Alfred Adler 's Theories On Individual Psychology

Everybody is unique or special in one form or another and each personality has a theory. For many years psychologists have based theories upon individuals and I the writer will compare and contrast three well known psychologists Sigmund Freud, Alfred Alder, and Carl Jung. Sigmund Freud was one of the greatest psychologists in time he Alder and Jung’s theories were very similar but then again very different. Within these theories we will discuss characteristics with which I agree and disagree with, explore the stages of Freud’s theory explaining characteristics of personality using stage components

Freud’s view of human nature from a psychoanalytical stand point was he believed that the contents of an individual’s matters consciousness were determined by psychological, individual and biological motivations Freud, S. (2001).. His worldviews presented interpretations of who the individual was, where they came from, and what their destiny was. On the other hand, Rogers believed the psychoanalytical view humans as never free from primitive passions, childhood fixations, and only the product of powerful biological drives was not flexible enough. Rogers’s foundation of

If the Adlerian therapy is summarized, it can be added here that the therapy is more of a growth plan. One of the main facts that is stressed by the theory is that human beings are in control of their own nature and that there should be a positive view towards the nature. Views that an individual has towards his nature leads him in having a good or bad faith. Being a child, a certain kind of lifestyle is adopted by an individual and this kind of lifestyle goes on in a consistent manner throughout his life (Carlson, Watts, and Maniacci, 2006, p. 45).

Alfred Adler was born in 1870 in Austria and developed his own theory on Individual Psychology in 1912. Adler’s theory is closely related to Humanistic Psychology. Influenced by Freud, Smuts and Vaihinger, Adler based his theory on the client’s ability to live as a fully functioning adult in society. Adler’s holistic theory views each person as unified. Adler discussed birth order personality traits. Adler’s theory also discussed the roles therapists should take and the techniques that should be used in Individual Psychology therapy sessions.

Adlerian theory, also known as individual psychology, was developed by Alfred Adler in the twentieth century (Hess, Magnuson, & Beeler, 2012). He had been conceptualizing and finalizing his theory until about 1931 (Dunn, 1971). This was approximately around the same time Freud was working and becoming popular (Dunn, 1971). Adler is known as the father of the humanistic movement and created his theory in resistance to psychoanalysis and Freudian thinking (Dunn, 1971). Individual psychology asserts that the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Dunn, 1971). More specifically, people cannot be understood without understanding them in a social context (Dunn, 1971; Hess, Magnuson, & Beeler, 2012). Further, behavior cannot be understood in fragments, but needs to be understood in context of the whole person (who is understood within their social

Alfred Adler the founder of Adlerian psychology/psychotherapy believed that it was of the upmost importance to become closely associated with a person’s birth order parents background upbringing and education not to mention their lifestyle. This theory also focusses on a person need to be or feel accepted and to flourish in life. Adler was big on exploring early childhood because he believed that “everyone develops a life by the age 5 or 6.the pan which Adler calls it the lifestyle guides individuals’ enter lives” Murdock, N. L. (2009, pg111). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: a case approach. Boston: Pearson”.

Most of society thinks that a mentally healthy person is a person with a sound sense of self and someone who functions on a daily basis within the community without problems of any signs of a mental illness. For Adler, psychological health is determined by the level of social contribution beneficial to the greater community, to the degree, that one integrates and furthers the social context, thus the measurement of his or her mental health. Named after Alfred Adler, Adlerian theory primarily emphasizes concepts pertaining to inferiority and superiority, styles of life, family constellation and birth order, and

Alfred Adler was the founder of Adlerian Counseling. He was born in 1870 in the country of Austria. who gave his theory the name Individual Psychology, because he wanted people to see that his theory and methods were designed to help clients help themselves. He believed that everyone had and internal need to be a part of society, and a desire to contribute to that society. That everyone strives for perfection, and everyone initially feels inferior to everyone else. He believed that when that feeling is not overcome, inferiority complexes develop, and if a person tries to overcompensate for inferiority, the develop superiority complex.

