That humans are inherently social beings motivated primarily by social needs is one pervasive theme of contemporary personality theory. Other significant themes focus on the ability of individuals to (1) Shape their destinies, (2) Overcome primitive drives and an uncontrollable environment in striving for more fulfilling lives and (3) improve themselves and the world around them through self awareness. Such themes reflect some of the enduring humanistic contributions of the great Viennese Psychiatrist, Alfred Adler. Alfred Adler is regarded as the ancestral figure of the "new social psychological look".
He broke up with Freud in 1991 over the issue of sexuality, and proceeded to develop a theory in which social interest and a striving for superiority became two of the most substantial conceptual pillars. Other psychologists who have propounded their theories of personality on the same lines are Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan. The distinctive assumptions and concepts of their theories will be discussed in the next lesson.
Fromm acknowledged that Adler was the first psychoanalyst to emphasize the fundamental social nature of humans. Later Horney and Fromm took up the cudgels against the strong instinctive orientation of psychoanalysis and insisted upon the relevance of social psychological variables for personality theory. Finally, Harry Stack Sullivan, in his theory of interpersonal relations, consolidated the position of a personality theory grounded in social process.
Adler's personal history provides a clear example of the striving to overcome inferiority, which became the central theme in his theory as a boy who was weak, clumsy, unattractive and initially a poor student. Adler recognized that his own success in compensating for these deficiencies served as a model for his theory of personality. This he reflected in his statement, "those who are familiar with my life work will clearly see the accord existing between the facts of my childhood and the views is expressed".
Adler theorized that behaviour is always dependent on people's opinions of themselves and the environment with which they must cope. Individuals live in a world of their own construction in accordance with their own "scheme of apperception". People are motivated by fictional goals-privately held beliefs about present and future events that regulate behaviour. Behaviour is clearly a reflection of the individuals subjective perception of reality.
Following are he central theoretical concepts grounded in these basic tenets of individual psychology.
Organ inferiorities by themselves have no meaning or importance. Their importance stems form the fact that they stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority. The feelings, in turn, serve as impetus toward perfection or completion, motivating the individual toward even higher levels of self development. Thus inferiority, by itself, can never produce greatness. It must be combined with talent, courage and social concern.
An inability to overcome inferiority feelings, for whatever reason, frequently reinforces the feelings and leads to the development of, what act Adler calls "inferiority complex". He described three childhood situations that tend to load an inferiority complex Organ inferiority: spoiling or pampering, and neglect.
In organ inferiority, the physically, impaired or chronically ill child is unable to compete successfully with other children, and withdraws into a shell of inferiority. Spoiled or pampered children, grow up lacking confidence in their abilities because others have always done things for them, for they believe it is impossible to tackle life's ovstacles on their own. Neglect, can lead to an inferiority complex because, such children vasically feel unwanted; they go through life lacking confidence in their ability to be useful and to gain affection and esteem form other. Each of these three childhood situations can play a crucial role in the emergence of neurosis in adulthood.
Regardless of the circumstances, that give rise to inferiority feelings, a person may react by overcompensating and thus develop what Adler called a superiority complex. The person possessing a superiority complex tends to be boastful, arrogant, vain, egocentric, and sarcastic.
Thus, all aspects of a person behaviour issue from his or her style of life.
For Adler, the child's numerical rank in the family constellation is of considerable importance. Particularly important are the perceptions of the situation that are likely to accompany the position occupied. Thus, it is the meaning that children attach to the situation that actually determines in what way their particular ordinal positions will influence their life-style. Because perception are inevitably subjective, children born in any position may create for themselves any life-style. In general though certain characteristics are commonly found in children born at a specific position. Adler focused on four such birth-order positions;the first born, the second born, the youngest, and the only child.
The first Born (Oldest) Child: Adler referred to the first born as "King dethroned", and noted this might be a very traumatic experience. Seeing that a younger sibling is winning the contest for parental attention and affection, he or she fights back for supremacy in the family. However, realizing that things are not going to be the same as they were, the first born child "trains himself for isolation" and masters the strategy of surviving alone and independently of the need for anyone's affection or approval.
The Second Born (Middle) Child: The second child, from the very beginning has a pacesetter in the form of an older brother or sister, and is thus, stimulated or challenged into action. This spurs the second born, often generating a faster rate of development than the first born exhibited. The second born is characterized by being highly competitive and ambitious, constantly trying to prove that she or he is better than the older siblings.
The Only Child: He does not have other siblings to compete with. He may be pampered two much by the mother, and expect pampering form all others too. Dependency and self centereness are the leading qualities of this style.
