HEIR TO FREUD

While Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis, and by

many, the father of modern personality theory, he was also very strict and
stubborn about his beliefs. As a respected scholar, he developed a following
of well known theorists and psychologists in his psychoanalytic society. But
as theories were discussed, questioned, and revamped, many found
themselves at odds with the father in their views for the society and the
theories. Main disagreements revolved around (1) the negativity of Freud's
theories, (2) his belief that most, if not all of the adult personality is shaped
by early childhood experiences, and (3) his failure to incorporate social and
cultural influences.

As these members began to break from the Freudian camp, many new
theories emerged that have become well received in their own right. These
new theories, however, hold many of the same underlying beliefs of
psychoanalysis, most importantly the view of the unconscious as an
important drive in human emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. The idea of
defense mechanisms related to the unconscious have also been maintained
in many of these new theories as well as the importance of early
development of the formation of the personality.

The term Neo-Freudian or Psychodynamic have both been used to describe

those who left the psychoanalytic society and formed their own schools of
thought. Neo-Freudian psychologists were thinkers who agreed with the basis
of Freud's psychoanalytic theory, but changed and adapted the theory to
incorporate their own beliefs, ideas and theories.

Among those we are Alfred Adler and his Individual Psychology, Carl Jung's
Individual Psychology, Erik and Erikson's Ego Psychology, Karen Horney,
Harry Stack Sullivan and Erik Fromm.

ALFRED ADLER
 (1870- 1937)

INTRODUCTION -
He was
an Austrian medical doctor, psychologist and
founder of the school of individual psychology. In
collaboration with Sigmund Freud and a small
group of Freud's colleagues, Adler was among
the co-founders of the psychoanalytic
movement as a core member of the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society. He was the first major
figure to break away from psychoanalysis to
form an independent school of psychotherapy and personality theory.
Following this split, Adler would come to have an enormous, independent
effect on the disciplines of counseling and psychotherapy as they developed
over the course of the 20th century. He influenced notable figures in
subsequent schools of psychotherapy such as Rollmay, Viktor
Frankl, Abraham Maslow and Albert Ellis. His writings preceded, and were at
times surprisingly consistent with, later neo-Freudian insights such as those
evidenced in the works of Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich
Fromm.

“ The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding
of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to
every human soul.”
- Alfred Adler

INFERIORITY, COMPENSATIONS AND

SUPERIORITY

In his youth, Adler was a sickly child which caused him embarrassment and
pain. These early experiences with illnesses and accidents probably account
for his theory of organ inferiority and were the foundation for his theories on
inferiority feelings. According to Adler, each individual has a weak area in
their body (organ inferiority) which tends to be the area where illness occurs -
such as the stomach, head, heart, back, lungs, etc. Adler said that to some
degree every emotion finds expression in the body. From his understanding
of organ inferiority, Adler began to see each individual as having a feeling of
inferiority. Adler wrote, "To be a human being means to feel oneself inferior."
The child comes into the world as a helpless little creature surrounded by
powerful adults. A child is motivated by feelings of inferiority to strive for
greater things. Those feelings of inferiority activate a person to strive upward
so that normal feelings of inferiority impel the human being to solve his
problems successful, whereas the inferiority complex impedes or prevents
him from doing so.

The healthy individual will strive to overcome her inferiority through

involvement with society. She is concerned about the welfare of others as
well as herself. She develops good feelings of self-worth and self-assurance.
On the other hand, some are more concerned with selfishness than with
social interest. She may express this selfishness in a need to dominate, to
refuse to cooperate, wanting to take and not to give. From these unhealthy
responses, the person develops an inferiority complex or a superiority
complex. A superiority complex is a cover up for an inferiority complex. They
are different sides of the same coin. The person with the superiority complex
has hidden doubts about her abilities.

Inferiority feelings and compensation originated with Adler's early studies of

organ inferiority and compensation. In his book,Study of Organ Inferiority and
Its Physical Compensation (1907), Adler described the process of
compensation for physical disabilities or limitations. Depending on the
attitude one takes toward his defects, his compensation for disabilities or
limitations will be satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Favorite examples for Adler
were Demosthenes, who became a great speaker in compensation for an
early defect in speech; Annette Kellerman, who became a champion swimmer
not so such despite as because of bodily weakness; the limping Nurmi, who
become a famous runner. Others with similar problems did not compensate
by excelling but used their defect as an excuse to preserve their fantasy that
they would have gained prestige had they not had the defect.

