Lesson 9: Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology) PDF

Personality Psychology – PSY 405 VU Lesson 9 ALFRED ADLER...

Personality Psychology – PSY 405 VU Lesson 9 ALFRED ADLER (Individual Psychology) Biographical Sketch Adler was born in Vienna, Austria in 1870, he was second of six children and he had severe rivalry with his older brother who was very athletic and the model child of the family. Alder thought of himself as ugly and short. He had miserable childhood. He suffered from rickets which prevented him to take part in sports. When he was five years old, he suffered from Pneumonia. He heard the doctor’s say to his parents, you boy is lost. After getting better, he decided to become a medical doctor. Adler read Freud’s book called The Interpretation of Dreams, and he wrote a paper supporting this book. Freud invited Adler to join the psycho-analytic society and to become the president of the Society. This was Adler’s biggest mistake to become the president of the psycho-analytic society. Soon he began to find that Freud could not take criticism and would become very aggressive and abusive. After breaking from Freud, Adler coined the term Individual Psychology and began developing his own theory of personality. Initially, Adler’s work was focused on problems of child rearing, education and other every day problems. Adler’s theory is still pursued by his daughter Alexandra and son Kurt who practiced their father’s brand of psychology in New York. Individual Psychology: The term individual psychology refers to the fact that individuals are unique, they characterize by inner harmony and a striving force to cooperate with fellow humans. It does not mean that human beings are selfish, aggressive and motivated to satisfy their own biological motives. His theory focuses on the whole individual, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. And we dissect we distort the harmony of the whole. Thus Adler seems to be talking, like a Gestaltian. Organs of Inferiority and Compensation: According to Adler, some of us are born with weak eyes, others with weak stomach, some with weak hearts and still other with damaged limbs. These biological deficiencies or shortcomings create problem for people. An individual with organ inferiority compensates for this particular weakness by concentrating on its development or by emphasizing other functions which make up for the weakness. For example, a blind person may concentrate on development of his auditory skills or focused more on some other modality such as touch or feeling. We have many examples, Helen Keller who was blind, deaf, worked hard and focused on her sense of touch. Beethoven, who was toned deaf, created the best music in the world. Feeling of Inferiority: For Adler, all of us staff life with feelings of inferiority, because we are completely dependent on adults for our survival. This feeling of being weak and inferior stimulates and creates intense desire to seek power and to overcome feeling of inferiority. Are feeling of inferiority bad? It is a fact, which is the driving force in all humans. One feels inferior and therefore, strives to become powerful and tries to accomplish more. Therefore all humans experience the feeling of being inferior but in some, it creates neurosis, a need to succeed under all circumstances and conditions. Striving for Superiority: Striving for superiority is individual’s superiority to strive for a superior or a perfect society. This could be beneficial as well as harmful, if a person concentrates on fulfilling his personal needs and ignores the needs of others, and the society then he suffers from superiority complex i.e. one individual tries to be domineering, arrogant and tries to deceive others. This is a self centered selfish individual. Style of Life: All humans strive for superiority, but how superiority is sought depends upon a person’s unique circumstances. The means by which a particular individual attempts to gain superiority is called the style of life. A person’s life style provides him with his identity. It determines how he will solve his problems, what future goals he will pursue and how he will attain them. A healthy style of life permits a person to live in © Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 1 Personality Psychology – PSY 405 VU harmony with others and to contribute towards the advancement of the society. A mistaken style of life is based on one selfish motives and ignorance towards betterment of society. The style of life evolves early in life so the child can overcome his feelings of inferiority and strive for perfection and pursue the betterment of the society. Adler believed that style of life develops early in childhood, whereas Erikson sees style of life as self identity and it develops during late adolescence. © Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 2