Medical Psychotherapist
Classical Adlerian
Psychotherapy
George Neeson MD
Medical Psychotherapist
Adlerian
Office
sign reads
"Medical
Psychotherapist (Adlerian)"
4502
South Ave., Unit 5,
Elizabethtown,
Ontario, Canada
K6T
1A8
Telephone
613 498 1602
Five
minutes north of Brockville on County Road 29.
.
Alfred Adler
changing a dressing on a child
Dr Henry Stein's Classical
Adlerian Psychology Page
Behavior
on Line Classical Adlerian Forum
General Practice Psychotherapy
Association
My
Son's Business Page
VNInstruments
non-destructive ultrasonic testing equipment
Strong
Recommendation:
*
Please note carefully that not all net URL's espousing to teach Adler's
psychology indeed do. Many are referring to the teachings of Dreikurs which
in many regards do not seem consistent with Adler's real teaching and intent!
My
Interests:
At
the conclusion of his trial Socrates says this:
To facilitate formulating this page, I have given up trying to adapt to
the He/She difficulty, The use of "he" or "him" denotes a person with no
consideration of gender on this page. It is unfortunate that English usage
is not more gender neutral, but Adlerian psychology is deeply rooted in
the notion of gender equality. Language has failed me, not my intent!
As you start to read this page you will soon see the grand sweep of this
psychology. Do not be overwhelmed by the small amount of information that
is here. I find that I have to read Adler's writing almost daily to maintain
and gain competence. My son suggested to me, as a man trained in science,
that "this psychology is only learned by starting in the middle and working
both ways". That has been my experience but if you persist it will grow
on you. An organized study program with a full training analyst like Dr.
Henry Stein is the only way to really begin to appreciate its richness.
I have done a reasonable amount of training with him and enjoy it. I hope
to yet do more.
The compensatory striving will also use elaborate safeguards from the demands
and perceived difficulties in life that appear in this discouraged perception,
to be too high. These safeguards are elaborate constructions that protect
the vanity of this neurotic person. Such a person is well defended from
one or more of the ever present life tasks, the social task, the work task
and the love task. These tasks are avoided by the construction of the neurosis
which falls out of this notion of personal ineptitude or incapability.
Once more, the deeper the discouragement, the more life tasks are partially
or fully avoided while attempting to preserve the ever present vanity through
the construction of this elaborate neurotic device. The
device is a trick to distract the self and others from the truth of the
lofty goal!
It is important to note that this psychology never sees the human person
in isolation but rather in the context of community and in relationship
to the broader context of existence in the universe. (Actually Adler goes
even further and sees humanity in its cosmic context, from the perspective
of the eternal. This is a grand view and far removed from purely physical
and mechanistic understandings.) We are social beings and alone it is hard
to conceive of us even surviving. Freud seemed to be more concerned with
the intra-psychic movements almost like a machine gone wrong because of
faulty inherent programming. It seems this is not an adequate approach
because all of our experiences and the effects of our difficulties and
even neurosis are lived out in community. Thus, with this in mind Adler
discerned that there are tasks in life that we all must address. They are
all tasks with others in community. It is the human approach to these tasks
that sets us apart from any other species on earth. The failure at these
tasks may make us the most damaging species on the planet as well. Confronting
these tasks can not be avoided. An active decision about how to deal with
them is made by any individual who is not impaired with reference to his
cognitive faculties. In fact a person can only be truly comprehended and
understood when he is seen in relationship to others by discerning how
he responds to the various challenges of social relationships. Will he
embrace them as a fellow man or will he avoid them by the use of various
tricks?
The inferiority feeling is not a bad thing in and of itself. We started
our journey as humans as two cells, incomplete and incapable of life in
themselves, either by chance or by intent, by good intent or intent for
ill. There is a world of difference between our deep sense of incompleteness
as creatures who have arrived so very recently on planet earth and the
inferiority feeling we create and attempt to compensate for!. We are very
incomplete and we know it. In the vastness of the universe wherein there
are more galaxies than there are grains of sand on the earth and each galaxy
contains multiple billions of stars, we are very small and insignificant.
Looking at ourselves and the cosmos, we long to move toward completeness
and Adler suggests that "the purest expression of God succeeds as a concrete
grasp of the goal of completeness."Collected Clinical Works
of Alfred Adler Vol. 7, page 97
The new born child is flooded with sensory input that must be quite overwhelming,
but none of us can truly recall this stage. The human mind, in its method
of making sense out of chaos imposes its own sort of order on the inputs
it receives. From the seeming random nature of the stimuli, it seeks an
order which can only be put in place by the creation of a fixed, specific
point outside of its own being. It develops a compass heading such as I
used to use as an aircraft pilot. The child will strive with all of its
young energy toward this fixed point it has created from the randomness
about him. The nature of this fixed point is molded also by the circumstances
about the child. A different creation will occur if the child is being
treated with warmth and gentleness than might occur in a harsh rejecting
home. Never the less, this is the creation of the child and as it grows,
from this time forward, it will draw the movement of the child's psychic
life. Even in the child's play one can see the movement to above. He plays
with toys that replicate the "real adult world" in his childish understanding.
He is always trying to rise above even as he gains in physical stature.
This becomes the child's "meaning in life" that it presses on toward. From
this meaning will derive his attitudes, his sense of security and his feeling
of belonging in the world. The loftier this point is set, the more deeply
the child will learn to create his own suffering. From this fixed
point he will set his goal of loftiness, greatness and power as a work
of his own creation. It will not be possible to predict what formulation
he will create because of the multitude of stimuli he receives from his
growing experience of his own subjective world and therefore the manifold
conclusions he may draw. He will seek a greater sense of personal security
as he is creating all of this because in his earliest stages he was so
much at the whim of others. He had been utterly dependent for survival
on the good will of those around him so his world was not always experienced
as an hospitable place, some more, some less. He moves toward this fictional
creation from the feeling of incompleteness and inability. These are seeming
valid conclusions for a child because very early in life he has yet so
much to learn. Unhappily these conclusions are not retained at these readily
accessible level of consciousness. They become submerged in the clutter
of impressions and run as a fictional goal for his life. This goal is a
potential problem to the child when it runs unexamined and the feeling
of deficiency is deep. The fiction of the very availability of personal
superiority will drive the child away from the pristine logic of community
living. The child will start to feel like some type of misfit and will
seek to be above.
The life style consists of the way a person virtually always approaches
the life tasks. It is unique to each individual because each individual
has a unique mind and a unique (to them) set of life experiences. From
these life experiences they have drawn their very own and unique to them
set of conclusions. The life style when it is not encouraged has a goal
of self aggrandizement which is quite often not conscious to the person.
This goal of self elevation comes from the perceived discouragements of
childhood whether most people would find this particular situation discouraging
or not. They quite commonly really do not know why they do what they do
or create the emotions they create. Nevertheless this pattern is as unique
as is their DNA! Because the life style is unique to this person it will
also be consistent from childhood and all of a person's movements reveal
it, although it does take a lot of training and the keen eye of Alderian
psychology to see it. These movements will include things like what a person
remembers from childhood which with many other aspects of their unique
line of activity will provide valuable clues about the life style.
