Psychology concepts and applications

Alfred Adler began his career as a psychoanalyst as part of Freud's inner circle. However, he came to the conclusion that Freud was incorrect to place the source of all personal conflict in our sexual development. (Weider, 1995) So eventually he broke from Freud's philosophy and formed his own theory of personality development. His approach emphasizes the person as a social individual rather than a sexual individual. He put more importance on the values the person holds and the choice he makes.

He saw early childhood as crucial in later personality development. He saw individuals as constantly working for individual perfection, and he believed that as a young child we are profoundly affected by feelings of inadequacy as we compare ourselves to our parents. This has been described as an "inferiority complex," but that is an oversimplification. (Weider, 1995)

Adler emphasized individual psychology. As he looked at the individual, he maintained that "... The conscious and unconscious are not contradictory but that they form a single unity." (Adler, 1936) He believed that our feelings of inferiority while awake are revealed in our dream, and he saw this as a connection between wake and sleep states.

The inferiorities we suffer in life are also seen in dreams and thereby create a continuum between wake and sleep. (Wilkerson, accessed 2002) In recurring the dream described at the end of this work, I find myself wandering the halls of a strange building. The building seems to have no entrance or exit, and I don't usually know how I got there, but I'm searching. Since Adler views dreams as a reflection of conflicts going on in our real life, this could be interpreted as a feeling during real life that I feel lost and confused. In the dream, I encounter many obstacles and although I search and search, I can't find a way around them. Adler might view that as the dreamer struggling to get past some feelings of powerlessness stemming from early childhood, when we often are very powerless.

Since Adler puts emphasis on individual choice and values, he might say that this dream reflects the determination of the person to find a way past these psychological barriers. In the dream I don't have a sense of being young, small, or a child, so he might conclude that this dreamer has reason to believe he will eventually overcome the obstacles presented in the dream.

Adler (1936) said, "The methods used in interpreting the 'conscious' life may be used in interpreting the 'unconscious' or 'semi-conscious' life -- the life of our dreams. The justification for this method is that our dream life is just as much a part of the whole as our waking life-no more, no less. Only by considering dreams as one of the expressions of the style of life may an adequate interpretation of them be found." Looking at this statement explains why the dreamer in the sample dreams chooses a large building for the setting. Most people have had the experience of needing to find a specific place in an unfamiliar building. Usually the business the person has to conduct is important, and being lost can increase the feeling of uncertainty that can go along with the task.

In the dream, I encounter doors that won't open, stairwells I can't find and hallways that twist and bend but don't seem to go anywhere. Adler might see that as indicating that the person in the dream has a goal but not a plan to get there. Possibly the goal is too vague, since in the dream, the dreamer doesn't know what he's looking for but only that he hasn't found it yet.

Adler believed that we try to fool ourselves in our dreams by leaving out important things and putting too much emphasis on less important parts, so this could be one explanation why the dreamer doesn't know what it is he is searching for.

In this dream, the dreamer has no sense of being chased or being in danger in some other way, so Adler might conclude that the conflict comes mostly from within the dreamer. There's no indication of embarrassment or shame. The dreamer isn't naked and doesn't run into other people who see his frustration. This might mean that others around the individual are satisfied with him and that the dream represents some personal goal he has set for himself.