This approach to therapy utilizes the framework of Individual Psychology, which ascertains that people should be understood holistically and human behavior is purposeful. Adlerian

Creating goals and striving to obtain those goals, Adler believed that human beings were social creatures by nature. Having healthy values that affect what goals individuals strive for, is what Adler thought was good mental health. Believing inferiority complexes affected self-esteem, it was the belief of Adler that an adverse effect would present in an individual's health and mental state. Dynamics of compensation and power go well beyond sexuality, and gender and politics are far more important than the libido. Adler was a socialist and a realist who emphasized the role of empathy in individuals.

This theory uses subjectivity for understanding the person. In order to understand the individual, we must understand his or her cognitions. Harold Mosak (1995) identifies five underlying assumptions to the Adlerian theory. He states, “a) the individual is unique, b) the individual is self-consistent, c) the individual is responsible, d) the person is creative, an actor, a chooser, and e) people in a soft-deterministic way can direct their own behavior and control their destinies” (Mosak, 1995, p.87). According to Adlerian theory, people strive to attain goals that provide them with a place in this world, in turn giving them security and enhancing self- esteem.

Adlerians believe that striving for superiority characterizes the final goal of every individual. Superiority, in Adlerian terms, means that there are various ways to strive for and find significance in one’s place in the community by creating personal strategies for achieving superiority (Fall, Holden, & Marquis, 2004). This became a major innovation of Adler using self-created goals as a source of motivation and dynamic functionalism. His emphasis on subjective future orientation as a guiding principle for psychic phenomena became a major innovation in conceptualizing human thinking, feeling, and action.

Adlerian theory, also referred to as individual psychology, stresses the need to understand individuals within their social context (Mosak & Maniacci, 2014). Interestingly, Alfred Adler gave his theoretical framework the name, Individual Psychology, which derives from the Latin term individuum. The meaning of individuum translates to “indivisible” and represents the holistic foundation of Adlerian theory (Mosak & Maniacci, 2014). Adlerians assume that every behavior has a purpose, causing them to focus on clients’ “style of life”, or consistent themes that occur throughout their life. Mosak and Maniacci (2014) describe Adler’s “style of life” as, “bias apperceptions about self, others, and the world from a self-consistent cognitive and attitudinal set which organizes and directs movement toward the goal” (p. 12). Accordingly, Adlerian concepts revolve around achieving the main tasks of life through cooperation rather than competition, in work, friendship, love, self-task, and spiritual task (Mosak & Maniacci, 2014). Furthermore, this theory focuses on influences that might encourage the development of exaggerated inferiority, and how these feelings can push people to better themselves in guiding the self-ideal and altering the way they strive toward success, such as through choices and level of responsibility.

Both Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler were pioneers and both had a phenomenal impact on the world of psychology. However, while they were raised in the same era, came from the same city and were educated at the same university, they had decidedly different views regarding personality theories (Schultz, 1990, p. 120). Freud and Adler were both colleagues in the psychoanalytic movement that Freud started. However, because of personality differences and vastly contrasting views about personality theories (Mosak & Maniacci, 1999, p.6) Adler left to begin his own faction, which he called Individual Psychology. It is my intention to briefly describe the main areas of their theories, compare and contrast their ideas of personality development, explore what types of experiences contributes to unhealthy development and what types of interventions they would have each prescribed to patients experiencing difficulties in their lives. However, while both Freud and Adler continue to influence many areas of contemporary personality psychology, only one of them can truly be called a humanitarian.

Hence, his theory developed overtime and changed in resonance to how Adler solved his internal and internal conflicts. In his early years, Adler focused more on how hunger for power and superiority motivated growth and striving for perfection. Later in his life, he shifter his focus toward social interest. Because of these changes some consider Adler’s theory inconsistent or even scientifically unreliable.