Early recollections are one of the many tools used by the trained Adlerian
therapist. Because the life style is drawn by the fictional goal and propelled
by the inferiority feeling, its appearance is consistent across all of
a person's activity. This uniformity and consistency of the life style
can only be seen by a properly trained Adlerian observer. The life style
will be shown in the way the person walks, speaks, appears, dresses
and even by what they notice and remember. Because of this consistency
of the style of life, early childhood recollections form an important "projective
technique". A person remembers events in childhood that support their unique
world view. In fact the life style is such a strong element, that the hologram
forms an interesting analogy. If you cut a hologram into many pieces,
each piece will have the entire image retained in it, but in less detail.
The smaller the piece, the less sharp the detail. So looking at only small
aspects of psychological movement or small parts of the person's life and
actions will produce a rather weak image of the life style. The more data
reference points the therapist can gather, the clearer the lifestyle will
appear.
The child does not have the logiocal apparatus to draw the conclusions
that create his style of life and indeed, logic is not yet available to
the developing brain. The mind is struggling to make sense of all the environmental
noise. It must be overwhelming to have no ability to interpret the mass
of data flooding the mind of the infant as it starts to draw conclusions
about itself and the world around it. The child may conclude it is helpless
although not in those words. In another example the infant may conclude
that the world is a place to be put in its service by constant crying and
fussing. There are myriad conclusions that may be drawn which creates a
tension in the child. In response to this dilemma, the child starts to
develop a "private logic". These tentative efforts to interpret this flood
of data, becomes the child's very own "reality". This private logic
based on his own interpretation of his reality, is put in place in
the earliest days and weeks and years. It is not tested by "common sense"
and it often grows into a deep feeling of insufficiency which is quietly
and invisibly present to the person. Very early in life, it may become
a most troubling problem just below the surface of available conscious
processes and there it begins to work its mischief. It is the "Inferiority
Feeling" which produces great distress from the tension of "feeling below".
The inferiority feeling is not produced by the external situations around
the child. It is the creation of the child or "Ichfindung" in German. It
comes from and is created by the child out of the materials in his hands.
He creates the feeling of deficiency. It is a self delusion. From this
feeling of being below the child is hounded by feelings of uncertainty
about himself, his abilities and how he fits in the fabric of society.
The child and then the adult, seeks relief from this discomfort by the
use of various compensations that are often not very effective and may
even move against mankind. These compensations move the psychological life
toward a perceived plus situation ... the "Fictional Goal of Superiority".
This will commonly express its self as self centeredness, isolation, pessimism,
and fear of new situations. These are expressions of the self promoting
fictional goal. Ultimately this is an artful creative endeavour of a child
who perceives himself to be in a "minus position" but the outcome will
only be useful if the child is not shown and taught social interest. If
a feeling of being specially entitled to be served should grow, this child
is in a particularly serious difficulty. He will then usually put himself
as first to be served, but it is all based on the self deception of feeling
unable to meet life's challenges because of the persisting sense of deficiency.
Such a feeling is not globally accurate. In certain aspects of all our
lives we do things less well. This
does not excuse us from assisting where we have skill nor does it mean
that we are globally deficient. We are all not only able to contribute
from our uniqueness, but we must do so! We must bring to bear those aspects
of our person that benefit mankind.
Animals move. Rocks don't move. OK, tectonic plate movement is occurring
geologically, but you and I won't see it. So it should not surprise us
that metaphorically the psyche moves. However this movement requires a
trained observer if it is to be seen clearly. The movement of the psyche
is from the perceived "below" to the imagined "above" in discouraged folks,
in Adler's psychology. There are, of course, other movements in encouraged
people, like movement toward mankind to assist with the problem of hunger
or to aid the poor. But all human life is movement. Even doing nothing
is a movement. It is a "standing still" movement!
Inferiority
feeling ----> Compensatory Striving ----> Goal of Fictional Superiority
|
Early recollections should not be confused with memories. A memory would
be a factual report of some event or circumstance. An early recollection
demonstrates the prototypes and the early beginning of the person's life
plan. The act of remembering is not a one to one transfer of data from
the external world to the internal one. It is not at all like writing information
to a hard drive or burning where one hopes to achieve an accurate correspondence
of the data submitted to the data stored. All sensory inputs are processed
before they are stored. The brain (mind) takes the information and relates
it to many of its previous experiences. The association areas of the brain
are very active in this process. Thus what is already stored in the mind,
affects the interpretation of the experience that is being processed. This
process, because what is stored in each mind is unique to that mind and
that mind alone, produces an inevitable observer bias. Concealed in this
bias is a condensed version of the life style. This is an important piece
of the puzzle because it shows what the person notices and concludes. It
is the clear understanding of the implicit conclusions that points to the
lifestyle. Therefore, out of the myriad events that happen each day in
the life of a child, a small number of events are carefully stored to support
the person's world view. The world view reflects the lifestyle. It is clear
therefore, that the events described may not have happened at all, or at
least the events are probably not historically accurate. They rather very
accurately demonstrate the persons Style of Life, private logic and biased
apperception, in such a manner that the patient will not understand he
is giving the therapist this key information. Thus a trained Adlerian can
discern form this seemingly innocuous information, a rather complete initial
understanding of the person's unique life plan.
At birth the mind truly exists almost exclusively in potential. We arrive
in the world with our genetic code with various organ strengths and weaknesses,
but our mind is yet to be filled. In a paragraph above I speak about this
but we need to fill in a bit more detail. Each child/baby/person draws
his or her own conclusions about the meaning of these new life experiences.
We all believe that our set of conclusions are quite universal, but indeed
they are not. What we have created is what Adler called, our own "scheme
of apperception".
Apperception is a conclusion or set of conclusions that the mind draws
in response to some event or circumstance. Since the brain is so incredibly
networked, all of our experiences are filtered through this neuronal network
and all such events are therefor associated with any similar or even dissimilar
event. Since life events are unique in their totality in each human, then
each individual produces a unique (to them) set of associations and conclusions
that is called "apperception". This individual interpretation although
it may not even deviate widely from "common sense" is the basis of what
we subsequently may deem to be fair evaluations in some regard, but the
evaluations are clearly skewed by the minds associations with other events,
memories, or even feelings. We will spend almost all of our lives seeing
life experiences through these unique filters we have created. These personal
evaluations are like tinted glasses, except that every human has their
own unique colour of filter. These filters are created by the mental processes
of this person based on their interpretation of the events that have unfolded
in their life story. The myriad experiences that lead to this private logic
and "biased
apperception",
will not be duplicated completely in any other human. It thus is quite
accurate to say "All
perception is biased apperception".
( As an interesting aside, the notion of "the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth", may not be a valid notion from this perspective.)
That does not infer that one is not truthful, but rather indicates the
over riding effect of private logic. It must now be emphasized that the
conclusions on which this private logic is based, are those of the mind
of a child. They are entrenched in all the processes of thought and feeling
, yet they have not seen the light of the challenge of the knowledge and
conclusions that are more general in the community in which they developed.
Sometimes as I see the private logic unfold, although it is not illogical
when based on the premises from which it is formed, one may be quite surprised.
It would not be unreasonable for any human to conclude such a thing at
such a young aged based on their life experience and circumstances but
it may still come as a surprise to the therapist. What is unreasonable,
is when these conclusions persist unchallenged into adulthood. There they
become the driving force behind the unique style of life of each person.
The conclusions become more and more troubling as they drive a wedge between
this individual and the interest of mankind about them. That is, when they
interfere with the practice of "social interest". Unfortunately this term
does not carry the full force of the German word "Gemeinschaftsgefühl".
