ALFRED ADLER:Biographical Sketch, Individual Psychology, Feeling of Inferiority

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 9

ALFRED ADLER

(Individual Psychology)

Biographical Sketch

Adler was born in Vienna, Austria in 1870, he was second of six children and he had severe rivalry with his

older brother who was very athletic and the model child of the family. Alder thought of himself as ugly and

short. He had miserable childhood. He suffered from rickets which prevented him to take part in sports.

When he was five years old, he suffered from Pneumonia. He heard the doctor's say to his parents, you boy

is lost. After getting better, he decided to become a medical doctor. Adler read Freud's book called The

Interpretation of Dreams, and he wrote a paper supporting this book. Freud invited Adler to join the

psycho-analytic society and to become the president of the Society. This was Adler's biggest mistake to

become the president of the psycho-analytic society. Soon he began to find that Freud could not take

criticism and would become very aggressive and abusive. After breaking from Freud, Adler coined the term

Individual Psychology and began developing his own theory of personality. Initially, Adler's work was

focused on problems of child rearing, education and other every day problems. Adler's theory is still

pursued by his daughter Alexandra and son Kurt who practiced their father's brand of psychology in New

York.

Individual Psychology:

The term individual psychology refers to the fact that individuals are unique, they characterize by inner

harmony and a striving force to cooperate with fellow humans. It does not mean that human beings are

selfish, aggressive and motivated to satisfy their own biological motives. His theory focuses on the whole

individual, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. And we dissect we distort the harmony of the whole.

Thus Adler seems to be talking, like a Gestaltian.

Organs of Inferiority and Compensation:

According to Adler, some of us are born with weak eyes, others with weak stomach, some with weak hearts

and still other with damaged limbs. These biological deficiencies or shortcomings create problem for

people. An individual with organ inferiority compensates for this particular weakness by concentrating on

its development or by emphasizing other functions which make up for the weakness. For example, a blind

person may concentrate on development of his auditory skills or focused more on some other modality such

as touch or feeling. We have many examples, Helen Keller who was blind, deaf, worked hard and focused

on her sense of touch. Beethoven, who was toned deaf, created the best music in the world.

Feeling of Inferiority:

For Adler, all of us staff life with feelings of inferiority, because we are completely dependent on adults for

our survival. This feeling of being weak and inferior stimulates and creates intense desire to seek power

and to overcome feeling of inferiority. Are feeling of inferiority bad? It is a fact, which is the driving force

in all humans. One feels inferior and therefore, strives to become powerful and tries to accomplish more.

Therefore all humans experience the feeling of being inferior but in some, it creates neurosis, a need to

succeed under all circumstances and conditions.

Striving for Superiority:

Striving for superiority is individual's superiority to strive for a superior or a perfect society. This could be

beneficial as well as harmful, if a person concentrates on fulfilling his personal needs and ignores the needs

of others, and the society then he suffers from superiority complex i.e. one individual tries to be

domineering, arrogant and tries to deceive others. This is a self centered selfish individual.

Style of Life:

All humans strive for superiority, but how superiority is sought depends upon a person's unique

circumstances. The means by which a particular individual attempts to gain superiority is called the style of

life. A person's life style provides him with his identity. It determines how he will solve his problems, what

future goals he will pursue and how he will attain them. A healthy style of life permits a person to live in

Personality Psychology PSY 405

harmony with others and to contribute towards the advancement of the society. A mistaken style of life is

based on one selfish motives and ignorance towards betterment of society. The style of life evolves early in

life so the child can overcome his feelings of inferiority and strive for perfection and pursue the betterment

of the society. Adler believed that style of life develops early in childhood, whereas Erikson sees style of

life as self identity and it develops during late adolescence.

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