Alfred Adler

ALFRED ADLER

Alfred Adler was born in liana in 1870 of a middle class family and died in Aberdeen. Scotland, I n 1937 while on a  lecture tour, He received a medical degree in 1895 from the university of Vienna, At first he specialized in opwhal- in opwhal  melody and then, after a period of practice in general medicine. He became psychoanalytic, society and later its president hewer. Adler soon began to develop ideas that were at  variance with those of plead ad 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 sand denunciation of Adler’s president and a few months later terminated his connection with Freudian psychoanalysis.

He then formed his own group which came to be known  as Indiviidual psychology and attracted sol lowers throughout  the world during world ,during world war Alfred Adler served as a physician it the Austrian army. Alfred Adler served as a physician  in the Austrian army .After the war he became interested in child guidance and established the first guidance clinics in connection with the Viennese school system. He also inspired the establishment of an experimental school in Vienna that applied his theories of education

In 1935 Adler scuttled in the united states. where he continued his practice as a psychiatrist and served as proffeser of medical psychology at the long island. College of medicine. Adler was a prolific written and an indefatigable lecturer He published  a hundred books and articles during  his  life, time the ,the practice and theory of individual psychology (1927) probabl7y the best introduction to Adler’s theory of personality , shorter dieses of Adler’s views appear in the psychologies of 1d930 and in the International journal of individual psychology. Heike and Rowena ansbacher (1956,1964) have edited  and annotated two vallenes containing an extensive selection from adlers indiuidual psychology, the 1d964 valume contains a biological essay carl furtmuller, Heinz ansbacher (1977) provides a biographical (1970);Hoffman,1994 ;orgler,1963 sperber,1974.

Adler’s personal history provides a clear example of the strolling to over come inferiority which became the central theme is his theory, as a boy, he was weak, cutely unattractive and he developed rickets and pneumonia, the latter disease led a physician to curler, (1963, p,16) Adler recognized that his theory of personality, this is related in his statement “those who are familiar with my life work will clearly see the accord existing between the facts of my childhood and views expressed”(Battome,1939,p,9).

It likes difficult to overemphasize his destination between Adler and felled alder wrote that “the decisive basic difference between psychoanalysis and indiuidual psychology is that Freud starts with the a assumption that by nature man only wants to satisfy his drives the pleasure principle-and must therefore form the viewpoint of future be regarded as completely bad ….In contrast. Adler beloved the indestructible destiny of the human species is social interest (Ansbacher & ansbacher,1964.plp.210-211),for his part, Freud recognized and rejected this movement toward cultural determinants of personality  in a vintage passages aimed at Adler and Jung frilled (1914.p.62)wrote. “the truth is that these people have once more failed to hear the  mighty and primordial melody of the instance’s.

Adlers second major contribution to personality theory is his concept job the creative self unlike frills ego, which consists of a group of psycholo9gical processes, sewing the ends of inborn insttncls.Adler’s self is a lightly personalized, subjective system that interprets and makes meaningful the experiences of the organism moreover, It searches for experiences that will aid in fulfilling the person’s unique style of life if these experiences are not to be found in the world, the self tries to create them, this concept of a creative self we new to psychoanalytic theory. It helped to compensate for the extreme”objectiuism”of classical stilmullli to account for the dynamics of personality. As we shall see in other chapters, the concept of the dynamics of personality to this new friend of recognizing the self an important calls of behalliour is very significant.

Finally Adler considered consciousness to be center of personality this alone makes him a pioneer in the development of an ego-oriented psychology. Humans adder conscious belongs; they are ordinarily aware of the reasons for their behalliour they fare conscious job their inferiorities and conscious of the goals for which they strive more than that humans are self-conscious individuals capable of planning and gilding there is the complete antithesis of Freud’s theory which had virtually reduced consciousness to the status of  a Nan entity a more froth floating on the great sea of the unconscious

Unity and self consistency of personality

Adler believed that all behaviours are kirected to ward a single purpose, when seen in the light job that of that sould purpose seemingly contradiculary be halliourscan be seen as operating in a self –consistent manner.

Organ dialect

People often use a physical disorder to express style job life, a condition Adler called organ dialect, or organ jargon.

Conscious and unconscious

Conscious and unconscious processes are unified and opiate to achieve a single goal, the part of our goal that is not clearly understood is unconscious; that part of our goal we fail to fully comprehend is conscious.

Social Interest

Human behalliour has value to the extent that it is motivated by social interest, that is, a feeling of on  ness with all for humanity.Origins of social interest :

Although social interest exists as potentiality in all  people , it must be festered in a social enverinoment .Adler beloved  that the parent-child relationship can be so stong that it n agates the effects of heredity.

Style  of life :

The manner of a persons s trilling is called style of life, a pattern that is relatively will set by 4or 5years of age. However. Adler beloved that health individuals Aare marked by flexible behallio90r and that they have some limited ability to change their style of life.