One of the early challenges for the Adlerian therapist, is to discern this
private logic and nudge it back toward the better interests of the broader
community which has the happy side effect of relieving much of the distress
the client is producing. This better interest for the community will also
start to resolve the patient's difficulty. Again Adler rightly insists
that social interest will resolve all intrapsychic difficulties. The art
of the Adlerian therapist is to correct these unexamined hypotheses that
stand in the way of social interest "like an old grandmother" ... in a
very gentle and friendly way. Increased social interest in every human
could resolve many of the world's most vexing problems.
Having drawn the conclusions that are drawn from the perception of the
child it is interesting to note what then happens. A
person only notices that which supports this world view.
The effect of this apperception is so powerful that unbiased perception
becomes largely unavailable. This is the phenomenology that Adler refers
to as "Tendentious Apperception". Perception is not only biased by previous
experiences ... it is even more skewed by life conclusions. So these tendentious
apperceptions flow from the life style also. The client is not aware this
is happening, but all interpretation of life events can only be done in
reference to the prior interpretation of other preceding events. From this
it becomes quite evident that these inaccuracies in the life style are
self perpetuating and all this time, the person believes they are being
clear minded and seeing what they feel they see. The greater the deviation
from common sense this tendentious apperception produces, the greater the
depth of the neurosis and sometimes when this apperception deviates very
widely from societal norms, this person may become fully psychotic having
lost touch with more general common sense in their quest to compensate
for the perceived inferiority of their being.
This subject is very "overblown" in the "lay press" about this psychology.
The order in which the child arrived in the family is just another factor
that the child has to make "sense" of. It will be another aspect in the
private logic of any person. Thus it is another factor that an Adlerian
therapist has to evaluate as a possible influence.
It should by now be apparent that each human being has a unique style of
life based on their conclusions drawn from the life experiences that only
they have had. Identical twins will each have their own life style because
the life style has nothing to do with genetics at all. It is a creation
of an individual. I have worked with identical twins and I recall one mischievous
set of ladies trying to trick me when one twin took the others appointment
to see if I could tell the difference. It was evidently quite easy. Each
had their own life experiences and their own unique style of life. Even
though they had colluded to fabricate the others story, the unique style
of life stood out so clearly that in less than five minutes I was able
to say "You are so and so aren't you?" It was a fun and enlightening experience
and showed the clarity of Adler's understanding would withstand a fun test!
The basis of this uniqueness is the created response of each person to
the influences of the outside world. No two people could even be imagined
to do this in the same manner. It would not even be possible. The myriad
variations of life experiences and the multitudinous conclusions that can
be drawn, render the deterministic seeming conclusions of some psychologies
with their strong emphasis on genetics and heredity, highly improbable.
What clearly matters most is not what we inherit but rather what we do
with it. What we do with it is an individual creation. If the person should
be encouraged, much can be done with only modest endowment. A person who
is a genius, but does not use that intelligence to benefit mankind has
wasted his life. Even more to be deplored is the very bright person who
uses his genetic material to harm or even destroy parts of humanity. History
records too many who have used their inherited abilities in very wrong
directions.
Quite early in the development of his theory, Adler derived the notion
of "The Masculine Protest". He noticed that one particular area of inferiority
feeling, involved the gender roles put in place and usually accepted by
society. He felt that women noticed the inappropriately dominant position
assumed by men and resented it. He suggested that this came through the
mechanism of the inferiority feeling in women, and that the compensation
often undertaken by them was by means of various ways of rejecting traditional
feminine rolls and even dress. An example, not appropriate to this time,
is that of women wishing to have "bobbed hair" arguing that such a style
makes life simpler for her, but concealing an aggressive attitude of wishing
to be like the men. There is nothing wrong with men and women being equal
and indeed that they are not viewed in such a manner, is a sore point with
Adler. When this movement is done with the attitude of wishing to be above
men, then it becomes problematic and even neurotic.
(Be patient,
I have more I need to develop here.)
The piece that is missing from childhood above all, is the feeling of being
the one in the world of the many, in the troubled individual. The degree
to which this feeling is deficient is in direct proportion to the degree
of "psychological pathology. This social interest is usually first
and strongly demonstrated to the child by the mother who, in caring for
this new born infant, puts her own needs in the background as she attends
to the infant's needs. If this expression of social interest by the mother
is either deficient or misunderstood by the child, the child will in the
earliest months of life, start to experience a "minus feeling". Note also
that if the mother does everything for the child and responds to his every
whim in a pampering manner, this may be profoundly discouraging and the
child may conclude he can do nothing. He must have help with everything.
Dreams create a mood for the dreamer. This mood is usually created for
the day that follows. They are an attempt not to solve the problems at
hand "realistically and logically" (CCWAA Vol. 6, Page 21 More on Individual
Psychological Dream Theory), but rather in accord with the dreamers goal
of superiority. The symbols of the dream seem to be deliberately constructed
to conceal this from the person. The symbols and content of the dream are
carefully crafted to create a mood that supports the perceived difficulties
in the neurosis and also to buttress up the lofty goal. The dream will
be consistent with the construction of the neurosis and indeed the style
of life of this person. Safe guarding tools will appear in the dream construction
as will images and symbols of the perceived dangers to the person's vanity.
Take as an example, dreams about falling. They are reminders to this neurotic
person to not surrender their lofty goal of superiority. The dream reminds
and trains the dreamer to safeguard themselves from "coming down to be
fellow men". Dreams of flying are often either reminders of the longing
to rise above or warnings to not take risks because the dreamer will then
have his "come down" and his vanity will be injured. Whatever the dreamer
excludes from real life will also be excluded in the dream. If the person
seeks to remove themselves from relationship, it will be common for the
dream to show them isolated or behind a wall. The dream supports the feeling
state that is necessary to support the style of life. The dream simplifies
real problems and selectively draws on memories to support the position
of the person who dreams. The dream will contain nothing new. It is just
the same style of life concealed in symbols. The dream also covers up with
a masquerade, the dreamers lack of social interest. Unlike Freudians, Adlerians
do not view the dream as the road to the unconscious, but rather as the
road to the unacknowledged final act in life ... the fictional final goal.
The dream sets the emotional tone or mood appropriate to the support of
this goal for that day. It moves the person further from social interest
"with a good conscience"! Understanding the patient's dreams will show
what they avoid and the lofty goal they seek. Such understanding when done
efficiently, may also show what they wish to conceal both from themselves
and from the therapist. In fact the life style is the foundational "trick
play" that is the basis of our life line "play book", just as a football
or any other sports team has a play book. In North American football, the
dream is a form of "fake hand off" to distract us from the goal our life
style is directing us to. This trick play allows us to sustain the emotional
intensity necessary to carry out the game plan which like our dream, is
concealed from our conscious mind! It allows us to look like we are headed
in one direction while we proceed in one that is very different. We support
this activity by the use of the emotions from the dream.
So the perceived minus feelings or inferiority feelings coupled with the
"fictional goal of personal superiority" created in childhood becomes the
real "cause" of the clients movements. In this sense, they are teleological.