Every person has inferiority feelings whether he will or can admit it. Adler
says that since the feeling of inferiority is regarded as a sign of weakness and
as something shameful, there is naturally a strong tendency to conceal it.
Indeed, the effort of concealment may be so great that the person himself
ceases to be aware of his inferiority as such, being wholly preoccupied with
the consequences of the feeling and with all the objective details that
subserve its concealment. So effectively may an individual train his whole
mentality for this task that the entire current of his psychic life flows
ceaselessly form below to above, that is, from feeling of inferiority to that of
superiority, occurs automatically and escapes his own notice. It is not
surprising that we often receive a negative reply when we ask a person
whether he has a feeling of inferiority. It is better not to the press the point,
but to observe his psychological movements, in which the attitude and
individual goal can always be discerned.

Be it noted that feelings of inferiority can be expressed in many different

ways. Adler liked to tell this story about three children who visited the zoo for
the first time. As they stood before the lion's cage, one of them shrank
behind his mother's skirts and said, "I want to go home." The second child
stood where he was, very pale and trembling, and said, "I'm not a bit
frightened." The third glared at the lion fiercely and asked his mother, "Shall I
spit at it?" All three children really felt inferiority, but each expressed his
feelings in his own way, consonant with his style of life.

These feelings of inferiority lead to a STRIVING FOR SUPERIORITY. The

striving for superiority is innate and carries the individual from one stage to
the next. This striving can and does manifest itself in many different ways
and each person has his own way of attempting to achieve perfection. This
idea progressed through three stages. Adler first came to the conclusion that
aggression is more important than sexuality. The aggressive impulse was
followed by the "will to power" and finally "striving for superiority." Many
people reading Adler come to the wrong conclusion that striving for
superiority is equated with "striving for power." Adler described the striving
for power as a source of neurosis and crime. He pointed out that striving for
power drives people in useless directions. Power-lust is a mental disorder or
disease.

BIRTH ORDER, FICTIONAL FINALISM AND

THEORY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
BIRTH ORDER: Adler stressed that the order of birth was an important
determiner of personality. In spite of their common heritage, siblings are
usually very different from each other. It is not the child's position in the
successive births that influences his character, but the situation into which he
is born and the way in which he interprets it. For instance: if two children of a
family are born much later than the earlier ones, the oldest of the two may
develop like a first born and the younger one as a second child.

The first born child is given a great deal of attention until the second child is
born and then the first is dethroned from his favored position. This dethroning
experience may affect the child in a number of ways. It may cause him to
protect himself against reversals, be conservative and insecure or it may
cause him to develop a striving to protect others and be a helper. If the
parents have allowed the first-born to feel sure of their affection, if he knows
that his position is secure, and above all, if he is prepared for the arrival of
the younger child and has been trained to cooperate in its care, the crisis will
pass without ill effects.

The second child is in a different situation for he shares attention with

another child and is therefore a little more likely to cooperate than the oldest
child. He has a sibling that is older than he is and who is ahead of him so the
strives to catch up. The second child may continue his exaggerated struggle
for equally with the older child or his ambitiousness may result in worthwhile
achievement.

All other children may be dethroned but never the youngest who is always
the baby of the family and often spoiled in the process. As he has no
followers but many pacemakers, he may strive to overcome them all. Adler
believed that the oldest child would most likely become a problem child and a
neurotic maladjusted adult with the youngest following closely behind. The
second child is by and large better adjusted than either his older or younger
siblings.

The only child has problems of his own for the mother often pampers him.
She is afraid of losing him, so spoils him as a results of her over
protectiveness. As he has no siblings, his feelings of competition is often
directed against his father or a girl against her mother. In later years when he
is no longer the center of attention, he may have difficulties.

FICTIONAL FINALISM: Adler was influenced by the philosopher

Hans Vaihinger whose book, The Psychology of the "As If" was published in
1911. In this book, Vaihinger proposed that people live by many fictional
ideals that have no relations to reality. These are ideas that cannot be tested
and confirmed. Some of these are "all men are created equal," "honesty is
the best policy," and "the end justifies the means." The fictions may help
people to deal more effectively with the reality or may hinder his efforts to
accept reality. Adler took this idea and came to the conclusion that people
are motivated more by their expectations of the future than they are by the
past. If a person believes that there is heaven for those who are good and
hell for those who are bed, it will probably affect how he lives. An ideal or
absolute is a fiction.

