Adler

STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY

Although Alfred Adler has had a profound effect on such later theorists as Harry

Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, Julian Rotter, Abraham H. Maslow, Carl Rogers, Albert

Ellis, Rollo May, and others (Mosak & Maniacci, 1999), his name is less well

known than that of either Freud or Carl Jung. At least three reasons account for this.

First, Adler did not establish a tightly run organization to perpetuate his theories.

Second, he was not a particularly gifted writer, and most of his books were compiled

by a series of editors using Adler’s scattered lectures. Third, many of his views were

incorporated into the works of such later theorists as Maslow, Rogers, and Ellis and

thus are no longer associated with Adler’s name.

Although his writings revealed great insight into the depth and complexities of

human personality, Adler evolved a basically simple and parsimonious theory. To

Adler, people are born with weak, inferior bodies—a condition that leads to feelings

of inferiority and a consequent dependence on other people. Therefore, a feeling of

unity with others (social interest) is inherent in people and the ultimate standard for

psychological health. More specifically, the main tenets of Adlerian theory can be

stated in outline form. The following is adapted from a list that represents the final

statement of individual psychology (Adler, 1964).

1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success

or superiority.

2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality.

3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.

4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social

interest.

5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life.

6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power.

Striving for Success or Superiority

The first tenet of Adlerian theory is: The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior

is the striving for success or superiority.

Adler reduced all motivation to a single drive—the striving for success or superiority.

Adler’s own childhood was marked by physical deficiencies and strong

feelings of competitiveness with his older brother. Individual psychology holds that

everyone begins life with physical deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority—

feelings that motivate a person to strive for either superiority or success. Psychologically

unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority, whereas psychologically

healthy people seek success for all humanity.

Early in his career, Adler believed that aggression was the dynamic power behind

all motivation, but he soon became dissatisfied with this term. After rejecting

aggression as a single motivational force, Adler used the term masculine protest,

which implied will to power or a domination of others. However, he soon abandoned

masculine protest as a universal drive while continuing to give it a limited role in his

theory of abnormal development.

Next, Adler called the single dynamic force striving for superiority. In his final

theory, however, he limited striving for superiority to those people who strive for

personal superiority over others and introduced the term striving for success to describe

actions of people who are motivated by highly developed social interest

(Adler, 1956). Regardless of the motivation for striving, each individual is guided by

a final goal.

The Final Goal

According to Adler (1956), people strive toward a final goal of either personal superiority

or the goal of success for all humankind. In either case, the final goal is fictional

and has no objective existence. Nevertheless, the final goal has great significance

because it unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible.

Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal, one constructed

out of the raw materials provided by heredity and environment. However,

the goal is neither genetically nor environmentally determined. Rather, it is the product

of the creative power, that is, people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and

create their own personality. By the time children reach 4 or 5 years of age, their creative

power has developed to the point that they can set their final goal. Even infants

have an innate drive toward growth, completion, or success. Because infants are

small, incomplete, and weak, they feel inferior and powerless. To compensate for this

deficiency, they set a fictional goal to be big, complete, and strong. Thus, a person’s

final goal reduces the pain of inferiority feelings and points that person in the direction

of either superiority or success.

If children feel neglected or pampered, their goal remains largely unconscious.

Adler (1964) hypothesized that children will compensate for feelings of inferiority

in devious ways that have no apparent relationship to their fictional goal. The goal

of superiority for a pampered girl, for example, may be to make permanent her

parasitic relationship with her mother. As an adult, she may appear dependent

and self-deprecating, and such behavior may seem inconsistent with a goal of superiority.

However, it is quite consistent with her unconscious and misunderstood

goal of being a parasite that she set at age 4 or 5, a time when her mother appeared

large and powerful, and attachment to her became a natural means of attaining

superiority.

Conversely, if children experience love and security, they set a goal that is

largely conscious and clearly understood. Psychologically secure children strive toward

superiority defined in terms of success and social interest. Although their goal

never becomes completely conscious, these healthy individuals understand and pursue

it with a high level of awareness.

In striving for their final goal, people create and pursue many preliminary

goals. These subgoals are often conscious, but the connection between them and the

final goal usually remains unknown. Furthermore, the relationship among preliminary

goals is seldom realized. From the point of view of the final goal, however, they

fit together in a self-consistent pattern. Adler (1956) used the analogy of the playwright

who builds the characteristics and the subplots of the play according to the

final goal of the drama. When the final scene is known, all dialogue and every subplot

acquire new meaning. When an individual’s final goal is known, all actions make

sense and each subgoal takes on new significance.