They are the causa finalis of the psychic movement from the perceived minus
to the perceived plus. The human psychic life is not driven by life's circumstances
or some biological machination but rather is drawn by this final cause
which remains a fiction and not a fact. It feels like a fact because it
is unexamined and persists from such a young age. Adler suggests that the
personality is in place by about age five in terms of the inexorable draw
of this final act in the play of life ... the fictional final goal of perceived
superiority. So once more, the soul life is teleological ... drawn by this
final stanza in the unexamined drama which is written and directed by all
thinking humans in their own unique style. Thus this style of life comes
entirely from the creative power of each individual person. This creative
striving for power started when this person was still a child. When this
goal is identified all of the many movements this person seems to make
will become cohesive and will make sense. This will also demonstrate their
uniqueness. As this goal moves further and further from the common good
of mankind, the person becomes more and more evidently disturbed. Driven
by vain ambition and drawn by the notion of rising above his fellows, this
person will founder on the racks of his own style of life. This is his
creation, his triumph and finally his defeat. Such a program requires the
creation of a disturbance and a diversionary tactic created to suit the
goal. Again the psychology is teleological. The life style is drawn by
this "final act" constructed by this person from childhood. The actions
we witness are this individual's compensation. The goal is clearly the
director of this play. Neither the environment nor this person's genetic
constitution have produced this goal. It is their own private fiction.
When the feeling of community runs thin in this fiction, then this person
will continue to create greater and greater distance between himself and
mankind. Striving for personal power and grandeur is utterly at odds with
the best good for mankind! Indeed this person may create such distance
that he will start to perceive others as wishing him harm. He may even
see those around him as out right adversaries. All of this is occurring
as the degree of feeling part of mankind diminishes.
I have advanced the idea that emotions do not happen to the client but
are a part and product of the fictional goal of the lifestyle. They are
an elegant scheme to move from the feeling of deficiency to appear to achieve
a feeling of being above or control. The emotions are an attempt to hide
sometimes from self, but always from others, the real goal that is at play.
This is a concealed aggressive attempt to achieve the goal of being above
while wearing a "troubled mask" to evoke a muted response from the audience
and conceal the real goal of a behaviour. It matters not at all that the
movement appears as a weakness or disturbance in the person. It is an attempt
to compensate for the feeling of below by seizing control of the situation
by the tools that the person has had success with. It is a movement from
a perceived below to a perceived above. No one can elevate themselves above
others without at the same time attempting to push others down. This notion
is central to Newtonian mechanics as stated in the law, "For every action
there is an equal and opposite reaction...". Thus if one seeks to elevate
the self, they, de facto, must push others or an other, down. Thus the
aggressiveness of the compensatory striving may be very real but at the
same time be presented as some personal weakness! This is movement in a
wrong direction. Since no one likes to get "caught with their pants down",
this movement is hidden behind a counter fiction. This counter fiction
consists of things like "Well I would love to help my neighbour and I agree
everybody should do that, but you see I can't because every time I go to
my neighbour's house I remember the abuse that occurred behind the door
of my house and I just get too nervous". In fact the client does not get
nervous, he ramps up the nervous vibration to excuse himself from helping
the neighbour. It seems to sound so convincing but it is a "trick" to draw
our attention away from what the person is not doing while looking so "good".
Then he expects that we must pity him and help him whenever he demands
through the use of his nervous vibration! Please understand that this
is just one possible "use of emotion" example. The emotional tool or
on the converse blunted emotional tool, will be used differently by each
and every patient based on their biased apperception and in concert with
their style of life. An example of the development of the use of emotions
can be seen in the child who very early in life discovers that when mother
is not present and it becomes "anxious" , mother magically returns. So
it may include in its life style a use of anxiety to get attention. Suppose
a child feels it is being ignored by the parents. It may discover that
getting into mischief will bring them running. This could be the beginning
of a life of getting in trouble to seek the spot light!
It is utterly central to this psychology that people do not have symptoms,
they USE symptoms. The symptoms are used to avoid one of the life tasks
...
The
patient's degree and radius of activity must also be considered to assess
properly the level of pathology or of health. A person who paces frantically
about the consulting room totally consumed by his problems, but never connecting
with the therapist is very active, but is going nowhere. He is choosing
to stand still even as the smoke rises from his shoes. The person who sulks
or is obstinate also stands still and both are moving away from mankind.
Indeed both while appearing to be so active, are beating a hasty retreat!
Doubt and self depreciation are also very powerful movements away from
solving life's problems. This is an example of a low radius of activity
but a high social radius. Being severely critical of the self but affecting
no change is a wonderful way to appear so righteous while achieving nothing
that benefits mankind. In fact such a person wants to be seen as so "holy",
but the movement tells us they are consumed by their vanity. This is an
example of a high degree of activity and usually has a relatively high
radius of influence.
In the psychology of Adler the only thing that is unconscious or subconscious,
is the fictional final goal. If the client was aware of it, it is not highly
likely that they would be able to pull off this subterfuge. This sets Adler
firmly apart from Freud and others. Adler does not repress sexual drives
and impulses into the unconscious as does Freud. The personal ideal, the
goal of the striving could not be maintained if it were conscious. It is
rendered unconscious by the patient to allow them to continue pressing
on to the goal they imagine is so delicious in their deluded egocentric
intoxication! This trick is used to trick the self and of course others.
The goal has to be maintained as unconscious to allow the person to continue
to enhance their vain self esteem and comfortably continue their lack of
of concern about others. If they became fully aware of the act in the play
they portray, they would not likely be able to continue this movement.
They must maintain the fiction of power that the drama of the final act
produces ... the perceived position of pre-eminence. To maintain the internal
emotional tension that the goal produces it must be maintained as unconscious
because if it became aware, even a very discouraged person is not likely
able to maintain this trick. The goal is maintained at the level
of the "as if" of Vaihinger. It is a fiction that draws the person through
all these machinations and self induced suffering to render them more heroic
in their isolated struggle against the best benefit of all of mankind as
they maintain their self induced egocentric narcosis. Underlying this heroic
struggle is the deep chasm of the inferiority feeling which in itself,
is a self deception. Adlerian therapy is partly the task of rendering this
unconscious struggle fully conscious and demonstrating by example and in
therapy that a better way exists. The better way is attainable unlike the
fictional goal. The better way brings the uniqueness of each person into
the service of the common good of mankind. The better interest is social
interest. Once the unconscious life plan is unveiled, it is not usually
a huge endeavour to see the person encouraged and the unconscious plan
is usually surrendered once it is gently and kindly shown to this person
... a person who by the use of the unconscious plan creates in themselves
and others, so much misery. Once this highly over rated unconscious goal
is exposed, it really serves no further purpose. Now a proper and full
antidote for the discouragement must still be provided. If this is not
achieved in the therapy, the neurotic will just adopt another plan and
maintain their fiction. They will seek to maintain their over blown self
importance and fantasized greatness.
The
diagnosis in this psychology is a "life style diagnosis". That is it is
a very complete and detailed comprehension and description of how this
person moves about in life based on their biased apperception. The therapist
looks for specific incidents and turning points in the early years of this
person's life experience. One attempts to determine at what point a discouragement
was felt and what its nature was. This perception is derived from the manifold
movements that the therapist observes and integrates into the story of
this beings life. This must be done uniquely for each and every individual
because no two persons share the same life experience and story. It is
done by a sequence of guesses based on the observation of the client's
movements, what he remembers and relates and on his degree of social interest.
This leads the Adlerian therapist to the "Fictional Goal of Personal Superiority"
that this individual has built. The goal of fictional superiority must
be described very precisely because it points back to the inferiority feeling.