Adler's Fictional Finalism is an interesting idea for hypnotherapist. Fictional

Finalism simply states that people act as much from the "as if" as from
reality. One of my understandings of the subconscious mind is that whatever
the subconscious mind accepts as true, it acts "as if" it is true whether it is or
not. When one imagines tasting a lemon, his month waters and often he
tastes the lemon "as if" there really was a lemon to lick.

Ansbacher states that there are five points to Adler's understanding of

Fictional Finalism: (1) The fictional final goal became for Adler the principle
for internal, subjective causation of psychological events, (2) The goal
represented a creation of the individual and was largely subconscious, (3) It
also became the principle of unity and self-consistency of the personality
structure: from the point of the view of the subject, the fictional goal was
taken (4) as the basis for orientation in the world and (5) as one aspect of
compensation for felt inferiority.

THEORY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: The Adlerian Therapist departed

from Freud's method of having the client recline on a couch while the
therapist sits behind the client. Adler preferred to face the client and engage
in free discussion, not free association. There are four phases of counseling
for the Adlerian: (1) the relationship, (2) the investigation of dynamics, (3)
interpretations to the client and (4) reorientation.

The relationship with the client that the Adlerian seeks to establish is one of
friendliness and cooperation. Adler places a high value on the social
relationship between the therapist and the client. He believed that this
relationship could serve as a reeducation bridge to other relationships. He felt
that all people who fail are deficient in concern and love for their fellow
human beings. He spent a lot of time in an attempt to help the client develop
social interest. The Adlerian's concept of cooperation follows as the therapist
sets the example of love, concern and friendship.

The investigation phase explores the current life situation as it is viewed by

the client to include his complaints, problems, and symptoms. The
functioning of the individual in the three major areas of life (work, social, and
sex) are investigated and discussed. The patient's early life, position in the
family constellation, and his relationships to siblings and parents are
discussed. The following questions and similar ones are often asked, "And
why do you feel like that about it?" "What do you think is the reason for your
reacting that way?" "What purpose does your illness serve?" Gradually the
client realizes how he got into his way of making inappropriate reactions to
his problem. Knowing why he reacts as he does, he has the opportunity to
change. As he changes, he is in a position to substitute a wise for a foolish
reaction, a courageous for a cowardly one, a normal for a hysterical one.

The interpretation phase put an emphasis on the goals and style of life of the
client. The therapist has the client look at his feelings and the purpose for his
feelings. The client will not be told what to do but is shown how he is living
out his style of life and what it cost the client to do so. The mirror technique
is used by which the individual looks at himself.

In the reorientation stage, the client is encouraged to drop the old style of life
and take up another that will help him to deal with the realities of life and
receives satisfaction from living. The Adlerian uses encouragement
extensively in their therapy. The purpose of this encouragement is to help the
patient make the transfer from a style of life that is faulty to one that is
healthy. Encouragement is given with the understanding that the client must
gain for himself an attitude toward life that will allow him to approach and
overcome his problems in a realistic manner. To be healthy, the client must
learn to handle his problems with common sense and social interest instead
of fantasy. The therapist should be optimistic, cheerful, tolerant, active and
have empathy. Clients should find the therapist a dependable and benevolent
human being.

Adler compares the individual who has a faulty style of life with a person who
is caught in a dark room and cannot find an exit. The therapist helps the
client illuminate the room so that he can find a way out to a new way of
dealing with his problems. Adler wrote, "Every individual represents both a
unity of personality and the individual fashions that unity. The individual is
thus both the picture and the artist. Therefore if one can change his concept
of himself, he can change the picture that he is painting."

STYLE OF LIFE AND SOCIAL INTEREST

"Style of life" was the slogan of Alder's Individual Psychological and
personality theory. It is the recurrent theme in all of Adler's later writings and
the most distinctive feature of his psychology. In his writings, Adler used the
terms "style of life," "pattern of life," "life plan," "Life scheme," and "line of
movement" interchangeably. For Adler, the individual's STYLE OF LIFE is one's
personality, the unity of the personality, the individual form of creative
opinion about oneself, the problems of life and his whole attitude to life and
others.

