Alfred Adler
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Born on February 7, 1870 in Rudolfsheim, a village near Vienna and died on May 28, 1937.
An Austrian physician and psychiatrist whom was best known for founding the Individual
Psychology school of thought.
A founding member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
Sigmund Freud's initial colleague and contributed to the development of Psychoanalysis.
Eventually split from Freud's psychoanalytic circle because of his disagreements with some
of Freud's theories.
He was keen to point out that, while he had worked with Freud, he was not a follower of the
famed Austrian psychoanalyst.
Individual Psychology
 An approach to conceptualize a single human being as a physiologically, intellectually, and
psychologically integrated whole.
 Everyone experiences a sense of inferiority. People "strive for superiority" from childhood to
overcome their inferiority.
 He adequately explained that some people will try to exert power over others while others
will focus on collaboration and contributions to society.
Social interest- the sense of being one with all of humanity.
Social Feeling – concern for the society and the need to collaborate with others.
Six Tenets of Adlerian Theory
1. Striving for Success or Superiority
 Adler reduced all motivation to a single drive-the striving for superiority or success.
 Constrained striving for superiority to people who seek personal superiority.
 Striving for success to refers to people who are motivated by highly developed social
interests.
Final Goal
 People strive towards a final objective of either personal excellence or the success of
humanity as a whole.
 Although it is imaginary and has no objective existence, it is significant because it unites
personality and makes all behavior understandable.
 The outcome of creative power is the objective.
 Creative Power is the ability of individuals to freely shape their behavior and develop their
own personalities.
 Infants feel inadequate and helpless because they are little, incomplete, and weak.
created a hypothetical aim of being enormous, complete, and strong to compensate for this
shortfall.
 The ultimate goal of a person is to alleviate the pain of inferiority feelings by pointing them
in the direction of superiority or accomplishment.
The Striving Force as Compensation
 Individuals desire superiority as a technique of compensating for emotions of weakness or
inadequacy.
 Adler believed that all humans are born with little, weak, inferior bodies, and that these
physical defects cause emotions of inferiority primarily because people, by their nature,
have an inbuilt urge toward fullness or wholeness.
 The objective establishes motivational guidelines, shapes psychological growth, and
provides it a purpose.
 Adler outlined two (2) general routes of striving in his final theory: Personal excellence and
the will to succeed.
Personal Superiority
 Socially ineffective, with little or no regard for others.
 Personal ambitions drive the pursuits, which are fueled by exaggerated sentiments of
personal inferiority or the presence of an inferiority complex.
Striving for Success
 Entails a social concern and aims for everyone's success in achieving perfection.
 People who are mentally balanced and driven by social interest and the success of humanity
as a whole.
 Concerned regarding aims larger than oneself; capable of assisting the others without
requiring or expecting a personal reward.
 Their personal achievement does not come at the expense of others; rather, it is a natural
tendency to strive for excellence.
 Can keep a feeling of self and look at daily issues from the perspective of society's progress
rather than from a completely personal perspective.
2. Subjective Perception
 The way people strive is determined not by fact, but by their subjective experience of
reality, namely, their fictions or future expectations.
Fictionalism
  Our subjective, fictional objective directs our way of life and brings our personalities
together.
 Originated from Hans Vaihinger’s book the philosophy of “As if”.
Physical Inferiorities
 Claimed that the humankind as a whole is "blessed" with organ inferiorities.
 Physical disabilities are of little or no consequence, but they become significant when they
elicit subjective sentiments of inadequacy, which act as a motivator to achieve perfection or
fulfillment.
 Physical inadequacies, according to Adler, do not cause a specific way of life; they just
supply current motivation for achieving future goals.
3. Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
 Individual psychology was chosen by Adler to emphasize his conviction that each person is
unique and indivisible.
 All of one's thoughts, feelings, and actions are directed toward and serve a single objective.