This deep understanding is derived from the expressive movements of the
person and from those things they recall. What a person recalls is important
because we recall in a manner consistent with how we see life, self and
others. We recall those experiences real or imagined, that support our
world view. The early recollections play a helpful role in this regard
because they contain this person's style of life in miniature. The life
style diagnosis when done properly points directly to the specific areas
of encouragement that need to be applied. This process is so very different
from that of current psychiatry that certain agencies like insurance companies
really do not like it. Never the less, the Adlerian therapist is there
for the patient and not the commercial interests of any third party, so
we must stay faithful to the principles that Adler has shared with us.
If this process is done quite completely and precisely, the patient will
feel they have been fully understood in a non-judgemental environment that
leads to an increased experience of community and cooperation. This experience
should allow this person to have an increased sense of being part of the
community of mankind. From both the insight provided and the experience
of this cooperation, most people are able to significantly increase their
own social interest. As their social interest rises, so also their use
of symptoms declines until free of neurosis, they are fully part of mankind
as an equal being. At this stage, the Life Style
is said to have been dissolved
and the person will be able to enjoy the freedom of giving of themselves
as equal humans. Thus the understanding of this life style diagnosis is
one of the most powerful tools I have seen and experienced to produce inner
healing and an experience of being at peace with mankind.
The
therapist also has conclusions that he carries from his childhood. These,
if unexamined, will limit the degree to which he can assist the person
he seeks to help. Look at Henry
Stein's index page and there you will see a strongly worded note of
caution in this regard. Henry believes, and I concur, that the therapist
can really not take the client down a path that he has not travelled. Acquiring
a degree, no matter how prestigious the institution, or taking a large
number of Adlerian courses, can not achieve the dissolution of the therapist's
life style. Indeed the one of the most efficient ways to learn the psychology
is by personal experience in your own study analysis. The best person
to do your own study analysis with is your own teacher who really needs
to be functioning at the level of a fully qualified "training analyst".
If you do less than this, you may encourage and help people, but you will
be forever limited by your own lifestyle! You can not properly or fully
lead the client into waters you have not travelled! Further more your own
inferiority feelings will lead you to despair over defeat for example,
or to seek the "gold medal" of success. In truth the success is not that
of the therapist. We just point in an encouraged direction. The client
makes the first and every step of the journey. All the therapist can take
from the experience is the joy of witnessing a human become more fully
alive or sadly, the agony of being unable to establish cooperation with
this human and the sorrow of seeing them not being encouraged. Sometimes
we have a bonus clause of societal appreciation in that we get paid to
do the work we already love which does add some tangible benefits to the
type of work a therapist does.
(To Be Continued) Because
Adler's psychology holds the unbendable view of the "uniqueness of every
person", the DSM (in whatever version it now exists) can not be applied
to an Adlerian case analysis. This is of some inconvenience to those who
like "cookie cutter psychology". If you hear of an Adlerian applying a
DSM diagnosis, it will only be to satisfy the demands of an agency like
an insurance company. Any use of such a topological system is incompatible
with Alfred Adler's psychology! Any one alleging to be Adlerian who uses
such a system clinically, in my opinion, does not fully understand the
notion of the uniqueness of the personality. As a physician I am sometimes
pressured to provide a DSM diagnosis. I try as much as I am able to resist
this unless the patient would suffer undue hardship in this decision. If
the issue is forced on me, I pull out that confusing DSM volume that gathers
dust on my bookshelf and attempt to adapt the Adlerian notions to this
rather meaningless mumbo jumbo. I can usually do an acceptable job of this
but a DSM diagnosis has none of the precision of the Adlerian lifestyle
analysis, so I do this with great reluctance.
(Please
note this is a web page under development. The supplied information is
also being increased as time permits. It is not to be considered to be
a full rendering of Adlerian psychology. A much better resource in this
regard is Dr. Henry Stein's link
listed above and in any area where this page seems to not agree with Dr.
Stein's page, Dr. Steins page is to be considered correct!. I am, however,
trying to put together a bit of a Canadian page for this psychology.)
Your questions or
comments are invited and are appreciated. They will assist me in the development
of this material .
Last Revision March 15, 2010 Click
here to:
If you seriously wish to understand
the psychology of Alfred Adler, you must have a good teacher like Dr. Henry
Stein and you also must read what Adler has written and that which has
been recorded from his lectures. There is no substitute for reading one
of his articles every day or two. We must be grateful to Dr. Stein for
his effort on the "Translation Project". It has consumed so very much of
his time. We now have a truly readable and good translation of almost everything
Adler has written or that has been recorded by him.
See this link and start purchasing
these wonderful volumes from Dr. Henry Stein on his web page under video
DVDs and books down the page.
Some
Links of Personal Interest:
Aid to Christian
Church in third world (Empower Ministries)
Dr.
Henry Stein is my training analyst and encourager. He has shared this psychology
with me in its richness for approaching 9 years now. I have taken many
courses with this most inspiring and helpful gentleman.
My special interest
is working with individuals to help them see why and how they keep falling
into the same difficulties. At times I also work with both members in a
relationship and this can be most helpful to both.
I do not have a particular interest in traditional marriage counseling
but rather prefer to work with both people separately after an initial
interview together. Once the "life style" of each person is dissolved or
reduced, relationship conflict usually serves no discernible purpose and
ceases.
Children:
I prefer to work
with people over the age of sixteen. I do, however, work with some children
over about age ten if the parent(s) will agree to participate with the
child. I will interview the child and parent, and if I feel my approach
is appropriate to this child, I will then offer further appointments. As
is the case with all potential clients, I must make a decision regarding
those with whom I feel I am able to effectively work.
Some
Hints About Being in Therapy:
An effective therapy takes time.
Be prepared for weekly visits for six months or longer depending on your
need and your appetite for change. Remember that the situation you find
yourself in at the moment has resulted from your conclusions in childhood.
These are well practiced and will not dissolve in only one or two visits
with any therapist except in the most minor of problems. Also recall that
medications do not alter the beliefs that support the distress. I reject
the notion that medication can cure emotional suffering. It needs to be
unraveled and gently understood. When this is achieved, the mind is quite
able to dispatch the symptoms!
For my style
of work, I do not do brief therapy and for me it is not effective, but
rather suppresses some symptoms for a less than satisfactory time period
without the greater benefit of a more complete and precise Adlerian encouragement
and dissolution of the neurotic construction.
This psychology is not as much about diseases of the mind as it is about
life and living. Indeed the theory fully developed provides a fully functional
model for humans living in community. In fact the fully healed human is truly part of and functions fully in the community.
There
is nothing in the theoretical part of this page that is of any use for
self help. It is a brief and very simplified view of some aspects of Adler's
theory only! If you feel you need therapeutic assistance you need to see
a properly trained therapist. My clear bias is toward Adlerian psychology,
but almost any well trained therapist can assist you should you cooperate
with them fully!
Please
see the note linked here
The
Gender Problem on this page
Index
to teaching material below:
The nature of
Personality Theories
The beginning
Life tasks
Inferiority
Feeling
Fictional
Goal of Superiority
The Life Style
Consistency
of the Life Style
Private Logic
Movement
Early Recollections
Scheme
of Apperception
Tendentious
Apperception
Birth Order
Uniqueness
of the individual
Masculine
Protest
Social Interest
On Dreams
Causa Finalis
Use of Emotions
Symptoms
Degree of
Activity
The Unconscious
Diagnosis
The Therapist
Life Style
The DSM Criteria
A good place to start the long journey of attempting to understand Adler's
theory is with the notion that we all have created our own unique way of
responding to the perceived and real challenges of life based primarily
on conclusions we drew starting in the earliest phases of childhood. This
response to life's experiences is the unique creation of each individual.
