Editing Alfred Adler (section)

== Basic principles ==
Adler was influenced by the mental construct ideas of the philosopher [[Hans Vaihinger]] (''[[The Philosophy of 'As if']]'') and the literature of [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky|Dostoyevsky]]. While still a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society he developed a theory of organic inferiority and compensation that was the prototype for his later turn to phenomenology and the development of his famous concept, the inferiority complex.

Adler was also influenced by the philosophies of [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Rudolf Virchow]] and the statesman [[Jan Smuts]] (who coined the term "[[holism]]"). Adler's School, known as "Individual Psychology"—an arcane reference to the Latin ''individuals'' meaning indivisibility, a term intended to emphasize holism—is both a social and community psychology as well as a depth psychology. Adler was an early advocate in psychology for prevention and emphasized the training of parents, teachers, social workers and so on in democratic approaches that allow a child to exercise their power through reasoned decision making whilst co-operating with others. He was a social idealist, and was known as a socialist in his early years of association with psychoanalysis (1902–1911).<ref>{{cite journal|title=Alfred Adler's Influence on the Three Leading Cofounders of Humanistic Psychology |journal=[[Journal of Humanistic Psychology]] |date=September 1990}}</ref>

Adler was pragmatic and believed that lay people could make practical use of the insights of psychology. Adler was also an early supporter of [[feminism]] in psychology and the social world, believing that feelings of superiority and inferiority were often gendered and expressed symptomatically in characteristic masculine and feminine styles. These styles could form the basis of psychic compensation and lead to mental health difficulties. Adler also spoke of "safeguarding tendencies" and neurotic behavior<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Theory & Practice in Psychotherapy & Counseling |editor1-first=Jose A. |editor1-last=Fadul}}</ref> long before [[Anna Freud]] wrote about the same phenomena in her book ''The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense''.

Adlerian-based scholarly, clinical and social practices focus on the following topics:<ref>{{cite book|last=Griffith |first=Jane |title=The lexicon of Adlerian psychology: 106 terms associated with the individual psychology of Alfred Adler |date=2007 |publisher=Adlerian Psychology Association, Ltd., Publishers |others=Robert L. Powers, Jane Griffith |isbn=978-0-918287-10-6 |edition=2nd ed., rev. and expanded |location=Port Townsend, Wash., USA |oclc=180773812}}</ref>
* Social interest and community feeling
* Holism and the creative self
* Fictional finalism, teleology, and goal constructs
* Psychological and social encouragement
* Inferiority, superiority and compensation
* Life style/style of life
* Early recollections (a projective technique)
* Family constellation and birth order
* Life tasks and social embeddedness
* The conscious and unconscious realms
* Private logic and common sense (based in part on Kant's "{{lang|la|sensus communis}}")
* Symptoms and neurosis
* Safeguarding behavior
* Guilt and guilt feelings
* Socratic questioning
* Dream interpretation
* Child and adolescent psychology
* Democratic approaches to parenting and families
* Adlerian approaches to classroom management
* Leadership and organizational psychology

Adler created Adlerian Therapy, because he believed that one's psyche should be studied in the context of that person's environment.<ref>{{cite web|title=Adlerian Therapy {{!}} Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/adlerian-therapy |access-date=2021-06-24 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Adler's approach to personality ===
In one of his earliest and most famous publications, "Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation," Adler outlined the basics for what would be the beginning foundation of his personality theory. The article focuses mainly on the topics of organ inferiority and compensation. Organ inferiority is when one organ, or portion of the body, is weaker than the rest. Adler postulated that the body's other organs would work together in order to compensate for the weakness of this "inferior" organ. When compensation occurs, other areas of the body make up for the function lacking in the inferior portion. In some cases, the weakness may be overcompensated transforming it into a strength. An example would be an individual with a weak leg becoming a great runner later on. As his theory progressed, the idea of organ inferiority was replaced with feelings of inferiority instead. As Adler's theory progressed, he continued evolving his theory and key ideas.<ref name=":0" />

