Alfred Adler (February 7, 1870 - May 28, 1937) was a physician, psychotherapist and founder of the School of Individual Psychology. He began his career as an ophthalmologist but after deepening his studies of mind and psychology he became one of the most influential psychologists with the most contributions in psychoanalysis.
His emphasis on the importance of feelings of inferiority - inferiority complex - is recognized as an element that plays a key role in the development of personality. Adler considered the human being as an individual whole, so he called his psychology"Individual Psychology".
He is considered the first community psychologist because his work was a pioneer in attention to community life, prevention and health of the population. Adlerian psychology emphasizes human need and the ability to create positive social change.
After graduating as a doctor at the University of Vienna in 1895, he began his career as an ophthalmologist, but soon changed to general practice in a less prosperous area of Vienna, near an amusement park and a circus.
Working with circus people, Adler was inspired by the unusual strengths and weaknesses of the performers. It has been suggested that Adler began to develop his ideas about compensation and inferiority during this time.
After developing his theories, he was invited by Sigmund Freud To join an informal discussion group that would then become the Society of Wednesday And would serve as a matrix for Psychoanalytic Society of Vienna . Adler was a respected and respected psychoanalyst in Freud's inner circle.
Although it was part of this circle, Adler was never a follower of Freud; His treatment was always that of colleagues in the same terms.
Adler always maintained his own ideas despite subscribing to the theory of psychoanalysis, but when he separated from the inner circle in 1911, along with other important psychoanalysts as Carl Jung , Dedicated himself to work on his own theory with more zeal, founding the Society for Individual Psychology in 1912.
After World War I, Adler was dedicated to deepen his theory and spread it, becoming a guest academic both in Europe and the United States.
Adler's Individual Psychology: Basic Principles
The name of Psychology individual Does not refer to an individual, but rather to the contrary: it is a psychology in which social factors are of particular importance, since Adler considered humanity as an individual and indivisible whole.
From his divergences with Freud and Psychoanalysis, Adler left the position on the primacy of sexuality and libido as determinants of the soul life and formulated another where the individual assessment of the world is the most determinant.
Adler considered that a person is in confrontation on three different fronts: the social, the loving and the vocational. These three forces confronting us determine the nature of the personality .
He based his theories on the child's development of the person, an inheritance of psychoanalysis. It focused mainly on areas such as physical disabilities at birth, birth order and others.
His theory shares ideas with the Humanistic Psychology of Abraham Maslow , Who has recognized Adler's influence on his own theories. Both argue that the individual himself is best able to determine his own needs, desires, interests and growth.
The theory of compensation, resignation and overcompensation
The personality of an individual is derived from factors External . The character of the individual is formed by his response in the following ways:
Compensation . When a person suffers from disadvantages that make him inferior to others, his main goal becomes to neutralize such disadvantages. Those who achieve this goal successfully succeed in their lives both socially and individually.
Resignation . Those who admit their disadvantages and are reconciled with them. They tend to be the majority of people and their attitude towards the world around them is relaxed and a little disinterested.
Overcompensation . People who are obsessed with the idea of compensating for their disadvantages are left in too much for their quest to reach the goal. These are the ones who become neurotic.
The personality according to Adler
According to Adler, human personality could be teleologically explained as parts of the individual's unconscious work to convert feelings of inferiority into those of superiority or completeness. These desire desires are counteracted by social and ethical demands.
When these demands are obviated and the individual is overcompensated an inferiority complex develops, a germ of the possible danger of developing an egocentric, power hungry or aggressive character.
Psychodynamics
Human psychology is by nature psychodynamic. Unlike psychoanalysis that emphasized drive demands, Adler argues that the psyche is goal-driven and nurtured by an unknown creative force.
The goals of the individual are unconscious. But they have a teleological function. These can be Fiction Which have real value for the individual and the final goal can be composed of innumerable sub-goals.
At all times the dynamics of inferiority-superiority is at stake through mechanisms of compensation and over-compensation. For example, in the Anorexia nervosa The final (fictional) goal is to be Perfectly thin , Otherwise unattainable, since it can never be reached subjectively.
Holism
For individual psychology the context is very relevant in individual psychological functioning and growth. The context of the members of the community, the construction of these communities, and the sociohistorical and political forces that shape them have special importance and influence on the individual.
This holistic view of the subject is due in large part to the influence of the theory of Holism Of Jan Smuts, who considered that the evolution came from the progressive integration of complete smaller entities towards larger entities.
This holistic view would then be taken up by Community Psychology, although individual psychology focused rather on prevention and treatment at the individual level.
Typology
According to Individual Psychology there are Schemes from Personality types , Although they are not considered fixed but rather heuristic or provisional solutions to the problems that arise in the life of the individual.
Rather, they are patterns of behavior that can emerge as ways of dealing with the dynamics of inferiority-superiority. They are expressions of the Lifestyle .