Organ Dialect
o A disturbance in one portion of the body cannot be considered in isolation; it has
consequences for the complete individual.
o A language spoken by the body's organs that is usually more expressive and reveals an
individual's perspective more clearly than words can.
Conscious and Unconscious
o There is harmony between the conscious and unconscious.
o The unconscious, according to Adler, is an element of the objective that is neither clearly
stated nor fully comprehended by the individual.
o Conscious thoughts are recognized and viewed as beneficial in the pursuit of success by the
individual.
o Unconscious thoughts is considered as not helpful.
4. Social Interest
 A feeling of oneness with all of humanity.
 An individual with a well-developed social interest aspires to excellence for all people in an
ideal community, rather than personal superiority.
 Can be characterized as a feeling of connectedness to humanity as a whole, as well as
empathy for each individual member of the human society.
 It takes the form of collaboration with others for the sake of society growth rather than
personal benefit.
 Both the human species' inherent state and the bond that holds civilization together.
 Everyone has the capacity for social interest, however, it must be nurtured before it can
contribute to a useful way of life.
5. Style of Life
 Refers to the flavor of a person’s life.
 Goals, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world are all part of a
person's personality.
 The product of heredity, environment, and creative power interacting.
 Psychologically disturbed people tend to live quite rigid lifestyles characterized by an
inability to adapt to new situations.
 Meanwhile, psychologically stable people behave in a variety of ways, with a complex,
enriched, and evolving manner of life.
 Individuals who live a healthy, socially beneficial lifestyle demonstrate their concern for
others by taking action.
 They are actively attempting to resolve Adler's three (3) major life problems:
Neighborly love, Sexual love, and Occupation.
 Individuals with a socially valuable way of life, according to Adler, represent the highest
form of mankind in the dynamic development and are likely to occupy the future world.
6. Creative Power
 Individuals are responsible for who they are and how they act since they have the liberty to
choose their own manner of life.
 Creative power gives individuals authority over their lives, makes them responsible for their
ultimate objective, determines how they will achieve that aim, and helps to the growth of
social interest.
 Is a dynamic concept that implies mobility, and movement is one of life's most important
aspects.
 Within certain boundaries, the creative power gives humans the choice to be either
psychologically healthy or unhealthy.
Abnormal Development
Maladjustment - underdeveloped social interest is the underlying element in all sorts of
maladjustments.
Neurotics: set their goals too high, live in their own private world, and have a rigid and dogmatic Safeguarding Tendencies
style of life.  Protective equipment that allow people to conceal their inflated self-image while
maintaining their current lifestyle.
Individuals fail in life because they are preoccupied with themselves and have no regard for others.
 Can be compared to Freud’s Defense Mechanism.
External factors in Maladjustment includes: Exaggerated Physical deficiencies, Pampered style of
Excuses
life, and Neglected style of life.
 The most common of the safeguarding tendencies.
Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies:
 Typically expressed in the “Yes, but” “if only” format.
o Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies are those who have a lot of physical problems. Because  "Yes, but" - individuals first mention what they believe they want to accomplish, something
they overcompensate for their incompetence, they can acquire exaggerated emotions of that others find appealing, and then offer an excuse.
inferiority.  “If only”- same excuse phrased in a different way.
o Inclined to be preoccupied with oneself and unconcerned about others.  These justifications protect a shaky but driven up sense of self-worth and lead individuals to
o They feel as if they are in enemy territory, fear failure more than success, and believe that realize they are better than they are.
the only way to handle life's major challenges is to be greedy.
Aggression
Pampered Style of Life  Protects people from their fragile self-esteem.
 Lies at the heart of most neuroses.  Depreciation is tendency to undervalue other people’s achievements and to overvalue one’s
 Pampered persons have little social interest but a significant desire to preserve the own. The intention is to belittle another so that the person, by comparison, will be placed in
pampered, parasitic relationship they had with one or both parents when they were a favorite light.
younger.