Adler's book, {{lang|de|Über den nervösen Charakter}} (''The Neurotic Character'') defines his earlier key ideas. He argued that human personality could be explained [[teleology|teleologically]]: parts of the individual's unconscious self ideally work to convert feelings of inferiority to superiority (or rather completeness).<ref>'Inferiority Complex', in Richard Gregory ed, ''The Oxford Companion to the Mind'' (1987) p. 368</ref> The desires of the self ideal were countered by social and ethical demands. If the corrective factors were disregarded and the individual overcompensated, then an inferiority complex would occur, fostering the danger of the individual becoming egocentric, power-hungry and aggressive or worse.<ref>Adler, ''Understanding'' Ch. 11 'Aggressive Character Traits'</ref>

Common therapeutic tools include the use of humor, historical instances, and paradoxical injunctions.<ref>Gerald Corey, ''Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy'' (1991)p. 155 and p. 385</ref>

=== Psychodynamics and teleology ===
Adler maintained that human psychology is psychodynamic in nature. Unlike Freud's metapsychology that emphasizes instinctual demands, human psychology is guided by goals and fueled by a yet unknown creative force. Like Freud's instincts, Adler's fictive goals are largely unconscious. These goals have a "teleological" function.<ref>Adler, ''Understanding'' p. 69-76</ref> Constructivist Adlerians, influenced by neo-Kantian and Nietzschean ideas, view these "teleological" goals as "fictions" in the sense that Hans Vaihinger spoke of (''fictio''). Usually there is a [[fictional final goal]] which can be deciphered alongside of innumerable sub-goals. The inferiority/superiority dynamic is constantly at work through various forms of compensation and overcompensation. For example, in [[anorexia nervosa]] the fictive final goal is to "be perfectly thin" (overcompensation on the basis of a feeling of inferiority). Hence, the fictive final goal can serve a persecutory function that is ever-present in subjectivity (though its trace springs are usually unconscious). The end goal of being "thin" is fictive, however, since it can never be subjectively achieved.

Teleology serves another vital function for Adlerians. Chilon's "hora telos" ("see the end, consider the consequences") provides for both healthy and maladaptive psychodynamics. Here we also find Adler's emphasis on personal responsibility in mentally healthy subjects who seek their own and the social good.

=== Constructivism and metaphysics ===
As a psychodynamic system, Adlerians excavate the past of a client/patient in order to alter their future and increase integration into community in the 'here-and-now'.<ref name="Adler, Understanding p. 139-42">Adler, ''Understanding'' p. 139-42</ref> The 'here-and-now' aspects are especially relevant to those Adlerians who emphasize humanism and/or existentialism in their approaches.

=== Holism ===
Metaphysical Adlerians emphasize a spiritual [[holism]] in keeping with what [[Jan Smuts]] articulated (Smuts coined the term "holism"), that is, the spiritual sense of one-ness that holism usually implies (etymology of holism: from ὅλος holos, a Greek word meaning all, entire, total) <!-- traced to Holy-ness (doubt this)--><!-- agree, Greek for "holy" as in sacred etc is άγιος (hagios); tendency for non-etymologists to link words via sound or spelling & create their own trace - always questionable--> Smuts believed that evolution involves a progressive series of lesser wholes integrating into larger ones. Whilst Smuts' text ''Holism and Evolution'' is thought to be a work of science, it actually attempts to unify evolution with a higher metaphysical principle (holism). The sense of connection and one-ness revered in various religious traditions (among these, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Buddhism and Baha'i) finds a strong complement in Adler's thought.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Classical Adlerian Quotes on Religion and Spirituality – Alfred Adler Institute of Northwestern Washington |url=http://www.adlerian.us/qu-relig2.htm |access-date=2022-09-28 |website=www.adlerian.us}}</ref>

The pragmatic and materialist aspects to contextualizing members of communities, the construction of communities and the socio-historical-political forces that shape communities matter a great deal when it comes to understanding an individual's psychological make-up and functioning. This aspect of Adlerian psychology holds a high level of synergy with the field of [[community psychology]], especially given Adler's concern for what he called "the absolute truth and logic of communal life".<ref>Adler, ''Understanding'' p. 209</ref> However, Adlerian psychology, unlike community psychology, is holistically concerned with both prevention and clinical treatment after-the-fact. Hence, Adler can be considered the "first community psychologist", a discourse that formalized in the decades following Adler's death (King & Shelley, 2008).

