Unity of Personality
Individual personality is understood not
as separate parts or traits ("Id, Ego, Superego") but as an integrated and
self-consistent whole. The complete, integrated pattern we call "personality" or
"self" serves a person's ultimate goals. [See the next items.] Adler's approach
was the first "holistic" psychology to include body, mind, and spirit. Adler
said that personality is what one is within oneself, and character is the social side of
personality, the social display of personality to others.
Purpose; Goal-directedness
Individual Psychology is teleological, that is, oriented
toward a goal. Behavior is not explained by causes in the past, or by unconscious
motivations, but is explained by the result a person seeks by behaving that way.
Personality is oriented toward the future rather than caused by the past, heredity, or
environment. Behavior is governed by, serves, and expresses a person's goals, which in
turn aid the Life Style. To understand "why" Adlerians ask, "What do you
want to get out of that?" or, "What's in it for you to act that way?"
Psychology of use; Purposeful Behavior
In Adler's time, mental illness was something a person had, a
disease like a cold or cancer. Instead, Adler said there is a "psychology of
use" which explains why people do what they do in terms of future goals. Thus we do
things in order to achieve something for ourselves in the future, such as pity or
sympathy, or even that people will leave us alone because we "act" crazy!
Subjectivity; personalization
We experience events within a -personal framework, what Adler called an apperceptive
schema. Personal beliefs about self, others, and the world become our personal truth.
Believing our perceptions are accurate and truthful, we then act as if they are
true. Adler's was the first subjective or phenomenological
psychology. It was not a popular idea when Adler offered it, but now it is universally
accepted and is part of basic psychology.
Inferiority Feelings; Superiority Strivings
Adler's best-known concept comes from early in his career. He said
that we compare ourselves with others and decide we are inferior to them. It is a natural
consequence of being a child to be inferior. But when the person feels
inferior all the time, it is call the inferiority complex. One response is
to over-compensate and seek to be superior (or the superiority complex.
Adler had a positive view of people. He believed most children outgrow their early
inferiority feelings; those who don't pursue superiority for the rest of their lives. And
in so doing, the feelings become the basis for self-definition, the Guiding Goal, Guiding
Line, and movement toward that goal.
Private Logic; Common Sense
Feeling inferior makes us vulnerable and self-oriented. We use Private
Logic (also "private intelligence") to excuse and justify our self-oriented
behavior. Individual Psychology contrasts Private Logic with Common Sense, or the
community's wisdom about how people should behave among others. Private Logic justifies
socially useless behavior. Common Sense encourages socially useful behavior. Adler called
it, "thinking which corresponds to the human community." Adler said that Private
Logic supports "socially useless behavior" whereas Common Sense supports
"socially useful behavior," and pursuing social interest instead of
just individual interest.
Social Embeddedness
From birth on, a person is part of a social setting whose influences and
responsibilities cannot be avoided. Society, first experienced as the family, insists on
certain beliefs, actions, attitudes, etc. A person is as much a creation of social setting
as of personal choice or genetic design. Adler said this influence is so strong that he
called it "The Iron Law of Communal Life." Almost nothing is more important than
that the community shapes the individual to conform to its needs. Adler's ideas became so
much a part of psychological thinking that it quickly came to be assumed by others,
including neo-Freudians such as Erickson, Sullivan, Horney, etc. In fact, the inclusion of
social forces in one's psychological system is now considered the definition of
neo-Freudian, which could easily be called "neo-Adlerian."
The Problem
Adler held that, for each person, some situation occurs in childhood that
cannot be solved by the child. Therefore solving The Problem must be postponed to the
adult the child will become. This becomes the basis for the adult's Fictional Final Goal,
including the Guiding Goal and Guiding Lines. It shapes the entire Life Style, giving it
coherence and self-consistency by shaping everything else to it. Not to solve The Problem
leaves one inferior and vulnerable. To solve it will provide safety, mastery and power.
Life Tasks; Maturity as a human being
Adler
held that each person is called on to successfully perform three major tasks in life:
Society (human community, personal
relationships), Work
(contributing to society
by what one does for a living), and Sex and marriage ( procreation and responsible
child-rearing). He alluded to two others: Self,
and One’s Place in the Cosmos. Adler noted
that “all tasks which are put to the individual are social problems, for which the
family is the exercise and training ground.” Thus seemingly individual or personal tasks are in fact social tasks. To behave as a responsible member of
society is not a choice but a basic requirement of the community. |
Family Constellation
Attitudes and behaviors are learned in the family, the child's first
experience with the human community, in three major ways:
1. Sibling position (numerical and psycho-social) is influenced by birth
order, comparisons with siblings, and the child's sex. Several thousands studies of
sibling position support Adler's early reasoning. Adlerians view the psycho-social
position relative to siblings as more important than strict numerical order.