This specific and very personal set of ways of responding to life's challenges
is called "The
Life Style",
and we started to create it when we were first born or perhaps even in
the last trimester of our life in utero. This life style is a result therefore,
of childlike conclusions commencing from our earliest childhood experiences
but with very limited understanding of logic and reality, if any! The child
lacks any means for philosophical evaluation, and has no standard with
which to compare experiences to that which more generally is perceived
as "true". In fact the child does not have life experience that would even
let him discern that which is true in the generally accepted sense of the
word! The child's conclusions of truth are relative to his home and life
situation. The child does have experiences that produce feelings of pleasure
and feelings of discomfort. Since the child is thinking and drawing conclusions
based on this small set of data reference points, he will seek to eliminate
or decrease the unpleasant experiences and increase the number of pleasant
experiences. The conclusions about what is desirable and undesirable, are
wholly based on the incomplete understanding of the child's growing mind
and is completely subjective. It is generated by the incomplete and as
yet not fully developed and continuously developing mind of this tiny human.
From this data set, the child starts to develop reference points and standards
which become the basis of a subsequent set of conclusions. This set of
conclusions is referred to as "private
logic". This
private logic from the perspective of the child's situation and limited
understanding, is its own creation. It is not some form of deluded thinking.
It is just the type of conclusions that any thinking being could draw from
such limited experience, based on their own creativity from the context
of childhood. It could be a conclusion that we ourselves might also have
drawn with the same situation and the same limited ability. It is not a
mistake for a child to carry such a conclusion. The mistake occurs when
such a conclusion is carried forward unchecked into adult life. It may
not coincide (indeed it often does not) with adult logic and more generally
accepted common sense, but seen in the context of the child's life story,
it would not be unreasonable for a child to draw such conclusions. And
since this same child has little or no opportunity to control the external
influences, a sense of powerlessness most often ensues leading to the feeling
of not being very capable. This information and these conclusions are used
by the child to create his own"inferiority
feeling", and all of this is done with really no tools to assess the real
validity of his conclusions.
(It is interesting in conversing with children how very many of them long
to grow tall. It seems that early in life the desire to be physically above
their peers anticipates the later desire to be psychologically above which
infers quite clearly, the discomfort of feeling below.) Subsequently when
this private logic runs unchecked and unexamined in adult life, it can
be the "parent" of all sorts of seemingly irrational behaviors and beliefs.
Seen from the perspective of the child's deductions or private logic, these
same ideas are not unreasonable at all. From the perspective of this child
and this situation with its very limited life experience, the conclusions
could reasonably be reached by any given individual. Seen from the perspective
of adult logic the conclusions may seem quite perplexing and irrational.
Such
is private logic and this is the logic that runs unchecked in every human
mind until it is examined and corrected. Much of this private logic
is not particularly harmful, but when it leads an individual too far from
common sense and the good of mankind, then it really does need examination
and correction.
A new born child is indeed quite helpless and utterly dependent on the
care of others (usually mother) for its survival. It probably does not
yet have a sense of self because it still has to learn how to create even
this! Now if the mother proves unreliable or unpredictable, the child is
almost always very damaged because it is truly not yet capable of the the
tasks of its young life. But even in such a desperate circumstance, a child
may develop personal resilience and adaptability that can be quite wonderful.
Such a lack of normal maternal nurturing may leave scars so deep that this
person may withdraw even to the extent of psychosis as in "paranoid schizophrenia".
The child seems to have concluded in such a case, that the world is a hostile
place from which it must escape. (In the case of paranoia, the feeling
of insufficiency gets elevated to a goal of personal superiority by a trick.
For example they may have concluded that "Everyone is out to get them".
Thus they have their goal of supremacy because it is not just some who
are out to get them, it is everyone. It seems from this perspective
of deep discouragement, better to be the most hunted than to feel utterly
ignored.) This neglected child is, and probably will feel, they are poorly
prepared for the tasks of life, and they usually are. A greater percentage
of children experience pampering which is often far more harmful. We shall
explore the effects of pampering subsequently.
A child is born into the world with a little mind or brain that is almost
devoid of information except for the experience of the discomfort of its
need for food and warmth and care. It is a sentient being who processes
this information to gradually evolving conclusions. From these conclusions,
without the benefit of a developed logical system, its style of life is
developed and this style of life becomes unique to its self, based on
the notion that the child's coherent conduct indicates that it has found
a specific fixed point outside its own person that it is striving after
with all the energy of its psychic development. It is this fixed external
point that produces the largely non genetic part of human uniqueness.
These early conclusions produce the child's guiding line that will then
start to pull and propel him. This creation is then specific and unique
to each person although it is not unreasonable to indicate that there are
genetic pre dispositions at play. The genetic material does not play a
major role in determining the nature of the conclusions drawn. The major
role is played by the child's evolving intellectual processes and his unique
creativity. There remains however, a great degree of personal freedom in
the development of this psychic life! This unique style of life is still
drawn by the growing "goal" that is the fixed point the child has and will
continue to be pulled toward. This "goal" is the compensating feeling of
being above ... the fictional goal of personal superiority. This fixed
goal is the antipode of the feeling of insufficiency and compensates for
it. The movement to superiority is innate. It is as much a part of life
as is physical growth. It is a function of the mind as it starts to fill
itself and rise above its very real limitations, the limitations of the
baby. This movement, as Adler is careful to point out, is not a movement
that involves vanity in the child, it is a movement toward greater completeness
in the same manner that the child's growing body seeks completeness. It
has nothing whatsoever to do with enhancing the vanity of the child. This
growth that is in parallel with organic growth, is not, in any way, to
be confused with a drive of the type Freud and others described. It
is just part of the process of the normal maturation of the human organism
except that this movement involves the mind and the spirit. It goes astray
when it is not done "sub specie aeternitatis" with the intent of compensating
for a perception of being more inferior than others with a goal of having
some sort of personal supremacy over others. When this occurs, the deficiency
of social interest becomes damagingly evident to greater or lesser degrees.
This situation may develop quite early when a child's situation is particularly
discouraging, perhaps as early as age one or two years.
To understand a client's unique style of life, this fixed point, the sought
after point of fictional superiority, is constantly sought by the
Adlerian therapist. Then the therapist works backwards to the unique discouragement
and inferiority feeling of each individual. Having discerned the unique
discouragement, then specific encouragement for this person can be provided.
Thus this psychology truly is an individual
psychology
in the root meaning of the word individual in German. It seeks to discern
and interpret the unique individual conclusions of every person in the
therapeutic relationship, to engage them in an encouraging encounter through
gentle encouragement and clarification of the movements the person is making.
However any new born child is, so to speak, in an inferior position, from
the perspective of its self as a baby in reference to these large and powerful
people its is surrounded by. In this reference frame the child is inferior
because it is clearly incomplete. Adlerian psychology suggests that various
degrees of this "feeling of deficiency" persist into adult life and this
is called the "Inferiority
Feeling" which
demonstrates its self as an undue feeling of deficiency that seeks a compensation
of some type or other. Since feeling inferior is disquieting, the
child also develops a strategy to compensate for it with a "fictional
goal of superiority".
It is a fiction because it is not indeed accurate. The child may actually
use this feeling of insufficiency to his perceived advantage. He may actually
accentuate his difficulty to thereby put the family or a parent in his
service. This would be a first step in the development of a subsequent
neurosis. If he uses his evident smallness to achieve a perception of more
dominance and influence in the family, he is already showing a rather severe
degree of presumed insufficiency for the tasks of his still young life.