Adlerian psychology, [[Carl Jung]]'s [[analytical psychology]], [[Gestalt therapy]] and [[Karen Horney]]'s [[Psychodynamics|psychodynamic]] approach are holistic schools of psychology. These discourses eschew a reductive approach to understanding human psychology and psychopathology.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.alfredadler.org/what-is-an-adlerian |title=What is an Adlerian? |website=www.alfredadler.org |access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref>

=== Typology ===
Adler developed a scheme of so-called personality types, which were however always to be taken as provisional or [[Wikt:Transwiki:Heurism|heuristic]] since he did not, in essence, believe in personality types, and at different times proposed different and equally tentative systems.<ref>Henri F. Ellenberger, ''The Discovery of the Unconscious'' (1970) p. 624</ref> The danger with typology is to lose sight of the individual's uniqueness and to gaze reductively, acts that Adler opposed. Nevertheless, he intended to illustrate patterns that could denote a characteristic governed under the overall style of life. Hence American Adlerians such as Harold Mosak have made use of Adler's typology in this provisional sense:<ref>H. H. Mosak/M. Maniacci, ''A Primer of Adlerian Psychology'' (1999) p. 64-5</ref>
* The '''Getting''' or '''Leaning''' They are sensitive people who have developed a shell around themselves which protects them, but they must rely on others to carry them through life's difficulties. They have low energy levels and so become dependent. When overwhelmed, they develop what we typically think of as neurotic symptoms: phobias, obsessions and compulsions, general anxiety, hysteria, amnesias, and so on, depending on individual details of their lifestyle.
* The '''Avoiding''' types are those that hate being defeated. They may be successful, but have not taken any risks getting there. They are likely to have low social contact in fear of rejection or defeat in any way.
* The '''Ruling''' or '''Dominant''' type strive for power and are willing to manipulate situations and people, anything to get their way. People of this type are also prone to anti-social behavior.
* The '''Socially Useful''' types are those who are very outgoing and very active. They have a lot of social contact and strive to make changes for the good.

These 'types' are typically formed in childhood and are expressions of the Style of Life.

=== The importance of memories ===
Adler placed great emphasis upon the interpretation of early memories in working with patients and school children, writing that, "Among all psychic expressions, some of the most revealing are the individual's memories."<ref>Adler, Alfred. ''What Life Could Mean to You''. 1998, Hazelden Foundation. Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden. 58.</ref> Adler viewed memories as expressions of "private logic" and as metaphors for an individual's personal philosophy of life or "lifestyle". He maintained that memories are never incidental or trivial; rather, they are chosen reminders: "(A person's) memories are the reminders she carries about with her of her limitations and of the meanings of events. There are no 'chance' memories. Out of the incalculable number of impressions that an individual receives, she chooses to remember only those which she considers, however dimly, to have a bearing on her problems."<ref>Adler, Alfred. ''What Life Could Mean to You''. 1998, Hazelden Foundation. Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden. 58–59.</ref>

=== On birth order ===
Adler often emphasized one's psychological [[birth order]] as having an influence on the [[style of life]] and the strengths and weaknesses in one's psychological make up.<ref>Adler, ''Understanding'' Ch 9 "The Family Constellation"</ref> Birth order referred to the placement of siblings within the family. It is important to note the difference between psychological and ordinal birth order (e.g. in some families, a second child might behave like a firstborn, in which case they are considered to be an ordinal secondborn but a psychological firstborn). [[Mosak, H.H. & Maniacci, M. P. (1999). A primer of Adlerian Psychology. Taylor and Francis.]] Adler believed that the firstborn child would be in a favorable position, enjoying the full attention of the eager new parents until the arrival of a second child. This second child would cause the first born to suffer feelings of dethronement, no longer being the center of attention. Adler (1908) believed that in a three-child family, the oldest child would be the most likely to suffer from [[neuroticism]] and substance addiction which he reasoned was a compensation for the feelings of excessive responsibility "the weight of the world on one's shoulders" (e.g. having to look after the younger ones) and the melancholic loss of that once supremely pampered position. As a result, he predicted that this child was the most likely to end up in jail or an asylum. Youngest children would tend to be overindulged, leading to poor social empathy. Consequently, the middle child, who would experience neither dethronement nor overindulgence, was most likely to develop into a successful individual yet also most likely to be a rebel and to feel squeezed-out. Adler himself was the third (some sources credit second) in a family of six children.

