Alfred Adler Individual Psychology Key Concepts of Individual Psychology Adlerian counselling Striving for Superiority (The Striving for Perfection, Striving for Self-Enhancement, Inferiority Feeling, Drive Satisfaction) Styles of Life Fictional Finalism

1. ALFRED ADLER
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
Nidhin Chandrasekharan
M.Sc. Applied Psychology
Department of Psychology
Kerala University

2. ALFRED ADLER
(1870- 1937)
• was born in a suburb of Vienna,
• the son of a Jewish grain merchant.
• He became a medical doctor and was one of
the first to take a serious interest in the
theories of Sigmund Freud, recognizing that
they opened up a new phase in the
development of psychiatry and
psychology.
• He joined Freud's discussion group and in
1910 became President of the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society. Shortly afterwards the
divergence between his views and those of
Freud and Jung led to his resignation.

3. Alfred Adler believed that
Freud's theories focused
too heavily on sex as the
primary motivator for
human behavior.

4. • He had an independent approach to
formulating the problems of human
psychology and finding solutions to them.
• In 1912 he formed the Society for
Individual Psychology
• He is one of the three great fathers
of modern psychotherapy.

5. Key Concepts of Individual Psychology

6. ◦ Individual Psychology is a social
psychology
◦ we need each other, for without each other
we would not survive.
◦ Thus one of the main precepts of Individual
Psychology is social interest.
◦ Individual Psychology teaches us that we
are all goal-directed beings, that is we
move purposefully through life towards
goals which attract us.

7. ◦ Closely connected with personal goals
and purpose is the concept of inferiority.
◦ We become ill or old and die.
◦ One of these is the myth of social
inferiority, where we believe that certain
people are 'worse' than others, worth
less than other people. If we (and they)
hold such a belief, even if it is not true,
we (and they) will act accordingly.

8. ◦ As we are social beings and do not wish
other people to see that we feel inferior, we
try to cover this up by developing and
displaying some form of superiority.
◦ We have a number of ways of doing this,
of which is overcompensation (i.e. doing
something more than the situation
◦ This, in turn, means that the felt sense of
inferiority is useful, as we wish to move away
from it, and in doing so we develop
ourselves and society.

10. ◦ We have seen above that the concept of
moving towards a goal is fundamental to
Individual Psychology. Courage is the fuel that
we use to move us towards our socially
goals.
◦ Being courageous, i.e. believing in ourselves,
implies being independent of success and
failure, that our self-worth does not depend
on getting it right or being right, but on
what we can do when the situation demands
our input.
◦ Failure to an Adlerian is not succeeding, but
rather not trying.

11. ◦ Encouragement, then, is seen as the development of
self-esteem, growth in the belief that 'I am good enough
as I am'.
◦ Individual Psychology teaches that we are what we
believe In part our beliefs will match those held by the
people around us, and this we refer to as common
◦ The area in which our belief system differs from other
people's is referred to as private logic.
◦ My beliefs become the source of my inabilities.

12. ◦ The purpose of Adlerian counselling and therapy is to disclose to clients their private logic,
help them to understand which of their privately held beliefs are actually ideas which interfere
with their daily functioning, and, through a carefully planned series of actions, to lessen the
exclusive quality of the private logic and help them to lead more fulfilled lives.

13. ◦ This is a psychology of use, not possession.
◦ Important to an Adlerian is not so much what abilities each of us has been born with or
developed, but rather what we do with what we have.
◦ Similarly, what we do is more important than what we say; Adler's advice is, when in doubt,
'close your ears and observe': when the lady protests too much, ask yourself why she is doing
this.

14. ◦ Perception, or the way we see ourselves, the world and people, is fundamental to this
psychology.
◦ Adlerian counsellors do not try to change life, but the way someone experiences life. The
purpose of Adlerian therapy is to help clients change their perceptive frameworks, i.e. to
things differently.