His piqued ambition uses all the tools he can find to gain an upper hand
in such a case. Adler felt that this fictional goal was set in the first
four to five years of life. This goal determines the direction of the life
as it seems to promise power through rising above others around. This goal
draws the mind of the person who feels inferior in some way(s) to an intoxicating
notion of potentially being in the one up position. This goal unifies the
psychic striving by drawing this person always toward this sense of superiority.
This is the unifying force in the psychic life! No single event or genetic
tendency can focus human striving in such a manner. No neglect or abuse
can do this. Only the unifying goal can so inexorably draw a human personality
crafted by personal creativity. This goal will appear in all activity.
It will dictate ones attitude toward society, work and sex. However each
individual has their own "unique to them" goal, and it is not easily seen
unless one is well trained in this psychology. Never the less, the life
of the soul (Sielenleben in German), is utterly drawn by this magnetic
unique self created force. Unfortunately this fictional goal of personal
superiority is utterly incompatible with the best welfare of mankind. True
social interest and this goal can not coexist. As the therapist understands
this unifying principle in the person, it is not done with a condescending
attitude but rather with the clear notion that any person who grew up in
the same circumstance, including the therapist, may well have drawn the
same conclusions and formulated a similar goal of superiority.
The notion of a "Fiction" may be new to you. An example of a useful fiction
is the picture we carry about of the atom as a mini solar system with little
planets (electrons) spinning around the nucleus (the sun). This is a convenient
fiction, but the scientists tell us it is not at all accurate! These fictions
even though they are not accurate, are often helpful ways of organizing
information as long as they are linked with the generally accepted common
sense of the community in which we live. The notion of these fictions was
discovered by Adler in the writings of Henry Vaihinger ... "The Philosophy
of As If", I think is an adequate translation of the German title. When
I refer to fictions in this writing, it is to this concept I refer.
An Inferiority
Feeling depending on how an individual perceives it, is not a bad thing
in and of itself. The truth of our situation as a human is that
we remain incomplete, but that does not translate to being globally inferior.
We just have some areas of incompleteness which are potential areas for
growth. A scientist who sees that in his chosen area he has much to learn,
may find this knowledge of his present insufficiency to be a very strong
motivator to dig more deeply and that is a plus for him and eventually
for mankind. Albert Einstein's struggle to develop his theory of special
relativity is a case in point of a person who saw his difficulty
understanding how space and time work from the perspective of the observer,
to be a strong calling card to discover an as yet unknown understanding
of the physical universe. Indeed no single human being is sufficient in
themselves. But the reverse situation is what happens when a person discouraged
by the inferiority feeling, seeks to compensate and uses strategies to
attempt to deceive himself with the intoxicating notion that he can move
above others, driven by his feeling of insufficiency and the lust for power.
This is vanity and injures both this individual and those around him. But
this goal of seeking to be above others is also a fiction. We are all just
fellow humans and no above is available, save in the self delusion
of the neurotic scheme of domination, but that is just a cooperation of
several neurotic people when one person allows another to dominate them.
However this movement to above is damaging to the person who dominates,
to the person who is dominated and ultimately to mankind in general, because
the full benefit of this individual is lost and he draws down the sum total
of human potential. It holds both the person and mankind back from achieving
the best for all. (A proper knowledge of some of what one does not know
is not disquieting and may be most beneficial in an encouraged individual.)
The depth of a person's inferiority feeling is never tested until this
person is faced with a task where cooperation is required. A person with
a deep inferiority feeling may feel so unable to engage in this pursuit
of being a part of mankind, that they may actually choose to break with
reality. What in fact they are doing is not truly a "break with reality".
It is a steadfast pursuit of their fictional life goal directly in line
with their life style and built on the conclusion that occurred in childhood,
a conclusion of personal incapacity leading them to opt out of common sense
and therefore opt out of the community of mankind. They mistakenly deem
the challenge too great because in their vanity they must be the top or
nothing. The "break with reality" is a masquerade for the goal. The goal
remains one of personal perceived superiority such that the usual demands
of social life no longer appear to apply to this individual. This is not
caused by some breakdown in the function of the brain's neurotransmitters.
It is a change in brain function created by the person to achieve their
goal! For such a change in brain function originating in their "will to
power", of course neurotransmitter levels are altered. That is the nature
of the electro-chemical function of mental processes! The mischief is that
this individual has a goal of being excused from some aspect of community
living and one or more of the three life tasks (See life tasks below).
The
activity of attempting to overcome the Inferiority Feeling by the development
of a personal fictional goal, is called "Compensatory Striving".
A compensation is an attempt to fill up that which is deemed to be deficient
from an egocentric perspective, but in this Adlerian sense, it is thus
only self serving. This "compensatory
striving" to
overcome the feeling of being in a minus position (German Minderwertigkeit)
most commonly is in a direction which neither benefits the individual nor
mankind, most notably the community in which the person lives. Since this
psychology is existential and therefore values based, this psychological
movement is considered to "not be useful", because it is in a wrong direction
that does not benefit the human race. (Good is that which brings a benefit
to mankind. Bad is what detracts from mankind.) This movement away from
bringing benefit happens because the child at this young age has no notion
of community and has become rather used to feeling it must have its needs
met at its command. (This may be different if the child is being neglected
which may lead to a different set of conclusions, but nevertheless, the
child will still probably conclude that it does want its own way, and will
have no or very little sense of the needs of others.) This feeling of inability
leads to a hesitating or sometimes to a dominating compensation strategy.
The perceived need to seem good overwhelms the need to be good. The neurotic
adapts "the will to seem". This feeling of powerlessness leads to a sense
of personal deficiency. This is the root of the inferiority feeling ...
the feeling of being in the minus position. With proper and very accurate
encouragement, this minus feeling can be overcome and we are able to learn
psychological movements that benefit mankind and are therefore deemed to
be in a right or useful direction. The task of the Adlerian therapist is
to discern this movement away from "social
interest" and
correct it with precise encouragement of the perception that this person
is more inferior than others. We can never be above others when we have
social interest or indeed when we do not, but rather we deal with the wonderful
truth that although we are unique, we are also quite content to be the
one among the others, each playing our fair and proper role. The goal of
being "above, is a fool's paradise. Compensatory striving is always damaging
when it is used to attempt to achieve the fictional goal of superiority.
The goal that social interest will always set, is to contribute as fully
as we are able to the community that we at one time sought to rise above.
The nature and intensity of the compensatory striving is directly related
to the depth of the discouragement. The deeper the inferiority feeling,
the higher the goal will be. Furthermore, the more deeply the feeling of
insufficiency descends downwards, the more feverishly the goal will be
clung to and the more strongly it will be defended. A very high goal of
fictional superiority indicates the deepest sense of despondency and worthlessness.
If the Inferiority feeling is very deep it may even produce an "attacking"
attitude or behaviour toward mankind ... the very antithesis of social
interest! Another movement that may be seen when the inferiority feeling
is very deep and the goal is proportionately "out of sight", may be a stopping,
standing still approach to life's problems. Such a person may then demand
that others wait on them. I believe that is one of the reasons that early
in an admission to a psychiatric facility, before medication is given or
could have reached therapeutic levels, significant improvement is often
seen. The patient has his goal. Even his meals are brought to him!
