Alfred Adler 2024 PDF

Alfred Adler Individual Psychology Mary Rose Gatt Clinical Psychologist  Adler and Freud Sigmund Freud Alfred Adler Behavior is motivated by internal biological drives (sex and aggr...

Alfred Adler Individual Psychology Mary Rose Gatt Clinical Psychologist  Adler and Freud Sigmund Freud Alfred Adler Behavior is motivated by internal biological drives (sex and aggression) Motivation-Outer focus: Behaviour is motivated by social – Inner focus. influence and striving for superiority People do not have a choice in shaping their personality People are responsible for who they are Present behavior is caused by the past (e.g. childhood) Present behavior is shaped by the future (goal oriented) – striving for superiority (Creative self) Emphasis on unconscious process People are aware of what they are doing and why – We have power over ourselves – Freud split the personality into components (id, ego, superego) Adler thought the individual should be studied as a whole (holism) Relationship with the same-sex parent is of primary importance Outer focus: Influence of wider relationships with significant others: parents, siblings, teachers, peers and what we learn as a result, e.g. a child in a large competitive family and an only child.  Adler and Freud Main differences 1. Outer, social focus: Intra-psychic life vs Relational and social life as seen in the genital stage 2. Perception of what is healthy: Freud’s idea of health is to be able to love and work. Adler adds: social interest and striving for superiority. The importance to balance our own self interest with the interest of others. 3. View of the unconscious: Conscious is larger and more important than unconscious. We have more power over ourselves. 4. The creative self: The Self is active and constructive not reactive and paralysed by conflict. Self actively seeks experiences to help itself to grow and develop, if they are not to be found, it creates them. Ex:. Frankl in concentration camp. (This ability is stunted in some people because of environments they grow up in. e.g. A girl is taken out of school to care for sick mother never develops a career). 5. Motivation: What motivates us is not only instincts but overcoming our insecurities and inferiorities.  Adler’s theory Key terms and concepts LIFESTYLE (Referred to as the central core of a person’s life and the largest concept in Individual Psychology): It represents the sum of an individual’s basic approach to life, The unified and self-consistent pattern of beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, relationships, and actions which make up the total person.  Adler’s theory Key terms and concepts SOCIAL INTEREST: A form of empathy; a concern toward the good of others; driven by the need to belong and feel loved. INFERIORITY & SUPERIORITY: Influenced by Adler’s personal life: Sickly boy and nearly died as a child. Natural consequence of life where as children we feel inferior to adults – perception of ourselves as weak and adults as strong. This feeling is internalised and carried forward in life to become an inferiority complex. Inferiority leads to over-compensation and a striving toward superiority.  Adler’s theory Key terms and concepts FAMILY CONSTELLATION: Its where everything begins! Child’s ordinal position in the family determines their individuality, personality and style of life. The individual’s social setting and one’s subjective perception of it will impinge on how the personality of that person develops  CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONALITY PURPOSE: Self determined Behaviour is purposeful and goal oriented Behavious motivated by striving for superiority, quest for belonging and feeling loved. Unity of Personality (HOLISM): Integrated - Takes a decision as a whole and NOT as a result of the struggle between the ID, Ego and Superego. SUBJECITIVITY: Individuals differ in their goals and how they try to achieve them. PRIVATE LOGIC: Our private intelligence which we develop through experience and guides our behaviour.  What influences personality development? Family of origin – The very first social reality. Through the family we learn to respect authority figures. Early experiences One’s interpretations and perceptions of reality... Our very own conclusions (private logic).  Core Concept SOCIAL INTEREST (gemeinschaftgefuhl ) An innate capacity for social interest influenced by an innate need for affection that drives us towards relationships. Balancing our needs with the needs of others. Enables us to strive for superiority in a healthy non-competitive way.  Social Interest – What does it look like? Waiting for our turn in a queue; Not unloading your worries on your friend if she is crying; Stopping to help someone who fell in the street; Being sensitive of what it costs your parents to drive you everywhere; Not eating all the cake and leaving nothing for others; Give and take; Sharing resources.  Social Interest Although innate, parent must nurture it to grow The greater the social interest the sounder the person’s mental health If not developed the child will be unable to live successfully in society. Often perceived as selfish people, feared, isolated and not trusted.  Core Concept STRIVING FOR SUPERIORITY An innate drive and strong will (a will to power) to grow and overcome our inferiority feelings Feelings of inferiority derived from 3 sources: The past (ex: being compared to a sibling), Self-criticism, Challenges (ex. Physical and mental limitations).  Striving for superiority Superiority over our own weaknesses and inabilities not over others (low social interest) Mistakes help us to grow Fictional goal: Personal goals constituting a self-ideal and compensatory in nature created by ourselves to relieve ourselves from the primary inferiority feeling.  Striving for superiority Compensation: A natural and healthy reaction to inferiority: Efforts to overcome real or imaged inferiority by trying to improve one’s own abilities. If a person is unable to compensate for normal feelings of inferiority, they develop an inferiority complex.  Compensation Inferiority is normal and productive - Motivates us for further development. Secondary inferiority - exaggerated feeling of inferiority. These feelings in the adult may be harmful and comprise the inferiority complex. Develops later in life (adulthood) due to failure to meet personal goals or societal expectations, often tied to feelings of worthlessness or unresolved primary inferiority. Inferiority Complex: when someone is always striving to find a situation in which h/she excels.  