15. ◦ Like other psychologies, Individual Psychology sometimes speaks in generalizations.
Nonetheless, it stresses the uniqueness of the individual and his or her creative abilities,
and can therefore only give guidelines for our thinking.
◦ Adler very wisely said 'alles kann immer anders sein (things can always be different)', which
prevents Adlerians from using classifications and putting their clients into hard and fast
categories.
things can always be different

16. Topics we are going to discuss according
to our syllabus
◦ Striving for Superiority
◦ Styles of Life
◦ Fictional Finalism

17. Striving for Superiority
a. The Striving for Perfection
b. Striving for Self-Enhancement
c. Inferiority Feeling
d. Drive Satisfaction

18. Goal is one of superiority, that consequently the striving is toward superiority, and finally that
the striving is compensatory, originating in a feeling of inferiority.

19. A. The Striving for Perfection
1. THE CEASELESSNESS OF STRIVING
All our functions follow its direction. They strive for conquest, security, increase, either in the right or in
the wrong direction.
• The urge from below to above never ceases.
• From this network, which in the last analysis is simply given with the man-cosmos relationship, no
one may hope to escape.
• Even if anyone wanted to escape, even if he could escape, he would still find himself in the general
system, striving upward from below.
• This not only states a fundamental category of thought, a thought construct, but, what is more,
represents the fundamental fact of our life.

20. ◦ The origin of humanity and the ever-repeated beginning of infant life impresses with every
psychological act: “Achieve! Arise! Conquer!”

21. 2. THE UNIVERSALITY OF STRIVING
◦ The striving for perfection is innate in the sense that it is a part of life, a striving,
an urge, a something without which life would be unthinkable.
◦ Therefor it is universal

22. 3. Striving as Ultimate adaptation
◦ The continuous striving for security urges toward the
overcoming of the present reality in favor of a better
one.
◦ No one knows which is the only correct way.
Mankind has frequently made attempts to imagine
this final goal of human development.

23. ◦ Man as an ever striving being cannot be like
God. God who is eternally
complete, who directs the stars, who is
the master of fates, who elevates man from his
lowliness to Himself, who speaks from the
cosmos to every single human soul, is the
most brilliant manifestation of the goal of
perfection to date.
◦ The human soul, as a part of the movement of
life, is endowed with the ability to participate
the uplift, elevation, perfection, and
completion.

24. 4. Perfection in the Abnormal
◦ domineer over others
◦ to violate reality, and to protect himself
fearfully against the truth and those who stand
up to it.

25. B. Striving for Self-Enhancement
1. Enhancement of the Self-esteem
◦ All neurotic phenomena originate from these preparatory
means which strive toward the final purpose of superiority.
They are psychological readinesses for initiating the struggle
for self-esteem.
◦ The safeguarding tendency which originates in the feeling of
insecurity forces us all, especially the child and the neurotic, to
leave the more obvious ways of induction and deduction and
to use such devices as the schematic fiction.
2. Safeguarding the Self-esteem

26. 3. Striving for Power
◦ “will to power” and “will to seem.”
◦ the neurotic strives for increased
possession, power, and influence, and for
the disparagement and cheating of other
persons.

27. 4. self-enhancement and the normal striving
◦ The normal individual strives toward
the perfection which benefits all.
◦ The views of Individual Psychology
demand the unconditional reduction of
striving for power and the development
of social interest.

28. c. Inferiority Feeling
1. the normal inferiority feeling
◦ Inferiority feelings are not in
themselves abnormal. They are the
cause of all improvements in the
position of mankind. Science itself,
for example

29. the abnormal inferiority feeling
◦ It is such children who
become the criminals,
problem children,
neurotics, and suicides.
They are lacking in social
interest and therefore in
courage and self-
confidence.
◦ burden and pessimistic
view originates also when
the environment is
unfavorable.

30. d. Drive Satisfaction
1. subordination of drives
◦ From where drive gets direction?
◦ nature, like the character, thinking,
feeling, volition, doubt, emotion, or
action, is a part of the self-consistent
personality, and as such depends on
the law of movement of the
individual.
◦ Children already possesses
readinesses, psychological gestures,
and attitudes

31. 2. subordination of pleasure and self-preservation
◦ all volition is
dominated by
feelings of pleasure
and displeasure.
◦ For self preservation

32. 3. Inferiority feeling as displeasure
◦ The feeling of one’s own
inferiority and unfitness, the
sense of weakness, of being
little, of insecurity, through
its inherent feelings of
displeasure and
dissatisfaction, becomes a
suitable basis for goal
striving in that it permits the
inner impulses to come
closer to a fictional final
goal.