The Striving Force as Compensation

People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of

inferiority or weakness. Adler (1930) believed that all humans are “blessed” at birth

with small, weak, and inferior bodies. These physical deficiencies ignite feelings of

inferiority only because people, by their nature, possess an innate tendency toward

completion or wholeness. People are continually pushed by the need to overcome inferiority

feelings and pulled by the desire for completion. The minus and plus situations

exist simultaneously and cannot be separated because they are two dimensions

of a single force.

The striving force itself is innate, but its nature and direction are due both to

feelings of inferiority and to the goal of superiority. Without the innate movement toward

perfection, children would never feel inferior; but without feelings of inferiority,

they would never set a goal of superiority or success. The goal, then, is set as

compensation for the deficit feeling, but the deficit feeling would not exist unless a

child first possessed a basic tendency toward completion (Adler, 1956).

Although the striving for success is innate, it must be developed. At birth it exists

as potentiality, not actuality; each person must actualize this potential in his or

her own manner. At about age 4 or 5, children begin this process by setting a direction

to the striving force and by establishing a goal either of personal superiority or

of social success. The goal provides guidelines for motivation, shaping psychological

development and giving it an aim.

As a creation of the individual, the goal may take any form. It is not necessarily

a mirror image of the deficiency, even though it is a compensation for it. For example,

a person with a weak body will not necessarily become a robust athlete but

instead may become an artist, an actor, or a writer. Success is an individualized concept

and all people formulate their own definition of it. Although creative power is

swayed by the forces of heredity and environment, it is ultimately responsible for

people’s personality. Heredity establishes the potentiality, whereas environment contributes

to the development of social interest and courage. The forces of nature and

nurture can never deprive a person of the power to set a unique goal or to choose a

unique style of reaching for the goal (Adler, 1956).

In his final theory, Adler identified two general avenues of striving. The first is

the socially nonproductive attempt to gain personal superiority; the second involves

social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone.

Striving for Personal Superiority

Some people strive for superiority with little or no concern for others. Their

goals are personal ones, and their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated

feelings of personal inferiority, or the presence of an inferiority complex. Murderers,

thieves, and con artists are obvious examples of people who strive for personal

gain. Some people create clever disguises for their personal striving and may consciously

or unconsciously hide their self-centeredness behind the cloak of social

concern. A college teacher, for example, may appear to have a great interest in his

students because he establishes a personal relationship with many of them. By conspicuously

displaying much sympathy and concern, he encourages vulnerable students

to talk to him about their personal problems. This teacher possesses a private

intelligence that allows him to believe that he is the most accessible and dedicated

teacher in his college. To a casual observer, he may appear to be motivated by social

interest, but his actions are largely self-serving and motivated by overcompensation

for his exaggerated feelings of personal superiority.

Striving for Success

In contrast to people who strive for personal gain are those psychologically healthy

people who are motivated by social interest and the success of all humankind. These

healthy individuals are concerned with goals beyond themselves, are capable of

helping others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff, and are able to see

others not as opponents but as people with whom they can cooperate for social benefit.

Their own success is not gained at the expense of others but is a natural tendency

to move toward completion or perfection.

People who strive for success rather than personal superiority maintain a sense

of self, of course, but they see daily problems from the view of society’s development

rather than from a strictly personal vantage point. Their sense of personal worth

is tied closely to their contributions to human society. Social progress is more important

to them than personal credit (Adler, 1956).

Subjective Perceptions

Adler’s second tenet is: People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and

personality.

People strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferiority,

but the manner in which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjective

perceptions of reality, that is, by their fictions, or expectations of the future.

Fictionalism

Our most important fiction is the goal of superiority or success, a goal we created

early in life and may not clearly understand. This subjective, fictional final goal

guides our style of life, gives unity to our personality. Adler’s ideas on fictionalism

originated with Hans Vaihinger’s book The Philosophy of “As If” (1911/1925). Vaihinger

believed that fictions are ideas that have no real existence, yet they influence

people as if they really existed. One example of a fiction might be: “Men are superior

to women.” Although this notion is a fiction, many people, both men and women,

act as if it were a reality. A second example might be: “Humans have a free will that

enables them to make choices.” Again, many people act as if they and others have a

free will and are thus responsible for their choices. No one can prove that free will

exists, yet this fiction guides the lives of most of us. People are motivated not by what

is true but by their subjective perceptions of what is true. A third example of a fiction

might be a belief in an omnipotent God who rewards good and punishes evil.

