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Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology
OVERVIEW
More optimistic view on people
Focus on social interest (feelings of oneness with all human
kind)
Difference with Freud’s theories:
Individual Psychology
- People are responsible for their own personality/ who they
are
- Psychologically healthy people are aware with what they are
doing
- Present behavior of an individual is the result from his own
perspectives of the future (teleology)
- People are motivated by social influences, striving for
success and superiority
BIOGRAPHY
Feb 7, 1870 Rudolfsheim Vienna
Experienced near death and death of a younger brother
encouraged him to be a physician
Strong competition with the older brother
Fond of social relationships unlike Freud, which prefer having
one on one relationship
Adler’s Society for Individual Psychology (before: Society for
Free Psychoanalytic Study)
Book: Study of Organ Superiority and its Psychical
Compensation (physical deficiencies formed the foundation of
human motivation and not sex)
Social Interest and Compassion (cornerstone of human
motivation)
Died: May 28, 1937 Aberdeen Scotland
INTRODUCTION TO ADLERIAN THEORY
People are born with weak inferior bodies – results in having
dependence with other people and manifests feelings of
inferiority.
So feelings of unity (Social Interest) is inherent with people
and the ultimate standard for psychological health
Main Tenets of Adlerian Theory:
1. The main driving force for people’s behavior is striving for
success and superiority
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their own behavior
and personality/ they are responsible for their own behavior
and personality
3. Personality is unified and 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 the
person’s style of life
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power
STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY
Everyone begins life with physical deficiencies which leads to
feelings of inferiority. These feelings then motivates us to
strive for superiority or success.
Psychologically unhealthy individual – strive for personal
superiority
Psychologically healthy individual – success for all humanity
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Masculine Protest
- Originally came from his belief that aggression is a single
motivational force
- Soon abandoned. Give it a little role with his theory of
abnormal development
The Final Goal
People strive toward a final goal of either personal superiority
or the goal of success for all humankind
Came from individual’s creative power neither inherently or
environmentally determined (Freely shaping their own
personality)
Ages 4- 5 can already form a final goal - final goal reduces
feelings of inferiority
If children are pampered/ neglected, final goal would be largely
unconscious and misunderstood or not related with any of the
two driving force
If children experienced love and security, final goal would be
largely conscious and understood, related with superiority or
success
Even though a goal would never completely conscious, these
healthy individuals understand and will pursue it with full
awareness
In striving for final goal, people pursue preliminary goals
(conscious) but their relationships with the final goal remains
unknown
The Striving Force as Compensation
People strive for superiority or success as a means of
compensation for feelings of inferiority – ignite by physical
deficiencies. Possess an innate tendency toward completion
or wholeness.
No innate tendency – No inferiority feelings – No goals
Even though striving force is innate, it should be developed.
A goal is not necessarily a mirror image of the deficiency, even
though it is a compensation for it.
Creative power comes from the raw materials of heredity and
environment, responsible for personality (Heredity: Potentiality
Environment: Social Interest and Courage)
The forces of nature and nurture cannot deprived a person
from setting a unique goal and to choose a unique style of
reaching for the goal
Striving for Personal Superiority
They only strive for superiority with little or no concern for the
others
Exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority (Inferiority
Complex)
Can be conscious or unconscious
Striving for Success
Psychologically healthy people strive not just for their personal
gain but also for the success of all humankind
Their personal growth is tied to the contributions to the society
Social Progress is more important than personal credit
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SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS
The manner in which people strive/ the individual’s personality
is shaped by how they perceived the reality and by their
expectations of the future (fictions)
Fictionalism
The most important fiction in our lives is striving for goal and
superiority
Fictional final goal serves as a guide in our style of life, gives
unity to our personality
People are motivated not by what is true, but by subjective
perceptions of what is true
Inspired by the Book: The Philosophy of “As If” by Vaihinger
Teleology
Physical Inferiorities
Physical inferiorities since birth – Feelings of inferiority – goal
to strive toward completion or compensate (others over
compensate by subdue or retreat from other people)
Even though we grew up to be big, strong and superior, we
still have perceive as if we are weak small and inferior.
Physical deficiencies alone do not cause the style of life, but
provide present motivation for reaching goals.
Motivation, like personality, is unified and consistent
UNITY AND SELF-CONSISTENCY OF PERSONALITY
Each person is unique and indivisible
Individual Psychology insists fundamental unity in a person
There is no such thing as inconsistent behavior
(The person might show unpredictable behavior towards
others to confuse and subordinate them. To reach the goal of
personal superiority) “unconscious/unaware of underlying
motive”
Organ Dialect/Jargon
The deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual’s
goal
Conscious and Unconscious
Conscious and Unconscious is the two cooperating part of the
same unified system. Not a dichotomy.
Unconscious is the part of the goal which is neither clearly
formulated nor completely understood by an individual.
Thoughts are not helpful in striving for success
Conscious thoughts are those that are understood and
regarded as helpful in striving for success.
The conscious life becomes unconscious as soon we failed to
understand it, and as soon as we understand the unconscious
tendency, it will become conscious
SOCIAL INTEREST
Gemeinschaftsgefühl (Social feeling/ Community feeling)
Misleading translation to social interest
Feeling of oneness with all humanity/ social community of all
people
The natural inferiority of individuals necessitates their joining
together to form a society. Cannot survive alone.
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Empathy, Cooperation for social development
Origins of Social interest
Social interest is innate in us, but it should be developed.
It originates to the mother-child relationships during infancy
Product of interaction between Heredity, Environment and
Creative Power
It reflects the individual's unique, unconscious, and repetitive
way of responding to (or avoiding) the main tasks of living:
friendship (Neighboring love), sexual love, and work.

