1. The basic human dynamic is a striving from a felt minus position to a felt plus position.
2. This striving is directed by a self-created goal, or self-ideal. The goal is idealized and therefore is fictional.
3. The goal is dimly understood and thus mostly unknown; the unknown part represents the “unconscious”.
4. The goal is the final cause of behavior, and is central to understanding the individual.
5. All the psychological processes of an individual form a consistent, goal-oriented unity, which is the individual’s life-style.
6. All apparent psychological constructs and factors, such as drives, intrapsychic conflicts, biology, and history, establish propensities only. They are applied by the individual in accordance with the life-style.
7. The life-style includes the individual’s opinions of himself, others, and the world, which influence every psychological process.
8. Individuals can only be understood in their social contexts. Problems and values are socially based.
9. Social interest, which is the individual’s positive attitude toward others, is an innate human ability but must be developed in order for effective social adjustment.
10. Maladjustment results from a lack of social interest, feelings of inferiority, and socially useless goals. The result is one of the difficulties commonly termed neuroses, psychoses, etc.
Make a Connection
Do these assertions seem to accurately describe the human condition? Do you take issue or find any of them to be inadequate?
References
Ansbacher, H. L., & Ansbacher, R. R. (Eds.). (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York: HarperPerennial.
Silverman, N. N., & Corsini, R. J. (1984). Is it true what they say about Adler's individual psychology?. Teaching of Psychology, 11(3), 188-189. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Copyright © 2011 Leonard Snyder
When I read assertions nine and ten, it reminded of something I recently read in Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes by Doyle, Sipe, and Wall. In 1972 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops published a report that found that "two thirds of Catholic priests in the United States were underdeveloped emotionally and only one-tenth were developed." It seems to me that underdevelopment, maladjustment, and a negative attitude towards others all come together in a situation like the Catholic Church sex scandal.
ReplyDeleteYou call attention to a complex issue that I don’t pretend to fully understand. Rooted in individual responsibility, as is all human behavior, the issue is also social, obviously. I believe Friberg and Laaser were relevant when they wrote:
ReplyDelete"...Alfred Adler described a healthy person using a complex German word (Gemeinschaftsgefüehl). Literally this means a feeling for society; more broadly it denotes a sensitivity to the whole social fabric...In contrast, immature, selfish love is such that in certain cases it attempts to conquer, thus ruling out genuinely and mutually beneficial relationships...Our use of power, therefore, is bound up in this whole process of seeking what we need. Adler linked healthy personality development to a sense of personal potency… However, until we understand how [personal potency] and love are related in our seeking of intimacy, particularly in healthy mutual sexuality, we have not solved our problem of understanding the way people cross sexual boundaries inappropriately...the issue of power obviously is relevant here because individuals develop within systems and are influenced in their individuality by those systems." (1998, p. 39-40)
Friberg, N., & Laaser, M. R. (1998). Before the fall: Preventing pastoral sexual abuse. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.