Such a belief guides the daily lives of millions of people and helps shape many of

their actions. Whether true or false, fictions have a powerful influence on people’s

lives.

Adler’s emphasis on fictions is consistent with his strongly held teleological

view of motivation. Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of its final purpose

or aim. It is opposed to causality, which considers behavior as springing from

a specific cause. Teleology is usually concerned with future goals or ends, whereas

causality ordinarily deals with past experiences that produce some present effect.

Freud’s view of motivation was basically causal; he believed that people are driven

by past events that activate present behavior. In contrast, Adler adopted a teleological

view, one in which people are motivated by present perceptions of the future. As

fictions, these perceptions need not be conscious or understood. Nevertheless, they

bestow a purpose on all of people’s actions and are responsible for a consistent pattern

that runs throughout their life.

Beyond Biography Why did Adler really break with Freud?

Physical Inferiorities

Because people begin life small, weak, and inferior, they develop a fiction or belief

system about how to overcome these physical deficiencies and become big, strong,

and superior. But even after they attain size, strength, and superiority, they may act

as if they are still small, weak, and inferior.

Adler (1929/1969) insisted that the whole human race is “blessed” with organ

inferiorities. These physical handicaps have little or no importance by themselves but

become meaningful when they stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority, which

serve as an impetus toward perfection or completion. Some people compensate for

these feelings of inferiority by moving toward psychological health and a useful style

of life, whereas others overcompensate and are motivated to subdue or retreat from

other people.

History provides many examples of people like Demosthenes or Beethoven

overcoming a handicap and making significant contributions to society. Adler himself

was weak and sickly as a child, and his illness moved him to overcome death by

becoming a physician and by competing with his older brother and with Sigmund

Freud.

Adler (1929/1969) emphasized that physical deficiencies alone do not cause a

particular style of life; they simply provide present motivation for reaching future

goals. Such motivation, like all aspects of personality, is unified and self-consistent.

Unity and Self-Consistency

of Personality

The third tenet of Adlerian theory is: Personality is unified and self-consistent.

In choosing the term individual psychology, Adler wished to stress his belief

that each person is unique and indivisible. Thus, individual psychology insists on the

fundamental unity of personality and the notion that inconsistent behavior does not

exist. Thoughts, feelings, and actions are all directed toward a single goal and serve

a single purpose. When people behave erratically or unpredictably, their behavior

forces other people to be on the defensive, to be watchful so as not to be confused

by capricious actions. Although behaviors may appear inconsistent, when they are

viewed from the perspective of a final goal, they appear as clever but probably unconscious

attempts to confuse and subordinate other people. This confusing and

seemingly inconsistent behavior gives the erratic person the upper hand in an interpersonal

relationship. Although erratic people are often successful in their attempt to

gain superiority over others, they usually remain unaware of their underlying motive

and may stubbornly reject any suggestion that they desire superiority over other

people.

Adler (1956) recognized several ways in which the entire person operates with

unity and self-consistency. The first of these he called organ jargon, or organ dialect.

Organ Dialect

According to Adler (1956), the whole person strives in a self-consistent fashion toward

a single goal, and all separate actions and functions can be understood only as

parts of this goal. The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in isolation;

it affects the entire person. In fact, the deficient organ expresses the direction

of the individual’s goal, a condition known as organ dialect. Through organ dialect,

the body’s organs “speak a language which is usually more expressive and discloses

the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do” (Adler, 1956,

p. 223).

One example of organ dialect might be a man suffering from rheumatoid

arthritis in his hands. His stiff and deformed joints voice his whole style of life. It is

as if they cry out, “See my deformity. See my handicap. You can’t expect me to do

manual work.” Without an audible sound, his hands speak of his desire for sympathy

from others.

Adler (1956) presented another example of organ dialect—the case of a very

obedient boy who wet the bed at night to send a message that he does not wish to

obey parental wishes. His behavior is “really a creative expression, for the child is

speaking with his bladder instead of his mouth” (p. 223).

Conscious and Unconscious

A second example of a unified personality is the harmony between conscious and unconscious

actions. Adler (1956) defined the unconscious as that part of the goal that

is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual. With this

definition, Adler avoided a dichotomy between the unconscious and the conscious,

which he saw as two cooperating parts of the same unified system. Conscious

thoughts are those that are understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in

striving for success, whereas unconscious thoughts are those that are not helpful.