During the first few years of life, each individual develops a style of life that
greatly influences his behavior. Adler wrote, "If we know the goal of a person,
we can undertake to explain and to understand what the psychological
phenomena want to tell us why they were created, what a person had made
of his innate material, why he had made it just so and not differently, how his
character traits, his feelings and emotions, his logic, his morals, and his
aesthetic must be constituted in order that he may arrive at his goal. If we
could infer the individually comprehended goal from the ornaments and
melodies of a human life and, on this basis, develop the entire style of life
(and the underlying individual law of movement), we could classify a person
with almost natural-science accuracy. We could predict how a person would
act in a specific situation." The life style of the individual is considered the
key to his behavior. His major goal is superiority and compensation for his
feeling of inferiority, but he may achieve this goal in a great variety of ways.

Each person has a specific goal that is all his own and make him different
from any other person. As he follows that goal, he adapts early in life a
specific technique for attaining it. The child may feel that he is helpless and
that he can have life only by gaining the support of others. Throughout his
life he will be unable to assert himself constructively, to take direct initiative
for his own destiny. He may develop an illness or disability that demands the
care of others. As the illness develops, it becomes a compensation for the
individual's failure. He may then say, "If I didn't have this illness, I could
succeed as easily as anyone else." The style of life becomes fixed for the
individual must cling to his illness or the bluff of his claim of possible
accomplishment would be recognized. The illness must be convincing
enough, both to himself and others, to maintain the pretence. The patient is
not consciously aware that his illness is an excuse for none fulfillment. No one
is forced to continue all his life in one direction for when he realizes his
mistakes, he can change his style of life and rid himself of those barriers to a
meaningful life.
Adler believed that the spoiled child seeks to be the center of attention. The
hated child adopts the goal of escaping to a safe distance from others. The
eldest child adopts the attitude of keeping what is his, the second child seeks
to surpass, and the only child assumes that others will serve and he will rule.

Childhood experiences which often, but not necessarily, predispose the child
to a faulty style of life are children with inferiorities, spoiled children and
neglected children. These conditions often produce erroneous conceptions of
the world and results in a pathological negative style of life. Children with
physical or mental infirmities are likely to have a greater feeling of inferiority
than others in meeting the task of life. Adler believed that pampering a child
was the greatest curse that could be experienced by a child. They are
potentially the most dangerous to society for they expect others to conform
to their self-centered wishes. Pampering robs the child of his independence.
He is not given the opportunity to accomplish something for himself. This
prevents him using his own power and from learning to cooperate with
others. The neglected child, who was badly treated in childhood, may become
an enemy of society.

Basic life styles: (1). The well-adjusted does not strive for personal
superiority, but seeks to solve his problems in ways that are useful to other
as well as himself. (2). The second type wants to prove his personal
superiority by ruling others. (3). The third type is the getting type. They want
to get everything through others without any effort or struggle of their own.
(4). The fourth tries to avoid every decision. They are the avoiding type.

Adler believed that an almost radical change in character and behavior would
take place when an individual adopted new goals. Adler said that man is not
bad by nature. Whatever his faults have been, faults due to erogenous
conception of life, he must not be oppressed by them. He can change. The
past is gone and with a change in his life style, the individual is free in the
present and future to experience happiness and bring happiness to others.

The style of life is influenced mostly by the quality of the individual's SOCIAL
INTEREST. Social interest is inborn but that inborn quality is brought to its
fullness by guidance and training. The child comes into this world completely
dependent upon others. A person's style of life cannot be understood without
considering the people whom he comes in contact. Relationships with
mother, other family members and society affects an individual in his choice
of a style of life. In order to understand an individual, it is necessary to
consider his attitude toward his fellowman and himself.

The normal person with a well-developed social interest will adopt a useful
style of life by contributing to the common welfare and thus overcoming his
feelings of inferiority. On the other hand, the impaired individual is
characterized by his inferiority feelings, underdeveloped social interest and in
uncooperative goals of superiority. The impaired solves his problems in a self-
centered, private-sense rather than a task-centered, common-sense fashion.
In regards to the person who spends much time in support of public causes,
but has little concern for the individual. As one learns to contribute to the
common welfare, he comes to have a feeling of worth and value and begins
to feel at home in life. Social interest enhances one's intelligence, heightens
his self-esteem, and enables him to adjust to unexpected misfortune. Social
interest gives meaning and purpose to life

MASCULINE PROTEST, FINAL FICTIONAL GOAL AND

LIFE PLAN
MASCULINE PROTEST. Early in his career Adler put forth the idea of
"Masculine protest." The desire to be above, like a "real man". In so doing he
replaced biological, external, objective causal explanations with
psychological, internal, subjective causal explanation.

