beyond us, but that, for practical purposes, we need to create partial truths”

Partial Truths Fiction

I see what I see………

Contrary to Freud’s belief that…

Imperative to fictionlize….

Adler’s Theories & Concepts – A Prelude

Slide 10

Social Interest:

“Social concern was not simply inborn, nor just learned, but a combination of both”

Social Interest Extraversion

Adler’s connotation of Social Interest was limited to caring for:

•Family

•Society

•Community

•Humanity

•Life, in general

Life with a purpose beyond the self….

Social Failures:

•Drunkards•Criminals•Neurotics•Psychotics

Limited to Personal Superiority

Adler’s Theories & Concepts – A Prelude

Slide 11

Inferiority & Compensation:

“People respond to psychological inferiorities with compensation”

Some examples are..

•I will become good at what I am inferior about

•I will become good at something else to cover up for my inferiority

•I can not do anything – Lack of Self – Esteem precedes Inferiority Complex

•An inferiority complex could also result in …

Some examples are:

Bullies

Petty Dictators

Drug Addicts

Types of Neurosis:

1.Ruling Type

2.Leaning Type

3.Avoiding Type

Neurosis:

Adler’s Theories & Concepts – A Prelude

Slide 12

Childhood:

“Saw personality or lifestyle as something established quite early in life”

Three basic childhood situations are…

1.Inferioritya) Self Centricb) Superiority

1.Pamperinga) Give Commandsb) Highly Dependantc) Experience Hatred

2.Neglect• Trust no one• No one values them

Birth Order:

“Adler considered birth-order another one of those heuristic ideas -- useful fictions -- that contribute to understanding people, but must be not be taken too seriously”

Four basic orders classified by him are…

1. Only Childa) Pamperedb) Anxiety filled carec) Bears all the impact

2.First Childa) Similar to the only child till dethronedb) Battles for lost positionc) More likely to become problem children

3.Second Child• Competitive – Attempt to surpass older sibling

•Youngest Child• Most pampered• Second most likely to be problem children• My feel inferiority amidst older siblings

Contents

1. Context & Background

2. Adler’s Theories

3. Criticism & Objections

Slide 13

Criticism & Objections

Slide 14

THANK YOU