By the above descriptions, Adler was suggesting that each child's original position in the family is likely to present certain kind of problems.
Alfred Adler:
Alfred Adler was born in Vienna in 1870, and died in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1937, while on a lecture tour. He received a medical degree in 1895 from the university of Vienna. He specialized in ophthamology, and after a period of practice in general medicine, he became a psychiatrist. He was one of the charter members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and later its president. However, Adler 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 he did 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 Psychoanalysts. He then formed his own group Adler named his theory "individual psychology" to express his holistic conception of the human being as a single, indivisible self consistent and unified entity. He believed that no person can be viewed in isolation, but must always be seen as embedded in a larger context, the society ecology system of which she or he is an integral part. Adler postulated that, "far from being governed by forces we cannot see or control, each of us is a creative agent of our own personality, actively directing and creating our own growth and future.Fromm acknowledged that Adler was the first psychoanalyst to emphasize the fundamental social nature of humans. Later Horney and Fromm took up the cudgels against the strong instinctive orientation of psychoanalysis and insisted upon the relevance of social psychological variables for personality theory. Finally, Harry Stack Sullivan, in his theory of interpersonal relations, consolidated the position of a personality theory grounded in social process.
Adler's personal history provides a clear example of the striving to overcome inferiority, which became the central theme in his theory as a boy who was weak, clumsy, unattractive and initially a poor student. Adler recognized that his own success in compensating for these deficiencies served as a model for his theory of personality. This he reflected in his statement, "those who are familiar with my life work will clearly see the accord existing between the facts of my childhood and the views is expressed".
Basictenets of Individual Psychology
Like all personological systems, individual psychology is predicated upon certain basic tenets. This section will briefly examine the most fundamental tenets of individual psychology;tenets from which Adler proceeded to construct theories of personality and psychopathology and an approach to psychotherapy.The individual as a unified and Self-Consistent Entity:
The notion that human being is a unified and self consistent organism constitutes the foremost assumption of Adlerian psychology. Alder held that no life expression can be viewed in isolation, but must always be regarded in relation to the total personality. The person is an indivisible unity both in regard to the mind-body relationship and to the various activities and functions of the mind Adler designated. This self-consistent and unified personality structure as the style of life of the individual.Human Life as a Dynamis Striving for perfection:
To regard the human being as an organic unity requires a unitary psychodynamic principle. This Adler derived directly from life itself, namely that life cannot be conceived without ongoing movement, movement in the direction of growth and expansion. Only in the movement toward identifiable goals can the individual be perceived as a unified and self consistent entity. In proving this striving for perfection, Adler reasoned that people are not just pushed from behind by internal of external causes but rather are pulled from system these life-goals are largely self-selected, strongly suggesting that people have the capacity to determine their own actions and their own destinies in the constant quest for perfection.The Individual as a creative and self-determined entity:
Adler insisted that the individual was not merely a product of heredity and environment. Adlerian theory depicts people as possessing a creative power which places them in control of their lives;free, conscious activity is the defining character of human being. Their creative power affects every face of a person's experience-perception, memory, imagination, fantasy and dreaming. It makes each person a self-determined individual, the architect of his or her own life.The Social Embeddedness of the Individual:
Individual psychology regards and examines the individual as socially embedded. Paramount to Adlrerian theory is the conviction that all behaviour, without exception, occurs in a social context, and that the essence of human nature can only be grasped through the understanding of social relationships. Every individual has a natural aptitude for community feeling or social interest, innate ability to engage in cooperative reciprocal social relations. Individual psychology assumes an essential cooperative harmony between individual and society, with conflict as an unnatural condition.Individual Subjectivity:
Adler theorized that behaviour is always dependent on people's opinions of themselves and the environment with which they must cope. Individuals live in a world of their own construction in accordance with their own "scheme of apperception". People are motivated by fictional goals-privately held beliefs about present and future events that regulate behaviour. Behaviour is clearly a reflection of the individuals subjective perception of reality.
Following are he central theoretical concepts grounded in these basic tenets of individual psychology.