Adler never produced any scientific support for his interpretations on birth order roles, nor did he feel the need to. Yet the value of the hypothesis was to extend the importance of siblings in marking the psychology of the individual beyond Freud's more limited emphasis on the mother and father. Hence, Adlerians spend time therapeutically mapping the influence that siblings (or lack thereof) had on the psychology of their clients. The [[Nomothetic and idiographic|idiographic]] approach entails an excavation of the phenomenology of one's birth order position for likely influence on the subject's Style of Life. In sum, the subjective experiences of sibling positionality and inter-relations are important in terms of the dynamics of psychology, for Adlerian therapists and personality theorists, not the cookbook predictions that may or may not have been objectively true in Adler's time.

For Adler, birth order answered the question, "Why do children, who are raised in the same family, grow up with very different personalities?" While a strict geneticist, believing siblings are raised in a shared environment, may claim any differences in personality would be caused by subtle variations in the individuals' genetics, Adler showed through his birth order theory that children do not grow up in the same shared environment, but the oldest child grows up in a family where they have younger siblings, the middle child with older and younger siblings, and the youngest with older siblings. The position in the family constellation, Adler said, is the reason for these differences in personality and not genetics: a point later taken up by [[Eric Berne]].<ref>Eric Berne, ''What Do You Say After You Say Hello?'' (1975) p. 71-81</ref>

=== On addiction ===
Adler's insight into birth order, compensation and issues relating to the individuals' perception of community also led him to investigate the causes and treatment of [[substance abuse]] disorders, particularly [[alcoholism]] and [[morphinism]], which already were serious social problems of his time. Adler's work with addicts was significant since most other prominent proponents of psychoanalysis invested relatively little time and thought into these widespread ills of the modern and post-modern age. In addition to applying his [[individual psychology]] approach of organ inferiority, for example, to the onset and causes of addictive behaviors, he also tried to find a clear relationship of drug cravings to sexual gratification or their substitutions. Early pharmaco-therapeutic interventions with non-addictive substances, such as [[theophylline|neuphyllin]] were used, since withdrawal symptoms were explained by a form of "water-poisoning" that made the use of diuretics necessary.

Adler and his wife's pragmatic approach, and the seemingly high success rates of their treatment were based on their ideas of social functioning and well-being. Clearly, life style choices and situations were emphasized, for example the need for relaxation or the negative effects of early childhood conflicts were examined, which compared to other authoritarian or religious treatment regimens, were clearly modern approaches. Certainly some of his observations, for example that psychopaths were more likely to be drug addicts are not compatible with current methodologies and theories of substance abuse treatment, but the self-centered attributes of the illness and the clear escapism from social responsibilities by pathological addicts put Adler's treatment modalities clearly into a modern contextual reasoning.<ref>Adler, A. (1932). [https://books.google.com/books?id=f5YwkF5LM8MC&pg=PA62&q=narcotic%20abuse%20and%20alcohilism Narcotic Abuse and Alcoholism], Chapter VII. p. 50-65. The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler: Journal articles: 1931–1937. Transl. by G.L.Liebenau. T.Stein (2005). {{ISBN|0-9715645-8-2}}.</ref>

=== On homosexuality ===
{{further|Homosexuality and psychology}}
Adler's ideas regarding non-[[heterosexual]] sexuality and various social forms of deviance have long been controversial. Along with prostitution and criminality, Adler had classified 'homosexuals' as falling among the "failures of life". In 1917, he began his writings on homosexuality with a 52-page magazine, and sporadically published more thoughts throughout the rest of his life.

The Dutch psychologist [[Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg]] underlines how Alfred Adler came to his conclusions for, in 1917, Adler believed that he had established a connection between homosexuality and an inferiority complex towards one's own gender. This point of view differed from Freud's theory that homosexuality is rooted in [[narcissism]] or [[Jung]]'s view of expressions of contrasexuality vis-à-vis the archetypes of the [[Anima and Animus]].

