Adler Alfred (1870-1937)
Individual Psychology
A Fictitious Memory
0. As an adult, Adler had a vivid memory of having to walk through a cemetery on his way to school as a five yearold, being terrified, and mastering his fear by running through the cemetery back and forth a number of times. 1. Later, when he was 35, he learned that there never had been a cemetery on his way to school, and thus, the whole memory was fictitious (= not factual, created unconsciously by the psyche).
Why did Adler construct such a memory?
2. When he was five, Adler almost died of pneumonia, but was then given treatment and recovered rapidly. That incident is was gave him the desire to become an MD when he grew up (which he did) 3. The fear of death stayed a predominant theme in Adlers life and work. 4. The construction of this memory was a way for his unconscious to express the manner in which he dealt with that fear.
Why does the unconscious create a fiction?
5. In Adlers view, the unconscious helps us problem solve. 6. The fear of death was more prevalent in Adlers psyche than he consciously knew. 7. Configuring that memory provides a possible model for action. In the memory, he faces and copes successfully with his fear, and showed courage and strength.
We always construct memories
0. If you doubt this, just compare some of your childhood recollections with your siblings and other family members. They may remember things quite differently than you do. There may be things you remember strongly and clearly that no one else does. Did these things happen? Only God would know for sure (unless it is the kind of thing for which you can find physical evidence) 1. Do some memory constructions give you information about your fears or important themes?
We construct helpful memories
8. Adler would say that we are constructing the kinds of memories which support us in our goals and struggles. 9. That also is, says Adler, how we are constructing dreams: dreams aim to create a mood that will prompt us into taking action when we wake up. 10. Question: How is that similar to/different from the way Freud and Jung looked at dreams?
The basic driving force for Adler is
11. The attempt to overcome death, to live constructively in the presence of death as a possibility
Overcoming Death Means
12. When we are afraid of death, we also fear the various forms of inferiority and vulnerability we experience (ex: disability, illness, not being good at something, being poor, being weak and small etc..) 13. Trying to hide our vulnerabilities or deny them is the UNHEALTHY response 14. Overcoming death means living constructively in the presence of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Ways to deal with our sense of inferiority
15. Compensatory striving: becoming stronger, better in some other way 16. Aggression and anger at ones problems, hostility (or its opposite, submission, passive aggression) 17. Overcompensation to feel competent and in control (Adler called this: masculine protest) 18. Perfection striving: seeking after a goal, or dream. Based on subjective, fictional ideas about life.
Find some examples of:
19. Compensatory striving 20. Compensatory anger 21. Overcompensation 22. Perfection striving Note that SOME of that can be energizing and helpful.
Inferiority and superiority traits serve the same goal
2. Which is to deal with ones vulnerabilities and inferiorities.
3. An overbearing, authoritarian, arrogant person is in fact insecure and exhibiting a superiority complex 4. An overly timid, submissive, conforming person, exhibiting an inferiority complex is insecure as well. 5. The two have chosen different strategies: attack vs withdrawal. Both have different subjective or fictional ideas about where safety lies.
Fictional goals: Vaihinger
23. Adler was influenced by a philosopher by the name of Hans Vaihinger who published a book entitled The Philosophy of As If 24. Fictions are subjective ways to represent reality in understandable, livable terms. They may be false, but they are useful. 25. For example, Vaihinger, who was a skeptic himself, said that behaving as if there were a God lent meaning to peoples lives.
Fictions in science and business
26. Physicists for example, sometimes behave "as if" electricity where a fluid, or "as if" light were discrete packets of energy. 27. Lawyers and others in the legal process behave as if corporations were individual persons. 28. In the financial world, trusts are treated as persons as well.
How do we create fictions?
29. Individuals create fictions that are unique them, to that help them cope etc 30. These fictions are created at least in part, in the unconscious, in response to unconscious needs or fears 31. We are not fully aware of the fictions and fictional goals underlying our actions and objectives.
Alfred Adler and religion
6. How does our concept of God fit with our desire to escape inferiority? 7. Why is a more "general" God as creative force etc. not as effective on a personal level according to Adler? 8. How might our concept of God influence our social interest? 9. Read what Adler has to say on religion
10. Read here about Adler's conversion to protestantism. What was the
motive do you think?
Alfred Adler and pastoral psychology
32. Read an article about the usefulness of the Adlerian approach in pastoral counseling 33. What do you think?
Our style of life
34. On the basis of our experience, biology, needs and fictions, we develop our own unique pattern of character. 35. Adler calls this pattern of character our style of life. 36. Some of our style of life is determined, but Adler introduces an element of free will, which he calls the creative power of the self, which allows us to develop a constructive life style within the limitations of our circumstances.
Neurotic strategies to approach life
11. Self absorption: centered on the self 12. Safeguarding strategies (defense mechanisms to avoid the anxiety of low self-esteem or the fear of challenges)
0. Excuses and rationalizations 1. Aggressive strategies: 0. Depreciation of others 1. Accusation and blaming 2. Distancing strategies: 2. Moving backward (somewhat like regression) 3. Standing still 4. Hesitation (i.e. procrastination) 5. Construction of obstacles
How does a person choose a life style?
37. Adler often used early recollections in therapy to help people see what patterns they adopted or interpretations they made. Insight into those may help change. For example: someones whose earliest memory is an accident that provoked a lot of attention, may have developed a pampered child approach, wanting to be the center of attention, avoiding autonomy etc. 38. Ones ordinal position within the family is also something Adler considered significant
Birth order
39. First Born: possible envy at having been dethroned, but
also may identify w/ parent and be a helper and mentor. Sets the pace for the others. Parents are more anxious 40. Second born: often more competitive. 41. Youngest child: more likely to be pampered, will be ambitious, but may be discouraged too, which results in laziness 42. Only child: often sweet and too dependent, a people pleaser.
What does it mean to be mentally healthy? Three essential components:
43. To work: vocational tasks, productive tasks of all kinds. T...