We cannot oppose “consciousness” to “unconsciousness” as if they were

antagonistic halves of an individual’s existence. The conscious life becomes

unconscious as soon as we fail to understand it—and as soon as we understand

an unconscious tendency it has already become conscious. (Adler, 1929/1964,

p. 163)

Whether people’s behaviors lead to a healthy or an unhealthy style of life depends

on the degree of social interest that they developed during their childhood

years.

Social Interest

The fourth of Adler’s tenets is: The value of all human activity must be seen from the

viewpoint of social interest.

Social interest is Adler’s somewhat misleading translation of his original German

term, Gemeinschaftsgefühl. A better translation might be “social feeling” or

“community feeling,” but Gemeinschaftsgefühl actually has a meaning that is not

fully expressed by any English word or phrase. Roughly, it means a feeling of oneness

with all humanity; it implies membership in the social community of all people.

A person with well-developed Gemeinschaftsgefühl strives not for personal superiority

but for perfection for all people in an ideal community. Social interest can

be defined as an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general as well as an empathy

for each member of the human community. It manifests itself as cooperation

with others for social advancement rather than for personal gain (Adler, 1964).

Social interest is the natural condition of the human species and the adhesive

that binds society together (Adler, 1927). The natural inferiority of individuals necessitates

their joining together to form a society. Without protection and nourishment

from a father or mother, a baby would perish. Without protection from the family

or clan, our ancestors would have been destroyed by animals that were stronger,

more ferocious, or endowed with keener senses. Social interest, therefore, is a necessity

for perpetuating the human species.

Origins of Social Interest

Social interest is rooted as potentiality in everyone, but it must be developed before

it can contribute to a useful style of life. It originates from the mother-child relationship

during the early months of infancy. Every person who has survived infancy

was kept alive by a mothering person who possessed some amount of social interest.

Thus, every person has had the seeds of social interest sown during those early

months.

Adler believed that marriage and parenthood is a task for two. However, the

two parents may influence a child’s social interest in somewhat different ways. The

mother’s job is to develop a bond that encourages the child’s mature social interest

and fosters a sense of cooperation. Ideally, she should have a genuine and deeprooted

love for her child—a love that is centered on the child’s well-being, not on her

own needs or wants. This healthy love relationship develops from a true caring for

her child, her husband, and other people. If the mother has learned to give and receive

love from others, she will have little difficulty broadening her child’s social interest.

But if she favors the child over the father, her child may become pampered

and spoiled. Conversely, if she favors her husband or society, the child will feel neglected

and unloved.

The father is a second important person in a child’s social environment. He

must demonstrate a caring attitude toward his wife as well as to other people. The

ideal father cooperates on an equal footing with the child’s mother in caring for the

child and treating the child as a human being. According to Adler’s (1956) standards,

a successful father avoids the dual errors of emotional detachment and paternal

Both mother and father can contribute powerfully to the developing social interest of their children authoritarianism. These errors may represent two attitudes, but they are often found in

the same father. Both prevent the growth and spread of social interest in a child. A

father’s emotional detachment may influence the child to develop a warped sense of

social interest, a feeling of neglect, and possibly a parasitic attachment to the mother.

A child who experiences paternal detachment creates a goal of personal superiority

rather than one based on social interest. The second error—paternal authoritarianism—

may also lead to an unhealthy style of life. A child who sees the father as a

tyrant learns to strive for power and personal superiority.

Adler (1956) believed that the effects of the early social environment are extremely

important. The relationship a child has with the mother and father is so powerful

that it smothers the effects of heredity. Adler believed that after age 5, the effects

of heredity become blurred by the powerful influence of the child’s social

environment. By that time, environmental forces have modified or shaped nearly

every aspect of a child’s personality.

Importance of Social Interest

Social interest was Adler’s yardstick for measuring psychological health and is thus

“the sole criterion of human values” (Adler, 1927, p. 167). To Adler, social interest

is the only gauge to be used in judging the worth of a person. As the barometer of

normality, it is the standard to be used in determining the usefulness of a life. To the

degree that people possess social interest, they are psychologically mature. Immature

people lack Gemeinschaftsgefühl, are self-centered, and strive for personal

power and superiority over others. Healthy individuals are genuinely concerned

about people and have a goal of success that encompasses the well-being of all

people.

Social interest is not synonymous with charity and unselfishness. Acts of philanthropy

and kindness may or may not be motivated by Gemeinschaftsgefühl. A

wealthy woman may regularly give large sums of money to the poor and needy, not

because she feels a oneness with them, but, quite to the contrary, because she wishes

to maintain a separateness from them. The gift implies, “You are inferior, I am superior,

and this charity is proof of my superiority.” Adler believed that the worth of

all such acts can only be judged against the criterion of social interest.