2. Parental examples are important as the young child seeks to
understand what it means to be "a grown-up." So the child pays attention to
parental models of adult roles: male and female, mother & father, husband & wife,
etc. Imitation of these roles in play and imagination becomes the foundation for later
adult self-definitions and relationships.
3. Family atmosphere includes family status, self-views,
emotional climate, life in the home, correct behavior, etc. Family learnings are central
to later self-image, relationships, work, marital choices, parenting, moral behavior, and
how one pursues one's goals.
The Law of Movement
Adler believed the concept of psychological Movement was his greatest
contribution to understanding personality. He said, "Everyone carries within himself
an opinion of himself and the problems of life, and a law of movement which keeps fast
hold of him . . . . We have always maintained the view that all is movement."
Movement is seen as proceeding along a guiding line leading toward one's guiding goal. All
events, thoughts, and actions describe that line and are oriented to it.
Fictional Finalism; "Mistaken Mission"
As noted, Adler saw that one childhood problem would come to stand out as
so important yet so unsolvable (by the child) that the child must decide, "I am
going to have to spend my entire life on this problem until I solve it." But the
child's decision is fictional because a child is in no position to judge life's real
problems; and it is final or ultimate because it becomes the central important goal for
all of life, around which all of one's life is arranged in one way or another, resulting
in what Adler called "the Life Style" (or what we call the "Mistaken
Mission" in life).
Life Style
This is the
largest concept in Individual Psychology and all of psychology. It represents the total of
an individual's approach to life, the unified and self-consistent pattern of beliefs,
perceptions, attitudes, relationships, and actions which make up the total person. It
refers to the central core of a person's life, who this person is - past, present, and
future - who seeks such-and-such final goal via such-and-such means, based on The Problem
the child could not solve as
a child.
Social Interest, Fellow Feeling, Feeling of Community,
"Golden Rule" Behavior
Adler
believed community involvement, helping, and kindness are crucial to both individual and
social health. He spoke of empathy, the ability to see from the other's viewpoint, to
contribute through work and volunteerism, to cooperate in solving community problems, what
role theory calls "taking the role of the other," etc. Adlerians see Social
Interest as a measure of maturity and evidence that one has succeeded in the Tasks of
Life. It is also a measure of progress in therapy. (The German word is Gemeinschaftsgefuehl.
Anthony Bruck, who trained with Adler in NYC, wrote "the translation [as social
interest] is not an equivalent but only a pale rendering of the German term which
correctly translated means: feeling of community, a much stronger term expressing
psychological closeness." Adler himself, and others since, have equated the concept
of Gemeinschaftsgefuehl with "the Golden Rule": "Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you" (a form of "quid pro quo").
Compensation and Over-compensation
This
is behavior aimed at over-coming minus feelings through increased effort or achievement in
a different area. Over-compensation is exaggerated "make-up" behavior, aimed at
achieving an ideal solution, seen as a fictional plus. Adler used this category to explain
behaviors aimed at overcoming inferiority and restore balance by "making up" in
one area what one lacks in another. Thus, for example, in the case of being hurt by
someone, to get revenge (an evening-up position) by "hurting back as I have been
hurt." Origins of compensatory behavior are in childhood ratings of "minus"
or "less" when compared with others (siblings, playmates, "ghost
sibling," etc. Thus a child who is not as good at athletics or academics may
compensate by seeking success in another arena, such as art or music. If a child can't
satisfy the standards or expectations of others, the child may become “the best at
being worst.”
(The LEAP On-Line
NoteBook contains detailed definitions of over 50 Adlerian concepts. )
(And for
complete definitions and explanations of Adlerian concepts,
see the new book: The Lexicon of Adlerian
psychology: 106 terms associated with the individual psychology of
Alfred Adler (2nd ed.). By Jane Griffith and Robert L. Powers. (2007). Port Townsend,
WA: Adlerian Psychology Associates. [http://www.adlerianpsychologyassociates.com] |