IN MEN: Feminine traits are carefully hidden by exaggerated masculine

wishes and efforts. This is a form of overcompensation, because the feminine
tendency is evaluated negatively in a patriarchal, masculine-dominated
culture. This can lead to setting the highest, often unattainable goals for
oneself. It develops a craving for satisfaction and triumph, intensifies both
abilities and egotistical drives, including avarice and ambition. Defiance,
vengeance, and resentment accompany it, sometimes leading to continuous
conflicts. Pathological fantasies of grandeur result from overly strong
masculine protests. The child may seek to surpass the father in every respect
and thereby come into conflict with him.

IN WOMEN. The masculine protest in women is usually covered up and

transformed, seeking to triumph with feminine means. In our culture one may
find a repressed wish to become transformed into a man. Neurotic
mechanisms such as sexual anaesthesia may result. Comments by Adler's
editors Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher: "When the striving for superiority and
overcoming replaced the masculine protest [in Adler's thinking], the term
became limited to the more restricted meaning of the preceding paragraph. It
referred to manifestations in women protesting against their feminine role.

* Adler was still thinking of the aggressive drive as the basic dynamic
principle when he was young and striving to assert his own ideas in
opposition to Freud.

FICTIONAL FINAL GOAL. (Based in subjective reality.) Something

we are all trying to reach, that we strive for. we have within ourselves. Child
develops this as a safeguard to deal with the world around. Fictions are no
reducible to causes. They are mental states. A fictional final goal became for
Adler the principle of internal subjective causation of psychological events. A
basic aspect of our orientation in the world, and one aspect of compensation
for felt inferiorities.

LIFE PLAN: (Our strategy to deal with the world around us.) Life play and
FFG are similar, they're related. In life plan the child develops a strategy,
then tries to get a handle on what's going on around them. This becomes the
fictional final goal and ultimately the lifestyle. Adler viewed Freud as too
concerned with the past. He himself was oriented toward the future. We look
to the future, to our expectations, rather than to the past to explain our
behavior.

ADLER’S INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

Adler's School, known as "Individual Psychology"—an arcane reference to the
Latin individuus 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).

Alfred Adler's theory is at once a model of personality, a theory of

psychopathology, and in many cases the foundation of a method for mind
development and personal growth. Adler wrote, "Every individual represents
a unity of personality and the individual then fashions that unity. The
individual is thus both the picture and the artist. Therefore if one can change
one's concept of self, they can change the picture being painted." His
Individual Psychology is based on a humanistic model of man. Among the
basic concepts are:

1. Social embeddedness
This contrasts with a hereditary or biological basis of behaviour. We
are social beings who want to 'belong' and find our place in the group.
All our problems are basically social problems to do with interacting
with others. The group is the field in which we move even if we move
away.
Our ability to cooperate and to contribute is a measure of our mental
health (Adler called it Gemeinschaftsgefühl - ‘community feeling’ or
‘social interest’).
A well adjusted person behaves in line with the needs of a situation. A
maladjusted person has faulty concepts, personal feelings of inferiority
and mistaken goals. They are overly concerned with ‘What’s in it for
me?’ or ‘What do others think of me?’

2. Self-determination and creativity

This contrasts with mechanistic/deterministic theories. We are active
participants who not only react, we act and can change interactions by
 what we do: we can shape aspects of our own destiny.
We decide what we will do – we are not victims of ‘drives.’ Therefore,
we can change – even if we are powerless to change a situation, we
can change our response to it.

3. Teleology (goal-directedness)
Contrasts with causal evaluation of behaviour. Our behaviour is
purposive (although we are often unaware of the purpose).
We are not pushed by causes, but pulled by goals and our own
dynamic striving. Causes usually cannot be changed, but goals - once
recognised - offer a choice. power to will" or the belief that individuals
are guided not only by mechanical forces but that they also move
toward certain goals of self-realization

4. Subjectivity
Contrasts with an assumption of absolutes. We give meaning to life –
reality is as we perceive it.
We cannot be objective about ourselves and our interpretation of
experience. There is no 'absolute truth' for us – reality or truth is how
we feel and what it means to us. Heredity or environment are not as
important as what meaning we give to them. This is a psychology
of use, not possession.

5. Holism
the Adlerian views man as a unit, a self-conscious whole that functions
as an open system .Contrasts with a reductionist view. A part is never
understood by itself. A whole is more than the sum of its parts. We
always look for patterns into which the details will fit (we can perceive
the design of a mosaic without separating the pieces).