This is the slogan of adlers personality theory. It is a recurrent theme  in all of Adler’s latter writings (example, 1929 a,1931) and the must distinctive fearer of his psychology, style of life is the system pry nipple by which He indiuidual personality functions;. it is the whole that commands the parts, style of life Adlers chief idiographic principle it is the principle that explains the uniqueness of the person.

Every one has a style of life ,but no two people develop the same style.

Precisely what ills meant  by this concept? This  is a difficult question to answer because. Adler had so much to say about it and because he said  different and sometimes conflicting things about it in his various wittings, then to it  is difficult to different it from another. A Delrina concept self.

The  style of life determines how a person confronts the there “life problems” of adulthood social relations , occupation and love and marriage preliminary versions of these problems during childhood focus on friendship school and the opposite sexed, when the individual’s attempts deal with these take of life. If personal superiority displaces social interest as a occupies the “useless” side of life.

Social Interest :

During the curly years of his theorizing. When he was proclaiming the aggressive, power-hungry nature of humans and the idea of the masculine protest as an over compensation for feminine weakness. Adler was severely criticized for strolling for superiority sounded like the war cry  of the Nietschean superman a fitting companion for the Darwinian slogan of survival of the fittest.

Adler who was an advocate of social justice and a supplier  of social democracy enlarged his conception of humans to include  the factor of social interest (1939) Although social interest takes in such matters as  cooperation  interpersonal and social relations, identification withthegroup.empathy . and so forth . it is much broader then all of the individual helping  society  to attain the goal of a perfect  society :”social interest is the  and cipeellitable compensation for all the natural weaknesses of indiuidual human beings(Adler,1929 b.p.31)

The person  is embedded in a social context from the fist day of life cooperation manifests itself in the relationship between the infant and the mother, and henceforth the person is continuously in vowed in a network of interpersonal relations that shape the personality and provide concrete outlets for strolling for superiority strolling for superiority become socialized : the ideal of a perfect society  take the place of purely personal ambition and selfish gain. By working for the common good humans compensate for their indiuidual weaknesses.

Adler beloved that social interest is in born; humans fare social creatures by nature, not by habit, However, like any other natural aptitude, this inhale predisposition does not appear spontaneously but has to be brought of tuition by guidance and training. Because he beloved in the benefits of education Adler deviled a great deal of this time to establishing child guidance cline’s to imp rolling  the schools and  edycatuib the oybkuc regarding proper methods of rearing children

It is interesting to trace in Adler’s writings the decisive although gradual ,change that occurred in his conception of humans from the early years of his professional life when he was associated with frilled to this later years when he had achieved an international reputation for the young Adler, humans are driven by an insatiable lust for power and domination is order to compensate for a concealed deeply seated feelings of inferiority, for the older  Adler gimbals are titivated b tab up basket give sick interest that cause them to subordinate private gain to public  welfare, the image of the perfect person living is a perfect society blotted out the picture of the strong  aggressive person dominating and exploiting society social interest replaced selfish interest

Creative power   

Style of life is partially a product job heredity and environment- the building blocks of personality but ultimately style of life is shaped by people’s creative power, that is, by their ability to freely choose a course of action.

Abnormal Development

            Creative Power is not limited to healthy People; Unhealthy individuals also create their own Personalities  Thus Cash of us is tree to choose either a useful us a useless or a useless style of life.

General description                    

        The most  important factor in abnormal development is lack of social interact .  In addition People with a useless style of life fend to (1) set their goals too light. (2) have a dogmatic style of life and (3) live in their word                                                                                                                                                         

 External  Factors  in Maladjustment

Adler listed three factors that relater to abnormal development                     

1) exaggerated physical defects ,which donor by themselves cause abnormal development, but which may contribute to it by generating subjective and exaggerated feeling of intruding

(2) a pampered style of life which contributes to an overriding drive to establish a permanent parasitic relationship with the mother or a mother Substitute; and

3)a neglected style of life which leads to district of other people

Safeguarding tendencies

            Both normal  and nearly  people create ryptionals a menes of prwfecting  their fir lie self esteem these safeguarding tendencies  maintain  a neeorlior life style and perfect a poison from public disgrace the there principal safe guarding to detrimcies are  (1) excuss which allow people to preserive there uinflated sence for personal  worth;

(2) Aggregition which may take he from of depreciation office accomplishments accusing other of being responsible foe one s own fauilures are self – accusing  and

(3) withdrawal which can be expressed by psyehologically milling back ward standing still hesitating as construction obstacles

Masculine protest

            Both men and women something sover mphasze the desirability of being manly a condition after called the masculine protest .the frequently found inferior stakes of woman is not based on physically but on hysterical development and social learning. Bogus offer taught early that being mauling means being courages.stong. and dominat,the ultimate accomplishment for boys is to win,to be powerful .to be up. In contrast. girls offer learn to be passive and to accept an inferior position is society. In contrast to address more democratic attitude

Freud beloved that anytime is destiny and that woman occupy ,freed was still asking what woman wanted .According to Adler ,fraud’s attitude lowered woman would by evidence of a person with a masculine protest in contrast to Freud’s views on woman. Adler assumed that womanbecausetheyhave the same physiological and psychological needs as man-want more or less the same things the man want.