Overcompensation An overwhelming drive characterised by overcompensation- present due to one’s overwhelming feelings of inferiority. Overt inferiority: One can portray oneself as inferior but within h/she may harbour feelings of superiority. Ex: “Deep down I am better than all of them”.  Compensation and Overcompensation Superiority Complex: When a person has the need to prove that he is more superior than he truly is. Superior behaviour compensates for inferiority feelings. Actually born out of inferiority. Ex: An arrogant and entitled person who grew up feeling unimportant and invisible.  Core Concept FAMILY CONSTELLATION Adler believed that birth order, and one’s subjective experience within the family had a significant and predictable impact on a child’s personality, and their feeling of inferiority.  Family Constellation Birth Order First-born: Start off with a high amount of personal power. Typical traits include: Ego-centric When supported, tend to develop qualities of nurturance and responsibility. Desire to lead or protect (because they are put in that position in the family) More conformative Cautiouss: Taking calculated risks More likely to be neurotic: insecure, fears unexpected reversal of fortune and more prone to suffer from anxiety. Fears of being surpassed Sets high standards and ambitious When dethroned – strives to retain 1st position – may effect self confidence.  Family Constellation Birth Order 2nd born: Since birth in the shadow of their older sibling. Has to live upto the pace of the older sibling – Needs to establish a separative individuality – doing something continuously Incessantly striving for superiority If encouraged and supported, h/she will be better adjusted  Family Constellation Birth Order Youngest child/3rd born: Operates from a constant state of inferiority Constantly trying to prove themselves due the perceived inferiority relative to the rest of the family. There are two types: The more succesful type – excels and supasses every member of the family. The second type – unpsoken expectations to remain a child; may be too dependant, lacks necessary self confidence – becomes evasive and avoidant toward the rest of the family. If the age-gap is big, the experience might be similar to an only child. With the 3rd born, issues of fairness and justic emerge for the middle child. The middle child becomes a good negotiator.  Family Constellation Only child: Unfortunate due to their being the sole object of their parents’ attention. More likely to become dependent and reliant on others. Pampering may lead to maladjustment – world or society as dangerous May also come to see the world as a hostile place due to their parents’ constant vigilance. May possess some characteristics of the first or the youngest child.  Family Consetellation Other important considerations Alliances. Gender arrangement: (Ex: A girl after 4 boys) Age gap. Signficant family events: e.g. Illnesses within the family including postnatal depression, Miscarriage before or after child, H/o infertility – a child after many years of childlessness or after last child, Death of a child or a signficant family member Marital separation Unemployment Assigned sibling roles Sibling rivalry  Core Concept LIFESTYLE Everybody strives for superiority, pursues goals and fights inferiority in a different way. Our STYLE OF LIFE is the WAY we choose to pursue these (guided through private logic).  Lifestyle & Private Logic A lifestyle is determined by: 1. Our fictional goals: Goals (often ideals) we set for ourselves to feel that we’ve overcome the sense of inferiority. 2. The influence of the environment (e.g. parent you admire and wish to imitate, economic insecurity, poverty, aggressive siblings, mentally ill relative). 3. Subjective experience of environmental factors. Private logic: A kind of private intelligence; a road map developed in the first 6 years of life where we learn (subjectively) how we need to behave in order to feel loved, experience a sense of belonging and overcome feelings of inferiority.  Types of Lifestyle Active Constructive: Active Destructive A person who is committed to A hostile, backstabbing, lazy forming a good family. employee. initiatives associated with making an initiative A chronically unfaithful negative husband/wife. behaviour such as trying to bring Passive Constructive Passive Destructive someone down A laid back salesperson who gets on A worker who complains constantly. well with clients. A parent who neglects children and A parent who does not contribute at meets own needs all day. home but is warm. negative behaviour due to behaviour which is positive but lacks effort lack of effort such as neglecting children  How do we identify a lifestyle? One way of determining style of life is through earliest recollection and memories (pattern in what we remember, we remember according to our values). Ex: 1. What is your earliest recollection? 2. What is your role in your family of origin? 3. How did your position in the family affect you? 4. Spatially where would you put yourself in a family circle? 5. Who is your greatest rival/ally in the family? 6. What is your wildest fantasy of what you want to achieve in your life?  Maladaptive Lifestyle – No social interest No social interest, makes a dangerous person in society – characterised by Strong feelings of inferiority, be angry and resentful towards society. Due to organic inferiority, physical “defects”, sickness and disability. Sense of entitlement often as a result of a neglectful childhood. May see society as harsh and stingy, become blindly acquisitive, anger and revenge: Society has to give me what I was deprived of.  Relevance of this theory Very relevant to teachers and parents because it gives a lot of attention to our early socialisation and parents and teachers are major agents of early socialisation. Useful as a way of understanding family dynamics and helping clients to understand their experience in the family. E.g. two siblings who live in the same family can have a totally different experience and perception of it.  THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS Emphasis on the need to see and understand the person in his/her context. We understand reality according to our perception of it. The overarching goal of Adlerian psychotherapy is to help the patient overcome inferiority complex. We identify errors in one’s private logic by assessing/understanding one’s lifestyle.  Sources used Concepts of individual psychology. Retreived from: https://adler- prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/resource/filename/157/Concepts_of_Individual_Ps ychology.pdf Hoffman, R (2020, May 17). Alfred Adler's theories of individual psychology and Adlerian therapy. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/alfred-adler.html