Accusation
 Expecting others to look after them, to overprotect them, to meet their needs.
 Exaggerated emotion, especially anxiety, is characterized by excessive discouragement,  Tendency to blame others for one's shortcomings and seek vengeance in order to protect
indecisiveness, oversensitivity, impatience, and exaggerated feeling. one's fragile self-esteem.
 They see themselves as being entitled to be first in everything.
 Did not receive too much love, rather, they feel unloved. Self-Accusation
 Marked by self-torture and guilt.
Neglected Style of Life
 Self-torture, such as masochism, sadness, and suicide, are used by some individuals to harm
 Children who feel neglected and undesired are more likely to adopt a neglected lifestyle as a those close to them.
result of these emotions.  Guilt is often aggressive, self-accusatory behavior.
 Neglected youngsters have low self-esteem and tend to exaggerate the difficulties  Individuals devalue themselves in the opposite of depreciation, with self-accusation.
associated with life's major issues.  In order to inflict agony on others while safeguarding their own inflated self-esteem.
 Mistrust of others and unwilling to work together for the common good.
 Perceives society as an enemy country, feels estranged from everyone else, and is envious Withdrawal
of others' achievement.  Safeguarding through distance.
 Many of the qualities of a pampered child are present in neglected children, but they are  Some individual instinctively create a barrier between themselves and their troubles in
often more distrustful and more prone to be dangerous to others . order to avoid them.
Moving Backward
 Tendency to psychologically regress to a more secure phase of life in order to protect one's
imaginary objective of superiority.
 Similar to regression.
 The destructive attitude supplied so abundantly to pampered children is supposed to inspire
sympathy.
Standing Still
o It's similar to going backwards, although it's not quite as bad.
o Individuals who remain still merely do not advance in any manner; as a result, they absolve
themselves of all responsibility by ensuring that they will not fail.
o Individuals safeguard their fictitious ambitions since they can never prove that they won't be
able to achieve them.
o People defend their self-esteem and safeguard themselves against failure by doing nothing.
Hesitating
 Uses procrastination as an excuse that “it’s too late now”.
 Most obsessive behaviors, according to Adler, are attempts to waste time.
 Although it may appear that hesitating is counterproductive, it permits neurotic people to
maintain their inflated sense of self-esteem.
Constructing Obstacles
 Least severe of the withdrawal safeguarding tendencies.
 Some individuals construct hurdles that they can conquer, and by doing so, they safeguard
their self-esteem and prestige. If they don't succeed, they can always make an excuse.
Masculine Protest
 Adler's concept for certain men and women's neurotic and inaccurate assumption that men
are superior to women.
 Women's psychic lives are substantially the same as men's, and a male-dominated society is
an artifact of historical history rather than a natural state.
 Several men and women are influenced by social and cultural norms rather than anatomy to
overemphasize the value of being manly.
Application of Individual Psychology
Family Constellation
The potential impact of birth order on family behaviors and layer personality development was
introduced by Alfred Adler.
Early Recollection
 Despite the fact that Adler considered that recalled memories provide insight into
understanding a patient's way of life, he did not feel that these recollections had a causal
effect.
 Individuals reconstruct events in order to make them conform to a recurring theme or
pattern in their lives.
 Asserted that people's early memories are always congruent with their current way of life,
and that their subjective description of these events provides clues to understanding both
their end objective and current manner of life.
Dreams
 According to Adler, most dreams are self-deceptions and not easily understood by the
dreamer.
 The dream reveals the way of life, but it deceives the dreamer by giving him an illusory
sense of power and accomplishments.
Psychotherapy
 According to the Adlerian view, psychopathology is caused by a lack of courage, excessive
emotions of inadequacy, and a lack of social engagement.
 The chief purpose of Adlerian psychopathology is to: enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority, and encourage social interest.
 This approach would increase children's social interest by allowing them to feel that they are
part of a caring adult group.