Central Concepts of Individual Psychology
Adler's theory of personality is an extremely economical one in the sense that a limited number of core concepts support the entire theoretical system. It can be presented under seven general headings.Inferority feelings and compensation:
Very early in life Adler (1907) published a monograph entitled "study of organ interiority and its psychical compensation". He proposed that in each individual, certain organs are somewhat weaker than others. He theorized that every person succumbs to disease in that region of the body. He then observed that people with severe organic weakness or defects will often try to compensate for them by training and exercise, which often results in the development of the individuals greatest skill or strength. Eg. Demosthenes, a childhood stutteres; Wilna Rudolf, a pysically handicapped child; Theodre Roosevelt, a weak and sickly child. Thus, organ inferiority, can load to striking accomplishments in a persons life. But, it can also load to an inferiority complex, if the individuals attempts at compensation are unsuccessful. There was nothing novel in the idea that the organism tries to repair its own weakness. But Adler suggested that this process of compensation could also proceed in the psychological sphere. Individuals are not only driven to compensate for organ inferiorities but also subjective feelings of inferiority, those that arise from uniquely felt psychological or social disabilities as well as those that stem from actual bodily weakness or imairment. Adler viewed inferiority feelings as the motivational basis for essentially all human striving.Organ inferiorities by themselves have no meaning or importance. Their importance stems form the fact that they stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority. The feelings, in turn, serve as impetus toward perfection or completion, motivating the individual toward even higher levels of self development. Thus inferiority, by itself, can never produce greatness. It must be combined with talent, courage and social concern.
An inability to overcome inferiority feelings, for whatever reason, frequently reinforces the feelings and leads to the development of, what act Adler calls "inferiority complex". He described three childhood situations that tend to load an inferiority complex Organ inferiority: spoiling or pampering, and neglect.
In organ inferiority, the physically, impaired or chronically ill child is unable to compete successfully with other children, and withdraws into a shell of inferiority. Spoiled or pampered children, grow up lacking confidence in their abilities because others have always done things for them, for they believe it is impossible to tackle life's ovstacles on their own. Neglect, can lead to an inferiority complex because, such children vasically feel unwanted; they go through life lacking confidence in their ability to be useful and to gain affection and esteem form other. Each of these three childhood situations can play a crucial role in the emergence of neurosis in adulthood.
Regardless of the circumstances, that give rise to inferiority feelings, a person may react by overcompensating and thus develop what Adler called a superiority complex. The person possessing a superiority complex tends to be boastful, arrogant, vain, egocentric, and sarcastic.
Striving for superiority:
Adler concluded that the striving for superiority is the fundamental fact of human life, "a something without which life would be unthinkable". All people share this "great upward drive" from minus to plus, from below to above, from incompletion to perfection and from inability to capability in facing the problems of life. This striving for superiority, Adler argued, is innate, but it must be properly developed. At birth it exists as potentiality, and it remains for each individual to actualize this potential in his or her own way.Style of Life:
Style of life refers to unique pattern of traits, to behaviours and habits, which, when taken together, define the particular route we have charted for ourselves in order to reach our lifegoal. Inferiority and compensation, determine the basis of our life style. The life-style is based on the efforts of the individual to overcome his unique sense of inferiority, which might be real or imaginary. In Adler's view, the lifestyle is firmly implanted by the age of four or five, and is almost resistant to change thereafter. The life-style so formed persists and bomes the guiding frame work for later behaviour. Everything a person does is shaped and directed by his unique life-style. All the psychological processes are organized into a unified whole, and gain their meaning from the context of the life-style.Thus, all aspects of a person behaviour issue from his or her style of life.
Social interest:
Another core concept of Adler's system is that of social interest. It reflects Adler's fervent belief that human beings are social beings He saw human beings as motivated by an innate social instinct which causes them to relinquish selfish gain for community gain. The person is embedded in a social context from the first day of life. Cooperation manifests itself in the relationship between the infant and the mother, and heceforth the person is continuously incolved in anetwork of interpersonal relations that shapte the personality and provide concrete outlets for striving for superiority. Striving for superiority becomes socialized; the idea of a perfect society takes the place of purely personal ambition and selfish gain. By working for the common good humans compensate for their individual weakness. Adler believed that socail interest is inborn; humans are social creatures by nature, not by habit. However, like any other natural aptitude, this innate predisposition does not appears spontaneously but has to be brought to fruition by guidance and training. The development of social interest takes place in a social environment. Other people, initially the mother, then other family members, and finally those beyond the home, contribute to this developmental process.Creative self:
The creative self is the super ordinate costruct in Adler's theory. He maintained that the style of life is developed by the individuals creative power. Each individual is empowered with the freedom to create his or her own life-style. This creative power is responsible for the person's life goal, determines the method of striving for the goal, and contributes to the development of social interest. The same creative force also influences peception, memory, imagination, fantasy and dreams. It makes each person a free, self-determined individual. The original term Adler used was "creative power of the self"; "creative self" was the term given by Hall and Findzey (1957), in their presentation of Adler. Adler firmly believed that the life-style is the creative act of the individual;it is his or her unique interpretation of the environment. Thus, people are in control of their fate, and not victims of it. In Adler's sense, such creative power means the ability to envisage goals and make decisions, choices , and all sorts of arrangements consistent with the individual's purposes and values.Order of Birth:
In his accordance with his emphasis on the social influences upon personality, Adler suggested that certain life-styles frequently develop as a function of one's ordinal position within the family. Specifically, he reasoned that even though children have the same parents and grow up in nearly the same family setting, they do not have identical social environment. The experiences of being older of younger than one's brothers and sisters, and of being exposed to parental attitudes and values that vary as a result of the arrival of more children, additional education, or specific circumstances create unique conditions of childhood that profoundly influence the formation of one's life-style.For Adler, the child's numerical rank in the family constellation is of considerable importance. Particularly important are the perceptions of the situation that are likely to accompany the position occupied. Thus, it is the meaning that children attach to the situation that actually determines in what way their particular ordinal positions will influence their life-style. Because perception are inevitably subjective, children born in any position may create for themselves any life-style. In general though certain characteristics are commonly found in children born at a specific position. Adler focused on four such birth-order positions;the first born, the second born, the youngest, and the only child.
