Something Old is Something New: A Brief Introduction to Adlerian

2013

Alfred Adler is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers in psychotherapy. Yet, many of Adler’s writings, and ideas have long since been abandoned or given little if any regard. As a physician, psychiatrist, professor, author, husband and father he concerned himself with answering the hard questions that plagued humanity during a tumultuous time in history. His theory of Individual Psychology explores the holistic and phenomenological orientation of human personality and behavior, and ties personal growth and achievement to social interest. He considered social interest as the pinnacle of psychological health, and identified behavior as the driving force, rather than the Freudian determinants of sex and libido. Although Adlerian psychology has been neglected for decades, it is gaining visibility in the 21st century; Adler’s impact on psychology is unmistakable, his theory of individual psychology have organic and spiritual implications that are far reaching, and continue to provide insights that remain relevant today. This research paper will explore the insights, influences, and the organic and spiritual congruence of Adler’s Theory of Individual Psychology.

Adler: Individual Psychology Adler's individual psychology presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind. Because of this breach in beliefs, the relationship between Freud and Adler was tenuous. Freud saw all human motivation reduced to sex and aggression while Adler saw people as being motivated mostly by social influences and the striving for superiority or success. Freud assumed that people have little or no choice in shaping their personality whereas Adler believed that people are largely responsible for who they are. Freud's assumption that present behavior is caused by past experiences was directly opposed to Adler's notion that present behavior is shaped by people's view of the future. Freud placed very heavy emphasis on unconscious components of behavior while Adler believed that psychologically healthy people are aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it.

The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 2016

The authors explored foundational principles of Individual Psychology through a neuroscience lens. In particular, the authors identified neuroscience support for the principles of social embeddedness, purposefulness of behavior, and holism. The authors also offered suggestions for expanding Adlerian theory through the integration of neuroscience-informed developmental theory, conceptualization of functionality, and interventions.

Developmental psychology stems from the evolutionary biology and treats human development within individual life cycle as if it would be an ontogenetic development. As a result the individual persons' development is taken to be a maturation of their organisms' adaptation abilities. Human mind is conceived to be an innate set of functions the organism is designed to perform and the mind development is depicted to be a progress to possibly reaching their full potential level and a regress after a period of maintaining it at the highest reached level.

Adlerian psychology, also known as Individual Psychology (IP), is characterized by only a few basic concepts that come together to describe a unified picture of the human condition. There are many terms associated with IP, but those terms only make well-defined sense when one is comfortable with the basic concepts. Indeed, people can embrace many of the terms without understanding the theory, but this can lead to misunderstandings of the theory and less than optimal use of the treatment approach. Once the language and the theory of personality are comprehended, the practical applications are more readily and accurately understood. In the following sections, the basic concepts and terms of IP (presented in bolded text) are described and associated with the process of development, the task of child-guidance, to the emergence of psychopathology and its treatment and to the general understanding of the human condition. Law of Movement – This phrase refers to the understanding that all humans exist in a constant state of movement; when movement ends, life ends. A full understanding of the law of movement requires an appreciation of Striving. In this state of constant movement, each person is striving for feelings of security and validation. Safety is needed relative to physical threats, minimization of life burdens and protection of psychological integrity. Validation is related to the need for value, contentment, joy, peace, fun, status, etc. To reach these basic goals, it is necessary for the person to develop strategies for identifying and overcoming the inevitable challenges of life and that he or she find sources of validation. This seemingly simple description is at the core of the human condition. Indeed, this idea goes beyond the human condition and explains, with some species-specific modification, the condition of all living organisms. The most important characteristic of life is movement… Once we see psychic expression as movement, we approach an understanding of the problem; for the chief characteristic of a movement is that it must have direction and therefore, a goal.

A science of the individual encounters the unparalleled challenges of exploring the unique phenomena of the psyche and their workings. This article applies the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) to specify these challenges. Considering three metatheoretical properties—1) location in relation to the individual’s body, 2) temporal extension and 3) physicality versus “non-physicality”—that can be conceived for various kinds of phenomena explored in individuals (e.g., behaviours, experiencings, semiotic representations), the TPS-Paradigm scrutinises these phenomena’s perceptibility by individuals. From this metatheoretical perspective, the article traces developmental pathways in which psychical phenomena enable individuals to increasingly become actors—as single individuals, communities and species. The explorations first follow microgenetic and ontogenetic pathways in the development of perceptual and psychical representations of the physical phenomena encountered in life. Then the article explores how individually developed psychical properties, which are perceptible only by the individual him- or herself, can be communicated to other individuals and how individuals can develop psychical representations that are socially shared, thus enabling social coordination and the transmission of knowledge to subsequent generations. Many species have evolved abilities for co-constructing psychical representations reactively and based on occasions (e.g., observational learning). The evolution of abilities for co-constructing psychical representations also actively and based on intentions (e.g., instructed learning) entailed the development of semiotic representations through the creation of behavioural and material signs (e.g., language), allowing humans to communicate systematically about psychical abilities despite their imperceptibility by others individuals. This has opened up new pathways through which inventions can be propagated and continuously refined, thus producing cultural evolution. These processes enable humans to develop ever more complex psychical abilities and to become actors in the evolution of life.

hardcover); ISBN 978-0-415-88447-1 (paperback). $89.95, hardcover; $39.95, paperback Reviewed by Eugene M. DeRobertis