In summary, people begin life with a basic striving force that is activated by

ever-present physical deficiencies. These organic weaknesses lead inevitably to feelings

of inferiority. Thus, all people possess feelings of inferiority, and all set a final

goal at around age 4 or 5. However, psychologically unhealthy individuals develop

exaggerated feelings of inferiority and attempt to compensate by setting a goal of

personal superiority. They are motivated by personal gain rather than by social interest,

whereas healthy people are motivated by normal feelings of incompleteness

and high levels of social interest. They strive toward the goal of success, defined in

terms of perfection and completion for everyone. Figure 3.1 illustrates how the innate

striving force combines with inevitable physical deficiencies to produce universal

feelings of inferiority, which can be either exaggerated or normal. Exaggerated

feelings of inferiority lead to a neurotic style of life, whereas normal feelings of incompletion

result in a healthy style of life. Whether a person forms a useless style of

life or a socially useful one depends on how that person views these inevitable feelings

of inferiority.

Style of Life

Adler’s fifth tenet is: The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s

style of life.

Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the flavor of a person’s life. It includes

a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the

world. It is the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person’s

creative power. Adler (1956) used a musical analogy to elucidate style of life. The

separate notes of a composition are meaningless without the entire melody, but the

melody takes on added significance when we recognize the composer’s style or

unique manner of expression.

A person’s style of life is fairly well established by age 4 or 5. After that time,

all our actions revolve around our unified style of life. Although the final goal is singular,

style of life need not be narrow or rigid. Psychologically unhealthy individuals

often lead rather inflexible lives that are marked by an inability to choose new

ways of reacting to their environment. In contrast, psychologically healthy people

behave in diverse and flexible ways with styles of life that are complex, enriched, and

changing. Healthy people see many ways of striving for success and continually seek

to create new options for themselves. Even though their final goal remains constant,

the way in which they perceive it continually changes. Thus, they can choose new

options at any point in life.

People with a healthy, socially useful style of life express their social interest

through action. They actively struggle to solve what Adler regarded as the three

major problems of life—neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation—and they do

so through cooperation, personal courage, and a willingness to make a contribution

to the welfare of another. Adler (1956) believed that people with a socially useful

style of life represent the highest form of humanity in the evolutionary process and

are likely to populate the world of the future.

Creative Power

The final tenet of Adlerian theory is: Style of life is molded by people’s creative

power.

Each person, Adler believed, is empowered with the freedom to create her or

his own style of life. Ultimately, all people are responsible for who they are and how

they behave. Their creative power places them in control of their own lives, is responsible

for their final goal, determines their method of striving for that goal, and

contributes to the development of social interest. In short, creative power makes each

person a free individual. Creative power is a dynamic concept implying movement,

and this movement is the most salient characteristic of life. All psychic life involves

movement toward a goal, movement with a direction (Adler, 1964).

Adler (1956) acknowledged the importance of heredity and environment in

forming personality. Except for identical twins, every child is born with a unique genetic

makeup and soon comes to have social experiences different from those of any

other human. People, however, are much more than a product of heredity and environment.

They are creative beings who not only react to their environment but also

act on it and cause it to react to them.

Each person uses heredity and environment as the bricks and mortar to build

personality, but the architectural design reflects that person’s own style. Of primary

importance is not what people have been given, but how they put those materials to

use. The building materials of personality are secondary. We are our own architect

and can build either a useful or a useless style of life. We can choose to construct a

gaudy façade or to expose the essence of the structure. We are not compelled to grow

in the direction of social interest, inasmuch as we have no inner nature that forces us

to be good. Conversely, we have no inherently evil nature from which we must escape.

We are who we are because of the use we have made of our bricks and mortar.

Adler (1929/1964) used an interesting analogy, which he called “the law of the

low doorway.” If you are trying to walk through a doorway four feet high, you have

two basic choices. First, you can use your creative power to bend down as you approach

the doorway, thereby successfully solving the problem. This is the manner in

which the psychologically healthy individual solves most of life’s problems. Conversely,

if you bump your head and fall back, you must still solve the problem correctly

or continue bumping your head. Neurotics often choose to bump their head on

the realities of life. When approaching the low doorway, you are neither compelled

to stoop nor forced to bump your head. You have a creative power that permits you

to follow either course.