The first Born (Oldest) Child: Adler referred to the first born as "King dethroned", and noted this might be a very traumatic experience. Seeing that a younger sibling is winning the contest for parental attention and affection, he or she fights back for supremacy in the family. However, realizing that things are not going to be the same as they were, the first born child "trains himself for isolation" and masters the strategy of surviving alone and independently of the need for anyone's affection or approval.
The Second Born (Middle) Child: The second child, from the very beginning has a pacesetter in the form of an older brother or sister, and is thus, stimulated or challenged into action. This spurs the second born, often generating a faster rate of development than the first born exhibited. The second born is characterized by being highly competitive and ambitious, constantly trying to prove that she or he is better than the older siblings.
The Only Child: He does not have other siblings to compete with. He may be pampered two much by the mother, and expect pampering form all others too. Dependency and self centereness are the leading qualities of this style.
By the above descriptions, Adler was suggesting that each child's original position in the family is likely to present certain kind of problems.
Fictional Finalism:
Adler theorized that our ultimate goals are fictional goals that can neither be tested nor confirmed against reality. According to Adler, each individual's quest for superiority is defined by the fictional goal that he or she has adopted. He also believed that the individuals fictional goals of superiority is self determined; it is formed by the person's own creative power, therefore making it individually unique. When an individuals fictional goal is known, all subsequent actions make sense and his or her life-style takes on added meaning. This final goal may be a fiction, that is, an ideal that is impossible to realize, but that nonetheless is very real spur to human striving and the ultimate explanation of conduct. Adler believed that the normal person could free himself from the influence of these fictions and face reality when necessity demanded, something that the neurotic person is incapable of doing.Neurosis
Using the above principles, Adler provided an intriguing account of neurosis. Despite his differences with Freud, Adler agreed that neurotic symptoms are interpretable and fundamentally defensive. In contrast to the healthy individual, the neurotic rigidly overcompensates for perceived inferiorities. His or her grandiose goals focus on self-aggrandizement and personal interest rather than on social interest.
The neurotic develops symptoms as protection from the overwhelming sense of inferiority that he or she is trying so desperately to avoid. This incessant quest to protect the self from inferiority becomes a vicious circle, for the lack of social interest that led to the problem also precludes its solution. The neurotics mobility to deal with life's problems leads him or her to develop "safeguards". These safeguards are analogous to Freudian defense mechanisms, but they serve to protect the neurotic from the low self esteem engendered by inferiority and failure at life's tasks, not from anxiety generated by a conflict between instinctual urges and moral prohibitions. Adler described three general categories of safeguards
- Excuses: Refer to any attempts to avoid blame for failures in life
- Aggression: Entails blaming self or others for failures.
- Distancing: Includes procrastination, claims of helplessness or attempts t!o avoid problems
Lacking social interests and the degree of activity required to meet their life's tasks, neurotics want to depend exclusively on other in coping with life's daily problems. While Adler did believe that people are fundamentally responsible for their own behaviour and life direction, he also argued that the neurotic life-style tended to result from the person being "over burdened" during childhood. Specifically, the same three situations described earlier as leading to inferiority complexes were also seen by Adler as likely to overburden the child:(1) Organ inferiorities (2) Pampering and (3) Neglect. According to Adler, each of these overburdening childhood situations can result in the self-centered, non-cooperative, and unrealistic, personal goal-oriented life-style characteristic of neurotics.
