Alfred Adler: Dolores Salvacion F. Tolentino, RGC Faculty, Graduate Program

Alfred Adler
Dolores Salvacion F. Tolentino, RGC

Faculty, Graduate Program
Adlerian’s Psychotherapy
• Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
• Austrian Psychiatrist
• 2nd child among 6 siblings (dethroned by the 3rd
sibling)
• Sickly (rickets; pneumonia)
• Earliest childhood memories – sibling rivalry,
jealousy
• Interests – family interaction & preventive
psychology
• Types of parenting that may lead to later problems:
pampering/ overprotecting child and neglecting child
View of Human Nature
• People can create their own personalities; they can change their
personality by developing new attitudes; responsible for their own
personalities; can transform their feelings of inadequacies into social
interests; can choose between psychological health and maladaptive
behavior; motivated by their striving to achieve their goals rather than
by innate instincts or causal forces
• Individuals’ perceptions of their early childhood events have an
important influence on the rest of their lives
View of Human Nature
• What we are now and how we relate to the world is a conscious

choice, not one that should be blamed on unconscious influences.
• Individuals’ development of feelings of inferiority is considered to be
part of the human condition and inevitable;
• Clients should not be analyzed from the perspective of urges and
drives but rather from the perspective of the total fields in which they
operate
• A person is an indivisible unity
Social Interest
• Individuals’ sense of being part of the human community and their attitudes
toward others
• Individuals seek to find their places in society; they also develop a sense of
belonging and of contributing
• Individuals’ ability to empathize with others: “to see with the eyes of another, to
hear with ears of another, to feel with the heart of another”.
• If developed adequately, we find solutions to problems, feel at home in the
world, and see things clearly; lead to solid mental health
• Provides us with a basically positive outlook on life and an interest in developing
the welfare of others; critical to the prevention of antisocial behavior
• Pathological lifestyles are marked by strivings that are self-centered, exploitative,
demanding, uncaring, and aggressive
Masculine Protest
• Can lead to men setting high, almost unattainable goals for
themselves; tend to develop pathological fantasies of grandeur (of
high social importance)
• One positive consequence of masculine protest in women is that

some women may strive very hard for superiority in their professional
fields, especially if such professions are dominated by males
Lifestyle
• Includes ours goals, our opinions of ourselves and the world, and the
habitual behaviors we use for achieving desired outcomes.
• Children create their own lifestyles by the age of 5; thereafter, it becomes
difficult for them to change their approaches to the world.
• Private Logic – the reasoning we invent to stimulate and justify our
lifestyles
• Errors in our private logic – mistaken beliefs or faulty interpretations
• Lifestyle convictions – statements constructed about the personal or
social conditions
• Self-Concept vs Ideal Self; if there is conflict – inferiority feelings develop
Lifestyle Convictions
1. The self-concept: The convictions I have about who I am
2. The ideal self: The convictions that pertain to what I should be or
am obligated to be in order to have a place in the world
3. The Weltbild, or “Picture of the World”: The convictions about the
not-self (e.g., world, people, nature, etc.)
4. The ethical convictions: The individual’s development of a personal
code of right and wrong
Four Lifestyles
1. Socially useful – tend to be mature, positive, well adjusted, and
courteous and considerate of others; do not strive for personal
superiority over others; seek ways to solve problems in ways that
are helpful to others; work for social and political change
2. Ruling type – active in seeking control over others; takes a
dominating and antisocial approach to society; juvenile delinquents
& criminals fall within this category
3. Getting type – they selfishly take without giving back; everybody
owes them something, but they owe nothing to anyone
4. Avoiding type – likely to have low social contact for fear of rejection
and defeat in any way
Goal-Directed and Purposeful Behavior
• All behavior is purposeful and goal-directed; has its own private logic,
which is usually located at the unconscious; PL affects the way we
think and feel about our purpose in life and the manner in which we
seek to achieve our fictional goals
• Children’s perceptions of their interactions within their families are
pivotal in their establishment of long-range goals.
• Example: Not loved by parents – goal in life might be to obtain love
from others regardless of the cost
• Help clients analyze clients’ goals and PL, important steps to helping
them lead more productive lives
Feelings of Inferiority
• All humans begin their psychological life with feelings of inferiority;

inevitable, universal and normal; all strivings are attempts to
overcome or to compensate for feelings of inferiority
• Inferiority complex (pervasive feeling)– presentation of the person to

himself and others that he is not strong enough to solve a given
problem in a socially useful way
Striving for Superiority
• Seek to compensate for feelings of inferiority; dominant theme in our
lives
• Superiority complex – tendency to inflate one’s own self-importance
to overcome feelings of inferiority; put others down to mask our own
negative feelings about ourselves
• Striving for superiority – struggle to achieve our places in life, and we
strive for perfection in achieving our goals
Fictional Finalism
• Any ideal or an absolute is usually a fiction
• Fictional goals develop during individual’s early childhood, and they
exist primarily at the unconscious level of awareness; influence the
way we think, feel, and act throughout our lives
Family Constellation
• Describe the composition of a family and one’s position
• We live in our own unique private worlds created by our own
perceptions
• It is not what we are that determines our behavior, but rather, it is
what we think we are that has the most impact on us.
• We develop expectations that become self-fulfilling prophecies
because we enact in our lives what we believe about ourselves and
other prople.
Birth Order
• Influenced our relationships with out parents, our interactions with
other family members, and the specific feelings of inferiority we
experienced in life.
• Placement of siblings – (1) the firstborn; (2) the second born; (3) the
middle child; (4) the youngest; and (5) the only child
• One of the major childhood social influences from which the child
creates a lifestyle
Theory of Life Tasks
• Appear to be universal and must be dealt with
• Central to our psychological development and mental health
1. Developing friendships with others
2. Realizing a loving relationship with another person
3. Working in a satisfying occupation
Goals of Therapy
• Help clients develop healthy lifestyles and overcome feelings of
inferiority
• Unhealthy lifestyle is self-centered and based on mistaken goals

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Alfred Adler

Dolores Salvacion F. Tolentino, RGC

• What we are now and how we relate to the world is a conscious

• One positive consequence of masculine protest in women is that

• All humans begin their psychological life with feelings of inferiority;

• Inferiority complex (pervasive feeling)– presentation of the person to

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