There is evidence that Adler may have moved towards abandoning the hypothesis. Towards the end of Adler's life, in the mid-1930s, his opinion towards homosexuality began to shift. Elizabeth H. McDowell, a New York state family social worker recalls undertaking supervision with Adler on a young man who was "[[Cohabitation|living in sin]]" with an older man in New York City. Adler asked her, "Is he happy, would you say?" "Oh yes," McDowell replied. Adler then stated, "Well, why don't we leave him alone."<ref>Manaster, Painter, Deutsch, and Overholt, 1977, pp. 81–82</ref>

According to novelist [[Phyllis Bottome]], who wrote Adler's ''Biography'' (after Adler himself laid that task upon her): 
<blockquote>
"He always treated homosexuality as lack of courage. These were but ways of obtaining a slight release for a physical need while avoiding a greater obligation. A transient partner of your own sex is a better known road and requires less courage than a permanent contact with an "unknown" sex.... Adler taught that men cannot be judged from within by their "possessions," as he used to call nerves, glands, traumas, drives et cetera, since both judge and prisoner are liable to misconstrue what is invisible and incalculable; but that he can be judged, with no danger from introspection, by how he measures up to the three common life tasks set before every human being between the cradle and the grave: work (employment), love or marriage (intimacy), and social contact (friendships.)"<ref>"Alfred Adler: A Biography", G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York (copyright 1939), chap. Chief Contributions to Thought, subchap. 7, The Masculine Protest, and subchap. 9, Three Life Tasks, page 160.</ref>
</blockquote>

=== Parent education ===
Adler emphasized both treatment and prevention. With regard to psychodynamic psychology, Adlerians emphasize the foundational importance of childhood in developing personality and any tendency towards various forms of psychopathology. The best way to inoculate against what are now termed "personality disorders" (what Adler had called the "neurotic character"), or a tendency to various neurotic conditions (depression, anxiety, etc.), is to train a child to be and feel an equal part of the family. 

The responsibility of the optimal development of the child is not limited to the mother or father, but rather includes teachers and society more broadly. Adler argued therefore that teachers, nurses, social workers, and so on require training in parent education to complement the work of the family in fostering a democratic character. When a child does not feel equal and is enacted upon (abused through pampering or neglect) he or she is likely to develop inferiority or superiority complexes and various concomitant compensation strategies.<ref>Adler, ''Understanding'' p. 44-5</ref> These strategies exact a social toll by seeding higher divorce rates, the breakdown of the family, criminal tendencies, and subjective suffering in the various guises of psychopathology. Adlerians have long promoted parent education groups, especially those influenced by the famous Austrian/American Adlerian [[Rudolf Dreikurs]] (Dreikurs & Soltz, 1964).
{{Further|Individual education}}

=== Spirituality, ecology and community ===
In a late work, ''Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind'' (1938), Adler turns to the subject of [[metaphysics]], where he integrates Jan Smuts' evolutionary holism with the ideas of teleology and community: "''[[sub specie aeternitatis]]''". Unabashedly, he argues his vision of society: "Social feeling means above all a struggle for a communal form that must be thought of as eternally applicable... when humanity has attained its goal of perfection... an ideal society amongst all mankind, the ultimate fulfillment of evolution."<ref>''Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind'', Alfred Adler, 1938, translated by Linton John, Richard Vaughan, p. 275</ref> Adler follows this pronouncement with a defense of metaphysics:

{{blockquote|I see no reason to be afraid of metaphysics; it has had a great influence on human life and development. We are not blessed with the possession of absolute truth; on that account we are compelled to form theories for ourselves about our future, about the results of our actions, etc. Our idea of social feeling as the final form of humanity – of an imagined state in which all the problems of life are solved and all our relations to the external world rightly adjusted – is a regulative ideal, a goal that gives our direction. This goal of perfection must bear within it the goal of an ideal community, because all that we value in life, all that endures and continues to endure, is eternally the product of this social feeling.<ref>''Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind'', Alfred Adler, 1938, translated by Linton John, Richard Vaughan, pp. 275–276</ref>}}

This social feeling for Adler is ''Gemeinschaftsgefühl'', a community feeling whereby one feels he or she belongs with others and has also developed an ecological connection with nature (plants, animals, the crust of this earth) and the cosmos as a whole, sub specie aeternitatis. Clearly, Adler himself had little problem with adopting a metaphysical and spiritual point of view to support his theories.