Alfred Adler Was One of the First

Alfred Adler was one of the first supporters of Sigmund Freud's theories of psychoanalysis in Vienna in the eraly-20th Century, although the two psychiatrists had a particularly harsh falling out in 1911 and never reconciled. Adler's basic theories were so distinctive from Freud's that any attempt to combine them would have been impossible, given that he denied the existence of the id, ego and superego. In general, Adler minimized the role of genetics, sexuality and unconscious drives in human personality formation is favor of conscious goal-setting that overcame the childhood sense of dependence, powerlessness and inferiority and created a mature, competent and self-realized adult. Moreover, humans were social creatures whose purpose in life was not merely to accumulate wealth, power and status, but to improve the condition of society and the world as best they could. Alderian psychology was always a relatively small school compared to the Freudians and behaviorists, although it had a major influence on humanists and ego psychologists such as Karen Horny and Erik Erikson. Alder's theories have always been difficult to test empirically and experimentally, but they have been widely adopted in present-day therapy and counseling.

Alfred Adler broke publicly with Sigmund Freud in 1911 and the two men never met or spoke again, although they had never been personally friendly and Freud claimed to have found him boring. Their falling out was bitter, with Freud denouncing his rival as "paranoid, jealous, sadistic, and short," while Adler called psychoanalysis "filth" and a fraud (Schultz and Schultz, 2011, p. 330). When Adler died in 1937, Freud dismissed him as an arrogant and ambitious man who had been well-paid to travel the world attacking his theories and manipulating gullible Americans into supporting his childishly simplistic version of psychology. He was also more of a political activist than the more conservative Freud, and supported many causes of a leftist or progressive variety, such as equal rights for women, abortion rights, birth control, community mental health centers, family counseling and experimental schools. He fled Austria before Freud, when the fascist government took over, and settled in the United States (Mosak and Maniacci, 1999, p. 5).

Adler based his theories about compensation for childhood feelings of inferiority on his own childhood experiences, as a nearsighted, shy and unhealthy child who did poorly in school, but eventually became a medical doctor and professor of psychiatry and neurology. When he used the term Individual Psychology, he was really referring to a holistic or unitary conception of the personality. He did not believe that the id, ego and superego existed at all, but that the personality was a unified whole and developed consciously rather than unconsciously. We were therefore free to "direct our own development and strive to better ourselves regardless of genetic limitations and childhood events" (Schultz and Schultz, p. 33). Adler's emphasis was always on inter-psychic or interpersonal relations as the process by which "the human person emerges as a social and cultural creature rather than a sexual and biological one" (Engler, 2009, p. 93).

Social theory asserted that well-adjusted individuals had to learn to adjust to society and channel their drives in constructive ways (Mosak and Maniacci, p. 6). Adler regarded human beings as naturally social and cooperative, and that healthy persons developed consciously in childhood and adolescence. Human behavior was always goal-oriented and future-oriented rather than limited by past experiences, and Adler referred to this theory as "finalism" (Engler, p. 95). These goals may often be fictions in the since that they are purely invented and imaginary and may never be accomplished in reality. Some goals may be absurd or unhealthy, yet nonetheless they are important for their effects on behavior and personality. Adler insisted that healthy individuals "continually examine the effectiveness of their fictions and alter their goals where they are no longer useful" (Engler, p. 96). The primary goal for most people was to overcome feelings of childhood inferiority, weakness and dependence as he had done and attain a sense of superiority or mastery, which would give "unity and coherence to the personality" (Engler, p. 96).

By superiority, Adler meant a 'will to power' (to use Nietzsche's misunderstood term) which had nothing to do with achieving wealth, status or control over others but a sense of self-mastery, self-realization and being made whole again. Achieving maturity was a process of moving from childhood feelings of inferiority and powerlessness to an adult sense of competence, fulfillment and superiority over the former self. Yet individual success was not the uppermost goal for Adler in determining overall psychological health, since humanity required a social interest as well without which civilization could not survive. Only unhealthy personalities sought superiority and success for purposes of political and economic power and personal gain rather than considering the common good and society as a whole (Burger, 2007, p. 103).

Adler was a major influence for the ego psychology and humanistic psychoanalysis of Karen Horny, Erik Erikson and others who rejected Freud's central concept that the personality was shaped by biology and genetics rather than society culture and interpersonal relationships. After his death, the Alderians never became a major school of psychology that could rival behaviorism or psychoanalysis, but their North American Society of Adlerian Psychology (NASAP) still exists, as do the Journal of Individual Psychology and the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago. Even though he is largely forgotten today, his ideas have been incorporated into many branches of psychology, including cognitive therapy, family therapy, social psychology and system's theory (Mosac and Maniacci, p. x). Certainly his views about overcoming childhood feelings of inferiority and developing self-esteem, competency and adult responsibilities have become commonplace in contemporary psychology. So has the use of therapy pioneered by Adler with the purpose of assisting children and adolescents to overcome life's obstacles, get better grades and excel at academics, sports, music and the arts (Burger, p. 102).