- Inclined to receive . They are sensitive people who have developed a breastplate that protects them from the world around them but they need others to help them in the difficulties they encounter. They can become easily dependent and develop symptoms such as phobias, compulsions, anxiety, etc.
- Evasive . People who avoid taking risks or facing difficulties. They do not like being defeated and avoid having social contact for fear of rejection or feeling defeat. They can be successful but they did not take any risk to reach that position.
- Dominant . It seeks power and is willing to manipulate situations or people to achieve its purpose. They show authoritarian attitudes and are prone to antisocial behavior.
- Socially useful . They are extroverted and very active. They have a lot of social contact and seek the common good in balance with the individual.
The"types"of personality are generally determined in childhood and birth order.
The memories
Another inheritance of psychoanalysis, in the Individual Psychology the memories - especially those of childhood - have great importance in the therapeutic work.
According to Adler, memories are the expression of the"private"logic of the individual, constituting metaphors of his philosophy of life.
Memories are never trivial, they are unconsciously chosen as reminders of limitations or the meaning of events, the subject chooses to remember that which has some relevance with his current life or his problems.
Birth order
As stated above, the order of birth within a family determines in part the lifestyle and personality type of each individual.
In studying the effects of order on individual life, Adler sought to answer the question of why children, despite being raised in the same family and supposedly in the same shared environment, develop different personalities.
At the time it was believed that these differences were due rather to small genetic variations.
However, Adler showed that siblings actually grow in different environments: the older one grows in a family than with younger siblings, the middle one with older and younger siblings and the younger one with older siblings. Therefore, it is the family constellation that explains the differences between siblings.
The firstborn has a favorable position to obtain the attention of the new parents until the arrival of the second son, who would enhance feelings of destrono and sadness for not being the center of attention.
The eldest is the child most prone to neurotizing and developing addictions as compensation for their feelings of supposed excessive responsibility over their siblings and the loss of their previous privileges.
The second son (or the middle) is the one who would most likely be a happy individual since he did not have an experience of dethroning and was not consented to, although it is common for him to become rebellious and to feel sidelined.
The younger son is prone to being cocky, self-conscious and hyperactive. He will become dependent on others since he always had his brothers who supported him and helped in his affairs. It will be who will have more difficulty adapting to adult life.
Teleology
Adler asserted that all individuals had an idea of what their ideal being would look like. This image of her called her Fictional finalism . This finalism (or teleology) gives a clearer direction on the decisions that the individual makes about himself.
Behavior is a movement towards a goal and not the reaction to a stimulus, a common position both in time and at the same time. The individual is motivated by his quest for completeness to try to become more and more perfect.
The conscious and the unconscious work in unison in order to reach the fictional finalism, dissenting with his former colleague Freud , Who put them both as separate and sometimes even antagonistic entities.
The ultimate goal of the individual is to achieve perfection, otherwise unattainable goal but whose fiction motivates to surpass itself.
Inferiority complex
Having built the concept of teleology In which the individual has a motivation that leads him to act in order to reach his goal, Adler was asked the question about why much of the population remains however Unsatisfied and far from achieving perfection .
His answer is that we are all born with a Feeling of inferiority Since as infants we are defenseless beings and dependent on another that guarantees our existence. It is a feeling of being worth little or nothing as a person, being incomplete or wrong.
Children go through their inferiority by fantasizing about becoming adults, becoming adept in other aspects or improving those in which they are inferior. However, those to whom the sense of inferiority is overwhelming develop a Inferiority complex .
The symptoms of this complex are timidity and insecurity, indecision, cowardice, submission, etc., feelings and behaviors that demonstrate a low self-esteem. A person with a Complex of Inferiority tends to be egocentric and lack interest in the social.
One way to compensate for this complex is to develop another, the Superiority complex Where the individual hides his feelings of inferiority by acting as if he were superior to others. The child who does bullying Is a clear example: he tries to hide his own insecurities by making others feel the way he feels.
Of adults, those with Complex of Superiority can become highly intolerant and discriminatory, developing feelings of xenophobia, homophobia, etc.
Method of Individual Psychology
The individual psychologist works to discover the values and assumptions of the patient. It is the responsibility of the therapist to guide the individual to know their own mistakes and guide them towards a more socially useful lifestyle.
The therapy seeks to establish a climate of optimism, support and learning. The techniques can be varied and the individual psychology does not advocate one. Their priority is first to alleviate suffering and then to promote positive change and empowerment of the individual.
conclusion
Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology has had a great impact on current psychology and has influenced schools of thought as diverse as Cognitive-behavioral therapy And the Psychology of the Ego.
His theories have been absorbed both academically and popularly, often without being recognized as his own.
References
- Adler, A.: The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1929.
- Adler, A.: The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler. Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1964.
- Adler, A.: Superiority and Social Interest: Collection of Subsequent Writings. W. W. Norton, New York, 1964.