34. Styles of Life

35. Pine tree in mountain and pine tree in valley
Example for “style of life “definition

36. ◦ As long as a person is in a favorable situation, we cannot see his style of life clearly. In new
situations, however, where he is confronted with difficulties, the style of life appears clearly and
distinctly.
b. Unity and Sovereignty of the Self
1. Unity and Sovereignty
• Conditioned reflexes or with innate abilities
of child in new problems.
• Unity in Self-consistency of individual is
called the style of life of the individual.

37. 2. creativity
◦ We concede that every child is born with
potentialities different from those of any other
child.
◦ purposeful movements require of him the
continuous adherence to a self-consistent goal.
3. The forgotten child
• Who moves the mental life ? and in which
direction does he move it? The mover is
always the self.
• This provocation and the child’s opinion of
life and opinion of himself are creations of
the mostly forgotten child.

38. C. Uniqueness and Subjectivity
1. The individual as the Variant
◦ The task of Individual Psychology is to
comprehend the individual variant.
◦ . It attempts to gain, from the separate life
manifestations and forms of expression the
picture of the self-consistent personality as a
variant, by presupposing the unity and self-
consistency of the individuality.
◦ The separate traits are then compared with one
another, are reduced to their common
denominator, and are combined in an
individualizing manner into a total portrait.

39. 2. Uniqueness of the goal
◦ The dynamic value of mental,
emotional, and attitudinal
movements consists of their
direction toward, or determination
by, a goal which has for the
individual the meaning of securing
for him what he regards as his
position in life.
◦ The goal of superiority with each
individual is personal and unique. It
depends upon the meaning he
gives to life

40. 3. The schema of Apperception
◦ a. Opinion of Oneself and the World.
The first four to five years are enough for the child to
complete his specific and arbitrary training in the face
of impressions from his body and the environment.
◦ b. The Complex as Attitudinal Position
The attitudinal position of a person includes the
development of psychological complexes for reasons
of psychological economy.

41. d. Development of the Style of Life
1. Origin (child gets movement in life striving for perfection, completion,
superiority, or evolution.)
2. Self-consistency(Once the goal of superiority has been made concrete, the
habit and symptoms towards goal is concrete.)
3. Constancy (When the prototype that early personality which embodies the
goal is formed, the line of direction is established and the individual becomes
oriented.)
4. Factors making for constancy and change (The child builds up
his whole life, which we have called concretely style of life, at a time when he has
neither adequate language nor adequate concepts. )

42. Fictional Finalism

43. A. Fictionalism
◦ forms of perception and thought, and certain concepts and
other logical constructs.
◦ Constructing, forming, giving shape, elaborating, presenting,
artistically fashioning, conceiving, thinking, imagining,
assuming, planning, devising, inventing.
The statement “All men are created equal” would be an
example of a fiction.

44. 2. Types of Fictions
1. Abstractive (Neglective).
1. Symbolic (Analogical)
2. Heuristic ([serving and facilitating discovery])
3. Practical (Ethical)
4. Aesthetic. (concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.)

45. Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal
◦ Provided by heredity and environment
◦ Product of creative power (ability to freely shape behavior and
create their own personality.
◦ The final goal reduces the pain of inferiority, feelings and points
that person in the direction of either superiority or success.)

46. Inferiority and fictional final goal

47. ◦ We all have a myriad of short, medium and
long-term goals in our lives, and all these goals
will have one thing in common. This is what
Adler referred to as the 'long-term goal' or the
'fictional final goal'.
◦ An example of a 'fictional final goal' might be: 'I
want to be good'; it is final, because it is the
ultimate achievement of our lives, and fictional
because we can never achieve it.
◦ The study of the long-term goal is called
teleology.

49. Reference
◦ Ansbacher, H. L., Ph.D., & Ansbacher, R. R., Ph.D (Eds.). (1956). The individual
psychology of Alfred Adler, (New York basic books, Inc. publishers).
◦ Colin Bret (Eds.). (1997). Understanding Life Alfred Adler, (One world Publications,
Inc. Publishers).

50. THANK YOU