The Treatment of Neurosis:
The overall approach to treating neurosis in individual psychology logically follows from Adler's theoretical conception of the nature of neurosis. If neurotic symptoms are outgrowth's of the patients mistaken style of life and underdeveloped social interest, then the goal of therapy should be to correct such mistakes while encouraging the development of social interest. Succinctly stated, the goals for the Adler are three fold: (1) to recognize one's mistaken beliefs about themselves and others (2) to eliminate faulty goals and (3) to implement new life goals that will enable one to realize their full human potential. In turn, Adler maintained that the realization of these therapeutic goals could best be accomplished through understanding the patient, enhancing patient self understanding and strengthening social interest. Understanding can be best realized by focusing therapeutic attention upon such patient factors as earliest childhood recollections, birth order position, childhood disorders, dreams and the exogeneous factor precipitating the onset of neurosis. In attempting to understand the patients essential life-style. Alder also employed such procedures as emphaty intuition and guessing.
For treatment to progress successfully, it is not enough that the therapist understand the neurotic persons system or life-plan. The neurotic patient must also come to understand it and to accept such understanding. That is, the patient must gain insight into the nature fact and avoidance of dogmatic assertions, which are critical through out the process. The therapist must very carefully bring the patient to the point where they really want to listen and understand their basic mistaken or faulty life-style.
Believing that neurotic people are retarted in the development of social interest, Adlerian therapy is an exercise in cooperation. The task of the therapist is one of giving the patient the kind of interpersonal contact with a fellow human being that can enable the patient to transfer this awakened social interact to others. This the therapist does by unconditionally encouraging social interest in the patient, decreasing his or her feelings of inferiority while simultaneously activating the seeds of social interest. And as social interest gradually develops in the psychotherapeutic context, the patient substitutes social, useful life goals for selfish ones, gains courage, and learns to live without defensive excuses for a mistaken life-style.
Evaluation
While individual psychology may be of high practical relevance, direct empirical tests of its concepts are sparse in number. Consequently, it is impossible to offer a definitive statement about the theory's current empirical validity. In fact, much of the evidence for the theory is based on clinical observations in therapy sessions, and is largely unsystematic and retrospective. However, Adlerian psychology has played a significant role in drawing attention to birth order, or ordinal position, and its effect on the development of various kinds of life-style characteristics.
All three assume that a person has an inherent nature that shapes his or her personality. Freud emphasized sex, Jung emphasized primordial thought patterns, and Adler stressed social interests. This emphasis upon social determinants of behaviour that had been overlooked or minimized by Freud and Jung is probably that Adler's greatest contribution to psychological theory. It turned the attention of psychologists to the importance of social variables and helped to develop the field of social psychology at a time when social psychology needed encouragement and support, especially from the ranks of psychoanalysis.
Adler's second major contribution to personality theory is his concept of creative self, which is a highly personalized, subjective system that interprets and makes meaningful the experiences of the organism. A third feature of Adler's psychology that sets it apart is its emphasis upon the uniqueness of personality.
Considerably research has been done on Adler's concepts of personality. The sophisticated work of Schachter (1959) provided confirmation of Adlerian thesis of birth order and opened the subject for an immense amount of research. In addition research is underway on the measurement and correlates of social interest.
Summary
In summary, it may be said that Adler fashioned a humanistic theory of personality that was the antithesis of Freud's conception of the individual. By endowing humans with altruism, humanitarianism, cooperation, creativity, uniqueness and awareness Adler restored to humans a sense of dignity and worth that psychoanalysis had largely destroyed. Adler offered a portrait of humans that was more satisfying, more helpful and far more complimentary to humans. Adler's conception of the nature of personality coincided with the popular idea that individuals can be the masters, not the victims of their fate.
Adler's theory of personality is an extremely economical one. A few basic concepts sustain the whole theoretical structure. Adler's view point can sketched under a few general rubrics. There are (1) fictional finalism, (2) striving for superiority (3) inferiority feelings and compensation, (4) social interest (5) style of life (6) creative self (7) birth order.
Adler felt that early memories and childhood experiences were an important key to understanding one's basic style of life. He also said that, the three conditions-organism-infirmity, pampering and rejection-produce erroneous conceptions of the world and result in a pathological style of life.
Thus, neurotics are people who have acquired faulty life-styles, usually because they experienced either afflictions, pampering or rejection during early childhood. Under such conditions, these children became highly anxious, felt insecure, and began to develop protective devices to cope with feelings of inferiority.
The goal of Adlerian psychotheraphy is to correct the patients mistaken style of life and encourage the development of social interest.
