What is individual psychology?

Individual psychology is a rich body of ideas, but its fundamental tenet is that all the psychological processes of a person are organized into a unified, consistent whole, which in turn is operative in striving toward a unique self-ideal (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956). The former term in the above describes the person’s life-style, while the latter term refers to the fictional goal – so named because it is idealized rather than realistic.

Individual psychology thus stands in clear contrast to models that describe behavior in terms of competing levels of consciousness and incompatible drives within the individual, for example, the psychology of Freud: “For Freud, all human conflicts are intra-personal, caused by opposing conflicts within the personality structure…[f]or Adler, all problems and conflicts are inter-personal…Adler emphasizes the significance of the attitude toward others.” (Dreikurs, 1989, p. 3)

In fact, Adler wrote at length about the importance of one’s attitude toward others, terming it social interest. For Adler, when a person whose life-style lacks in social interest encounters external problems that require social interest for their solution, the result is one of the difficulties commonly termed neuroses, psychoses, etc. (Adler, 1982). Significantly, when this happens, both the life-style and the goal remain unchanged. As Adler stated, “…the failure shows the same style as the individual. As I mentioned before, the life-style persists.”  (Adler, 1982, p. 5) Similarly, Dreikurs (1989) stated that two seemingly inconsistent behaviors merely represent alternative ways of reaching the same goal, as for example, a child may choose either obedience or defiance as a means of gaining attention.

Make a Connection

The use of the word individual in individual psychology is a confusing translation. As Dreikurs (1989) stated, the word rendered in English as individual actually has the literal meaning of indivisible, or undivided. Thus a term more faithful to Adler’s meaning would have been something like indivisible psychology.

References

Adler, A. (1982). The fundamental views of individual psychology. Individual Psychology: The Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 38(1), 3-6. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Ansbacher, H. L., & Ansbacher, R. R. (Eds.). (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York: HarperPerennial.

Dreikurs, R. (1989). Fundamentals of Adlerian psychology. Chicago: Adler School of Professional Psychology.

Copyright © 2011 Leonard Snyder