Father is the second important person in a child’s social Primary types of Styles:
environment 1. Ruling type
A successful father should avoid the dual errors – Emotional 2. Getting type
detachment and Paternal Authoritarianism
3. Avoiding type
After age 5, the environmental forces have a strong influence
with the child’s personality. The Heredity forces becomes 4. Socially useful type (represents highest form of humanity in
blurred. evolutionary process)
Importance of Social interest
Social interest is the “yardstick” for measuring psychological CREATIVE POWER
health
Each person is empowered to create his or her own style of
“The sole criterion of human values” life
“Barometer of Normality” determine usefulness of life People are responsible for who they are and how the behave
Psychologically mature – Possess Social Interest Creative power makes each person a free individual
Immature People – Lack Gemeinschaftsgefühl “Law of the Low Doorway”
Social interest is not synonymous with charity and
unselfishness. Acts of philanthropy and kindness may or may
not be motivated by Gemeinschaftsgefühl. ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT/ MALADJUSTMENTS
Underdeveloped Social interest

STYLE OF LIFE 1. Set their goals too high

Flavor of a person’s life 2. Live in their own private world

Includes: person’s Goals, Self-concept, Feelings for others 3. Have a rigid and dogmatic style of life
and Attitude towards the world
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“Private Meaning” - Their view of the world is not in focus with Tendency to blame others for one’s failures and to
that of other individuals seek revenge, thereby safeguarding one’s own tenuous self-
esteem.
People become failures in life because they are over
concerned with themselves and care little about others.  Self-Accusation
People devalue themselves in order to inflict suffering
on others while protecting their own magnified feelings of self-
EXTERNAL FACTORS IN MALADJUSTMENTS esteem
1. Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies 3. Withdrawal
2. Pampered Style of Life People unconsciously escape life’s problems by setting up a
3. Neglected Style of Life distance between themselves and those problems.
Run away from difficulties

SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES Safe guarding through distance

Symptoms are formed as a protection against anxiety  Moving Backward

 Standing Still
People create patterns of behavior to protect their exaggerated  Hesitating
sense of self-esteem against public disgrace.  Constructing Obstacles
Common to people with Neurotic symptoms only
Largely conscious
1. Excuses
“Yes, but” and “If Only” format
2. Aggression
 Depreciation
Tendency to undervalue other people’s achievements and
to overvalue one’s own
 Accusation
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Safeguarding tendencies are found in nearly everyone, but
when they become overly rigid, they lead to self-defeating
behaviors.
Many people fail to realize that their self-esteem would be
better safeguarded if they gave up their self-interest and
developed a genuine caring for other people.
MASCULINE PROTEST
-Cultural and social practices influence (not anatomy)
influence many men and women to overemphasized the
importance of being manly
Psychic life of men and women are equal
Male-dominated society is not natural, but an artificial product
of historical development
In many societies, both men and women place an inferior
value on being a woman.
APPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
FAMILY CONSTELLATION (birth order, siblings gender,
age gap between them)
Firstborn child
Feelings of power and superiority, high anxiety and
overprotective tendencies
If first born children are at the age of 3 or older when the baby
sibling is born, they incorporate their feelings of dethronement
with their established style of life (self- centered style of life
and cooperating style of life)
If firstborn children are less than 3 years old, their hostility and
resentment will be largely unconscious
Secondborn Child
Better situation to develop cooperation and social interest
The personalities of secondborn children can be shaped by
their perception of the older child’s attitude toward them.
Youngest Children
Most pampered and, consequently, run a high risk of being
problem children
They are likely to have strong feelings of inferiority and to lack
a sense of independence.
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Only Children Can provide clues for solving future problems. (cannot foretell
Unique future)
position of
competing, Possible that the dreamer frequently does not wish to solve
not against the problem in a productive manner.
brothers
and sisters, “Everything can be different” interpretations can be
but against changeable “Trial and Error”
father and
mother Most dreams are deceptions, cannot easily understood by the
dreamer

Inconsistent individual goals with reality – Self-deception

dreams

The dream unveils the style of life, but it fools the dreamer by
presenting him with an unrealistic, exaggerated sense of
power and accomplishment.

PSYCHOTHERAPY

Adlerian Therapy
Psychopathology results from lack of courage, exaggerated
feeling of inferiority and underdeveloped social interest

Purpose: to enhance courage, lessen inferiority complex and

encourage social interest (through humor and warmth)
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
Recollections of early experiences are simply shaped by “Everybody can accomplish everything.”
present style of life.
“What people do with what they have is more important than
Whether the recalled experiences correspond with objective what they have.”
reality or are complete fantasies is of no importance

DREAMS
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Warmth and humor from the therapist encourage patients to
expand social interest in 3 problems in life: Sexual love,
Friendship and Occupation

When children receive therapy in public, they more readily

understand that their problems are community problems.
(Allowing them to feel that they belong to a community of
concerned adults)

The therapeutic relationship awakens their social interest in

the same manner that children gain social interest from their
parents.