6. "CREATIVE SELF" (Known by its effects.) :

We have freedom to act, determine our fate, determine our personality
and affect our style of life. Creative power of the self means we
consciously shape our personalities and destinies. The creative power
of the self is the essential principle of human life. Heredity gives us
"certain abilities," environment gives us "certain impressions, These,
along with the way we interpret and experience them, make up the
bricks we use in our own creative way to construct our individual
attitudes toward life and our relations to the outside world. We
consciously shape our personalities and destiny

7. Private intelligence : Is the

reasoning invented by an individual to stimulate and justify a self-
 serving style of life. By contrast, common sense represents society's
cumulative, consensual reasoning that recognizes the wisdom of
mutual benefit. It does not include social interest or responsibility.
Private intelligence is a form of negative intelligence, a negative
intelligence that includes all the distortions of analytical thinking that
may occur, such as justifications, excuses, rationalizations,
generalizations - all ways to be 'right', to provide a safe solution. In
each case, there is a failure to observe, a refusal to notice. The goal of
striving for self-expression has been misdirected to a goal for personal
superiority. They may be correctly co-ordinated in a frame of reference
on the useless side of life, but the person lacks the courage and the
interest that is necessary for the socially useful solution of the
problems of life.

EVALUATION OF ADLER

Contributions -
Adler’s psychology was well received from the beginning, particularly by
those who were repelled by many freud’s concepts. For e.g. towards freud’s
Oedipus complex, he said, “ If it existed at all, it was merely the result of
excessive childhood pampering.”

Adler was so much more optimistic about the nature of man. His psychology
reflected his own personality, which was social, cheerful and kind. He
expressed a realistic attitude towards the significance of society while
stressing towards man’s social nature and also how environment influences
mold our behaviour.

His psychology was easily understood and applied, most of his concept were
easily grasped. Although he wrote for professional people, many of his books
were directed towards lay readers as well. His concept of compensation has
been widely accepted, it can be operationally defines and put to experimental
test. Adler emphasized the importance of equality in preventing various
forms of psychopathology, and espoused the development of social interest
and democratic family structures for raising children. His most famous
concept is the inferiority complex which speaks to the problem of self-esteem
and its negative effects on human health (e.g. sometimes producing a
paradoxical superiority striving). the concept of inferiority feelings and its role
has become an integral part of personality psychology. His suggestion of the
universality of inferior feelings, albeit overemphasized the fact, but is still a
household word and a major concept widely used in clinical psychology.
His emphasis on power dynamics is rooted in the philosophy of Nietzsche.
Adler argued for holism, viewing the individual holistically rather than
reductively, the latter being the dominant lens for viewing human
psychology. Adler was also among the first in psychology to argue in favor
of feminism making the case that power dynamics between men and women
(and associations with masculinity and femininity) are crucial to
understanding human psychology (Connell, 1995). Adler is considered, along
with Freud and Jung, to be one of the three founding figures of depth
psychology, which emphasizes the unconscious and psychodynamics
(Ellenberger, 1970; Ehrenwald, 1991). 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.

CRITICISM OF ADLER
Most of the criticisms levied against freud are equally applicable to adler, i.e
unreliability of the data, non - testable hypothesis, dualism and fictions. One
of his least successful concept was of the notion that we are directed by
unconscious fictional goals. The use of fictions was unsubstantial but to
suggest that our fictions could not even be identified made the whole concept
invalid.

Likewise, the notion of creative self will always remain at the theoretical
level. It was nothing more than a regression to the medival concept of the
soul, disguised in modern terms. It added nothing as an explanatory
principle.

Although alder’s psychology still has it’s adherents and their ideas are
expressed in their own journal, “the American journal of individual
psychology”, it has never achieved the fame and popularity of freud’s
system. Some have considered it rather simple – minded and shallow.

Adler’s teleology is certainly incompatible with those who maintain a

deterministic view. The rejection of determinism seems to be out of keeping
with current thinkng in objective psychology. It is a pleasant thought to
believe that one can be master of one’s fate.

A final criticism was that his theory was incomplete and often contradictory.
he seemed to deny determinism in favor of teleology and yet he was very
much determinist in emphasizing early childhood influences that set forth the
style of life, the order of birth and the conditions of the society. Adler
accepted social interest as an innate disposition but it remained up to
environmental influences to actualize it.