So it becomes apparent at this time, that
the human life is conducted in community. Herein Adlerian psychology is
radically different from almost all other psychology's. Freud argued, as
does modern psychiatry, that the defect in function of the person is intrinsic.
He felt it was some deficiency of function of the brain or mind based on
inherited drives. To conceptualize a human in isolation is just simply
an invalid idea. It would be similar to a suggestion that an electron can
exist without a proton or a nucleus, or perhaps even without space and
time! The speciation of our whole planet is a study in interconnectedness
and inter relatedness, and this applies utterly to the construction of
a neurosis or psychosis. It is conducted in a context of mankind and the
world as a movement away from the iron clad logic of communal living, as
Adler expressed it.
The good news that Adler saw was that mankind has great potential for cooperation
and therefore for mutual benefit. The less happy side of his understanding
is the clear indication that if we as a community fail to co-operate with
one another, the outcome of increased egocentricity would produce an intolerable
and dark world. Adler himself was optimistic. One may only hope that such
optimism is not misrepresented by those of us who try to follow his teaching.
Should society evolve toward greater cooperation the world will be a better
place. Cooperation de facto rules out egocentricity. There is just no place
for it in community. So building up the community of mankind is a task
that is handed to every human, each one to do this from his uniqueness.
As a values based psychology, it is also clear by logical deduction that
if we fail at this task for mankind, the future may well be bleak and that
would be a devastating mistake!
To not embrace the task of adding our fair and proper share to humanity
is clearly a wrong movement.
As for social interest, it is innate because we are social creatures and
can not survive alone. The degree to which it is developed and emerges
is related to a child's conclusions about social situations around him
and the degree to which it is encouraged in him. It is also related to
the degree of discouragement that is present. Social interest evolves in
the social setting around the child and is very much influenced by parental
and societal attitudes. Where selflessness is demonstrated it, grows more
easily. Where the social setting encourages an "every man for himself"
view of life, it will be diminished.
It astounds
me that other psychologies study man in isolation. They are concerned
with the intrapsychic life. They look in the test tube for neurotransmitter
malfunctions. But if we were to study the behaviour of wolves, they would
be studied in a pack. Cattle would be studied in a herd. But humans are
studied in isolation! This is nonsensical and we owe a great debt of gratitude
to Adler for pointing out the clear and obvious truth that humans are social
beings and that all of their behaviours and attitudes play to this social
setting!
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There are three and only three life tasks that we all must address. They
consist of:
The social task consists of all of our interactions with mankind and the
necessity that we be contributing members to this community to a
greater or lesser degree. The social task also encompasses the spiritual
aspects of the human endeavour.
The work task is that of our occupation. It is the way we earn a living,
or the way we add to the world by the use of our skills. It is also the
way in which we occupy our time as is the case with a mother with young
children who is striving to teach and encourage these children so that
they may successfully contribute to mankind as they mature. It is that
part that we seek to contribute to mankind. It may even appear very passive
as for instance, in the contemplative people who seek to add to the understanding
of life and living. They clearly play a very important role. However such
people must not be seeking to avoid the social task, because that would
then be deemed to be a neurosis.
The love task encompasses a rather broad area but does include our relationship
with our children and spouses. It also, rather incidentally, covers the
reproductive necessity to maintain the species. (This in quite sharp contrast
to the psychology of Freud with its heavy emphasis in the libido and sexual
drives.)
None
of these tasks has supremacy over the others. Fully addressing each of
these tasks is a sign of encouraged and full living. The failure to consider
and act on these tasks indicates a degree of discouragement and of compensation.
That does not mean that a priest who feels his life of contemplation and
love for his God has failed to address the sexual task. Perhaps some priests
are seeking to avoid this task, but far more commonly they are men who
feel that the sacrifice of the sexual task befits their calling. They are
not neglecting it. It is over ridden by deeper considerations.
The neglect of any of these tasks because of an inferiority feeling, that
is a feeling that one can not compete fully on this playing field, would
be a sign of neurosis and evidence of the presence of a "life style". Indeed
the more a task is avoided the deeper the problem. Not addressing two or
more of these tasks, is a sign of a quite deep disturbance. A neurotic
individual has a wrong attitude toward one or more of these tasks. He feels
threatened by some sort of failure based on his impossible goal and supported
by his vain wish to look better than he perceives himself to be. On the
other side, the healthy person seeks to be more fully connected to the
community through the achievement of these tasks. If a person feels the
challenge of one or more of these tasks is "too much for him", he may retreat
to full blown psychosis which is a trick that simply says "You can't expect
anything from me now, can you?" Indeed some of these very discouraged people
have so removed themselves that they have created their very own and very
personal nearby battle field wherein they engage with all their might.
However it is just a side show and a demonstration of deficient courage.
With such a severe mock engagement how could one not be discouraged. Now
furiously fighting on this self made battle ground, they have their moment
in the light and their sense of fictional superiority enhances their vanity.
Now we must not be confused. The person in holy orders has not failed to
address the love task. They are called to an aspect of the love task that
is not easily seen but their contemplative life, more freely available
through the absence of marriage, is adding to mankind. They are not avoiding
a community responsibility but are seeking through this discipline to add
to the world.
Similarly the person who does not have a paying job but is feeding the
hungry in an impoverished area, is not avoiding the work task. They may
even work harder than most.
The person who limits the number of social contacts they are able to have
because the nature of their work is that intense, is also not avoiding
the social task. In their own way they add to mankind. When we speak of
avoiding a life task, this psychology is addressing the issue of avoiding
the task to support the life style! Avoiding a life task is done to camouflage
the inferiority feeling because this discouraged person does not feel they
can compete on this playing field up to the vain level of their fictional
goal of superiority so they abstain and do nothing and probably will generate
a lot of symptomatic vibration to mask what they are really doing.
So in
reference to these three life tasks, as Adler says, "It matters not what
you bring to life; it matters what we make of it."
(CCWAA Vol. 5, Chapter XXVI, On Neurosis and Talent, Page 99)
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Perhaps
one of the clear and obvious signs of our incompleteness is that we are
also profoundly insufficient in our understanding of Mind of this magnitude.
Thus it is that we can promote our vanity by our religious practices and
beliefs when in fact, the very notion of Divine Mind, by its very nature,
should yield deep humility. In some, who also have a high level of social
interest, this happens. Would that it would happen more commonly! Then
way might indeed live "sub speciea aeternitatis" such that with increased
completeness we could leave behind the self centred, self promoting vain
attempts to enhance our vanity and live in a harmonious community. Forsaking
the goal of personal completeness to pursue a path thought to avoid the
possibility of a defeat as we move away from our perceived imperfection,
and thus seeking to enhance one's vanity, is a useless and therefore wrong
goal for a human. Few psychologies see this picture and therefore, they
miss the advancement of the species by failing to address this core concern.
Never the less, we were in life's early phases as helpless infants, in
an utterly vulnerable and dependent condition. We emerged from the womb
as very incomplete beings. If we were loved and encouraged such helplessness
brought us love, but if we were not welcome in this world, the feeling
of being deficient may have become very deep. All humans carry this feeling
of insufficiency to varying degrees. It may prove a blessing or a curse.
If it is used as a blessing it drives our beings to seek to overcome the
difficulties of this life. Under such conditions it drives us to achieve
more and more of that which we may bring to this world. The whole human
organism fights this downward potential pull just as the little legs and
arms fight the downward force of gravity. We are all inferior as we start
our journey. The difficulty starts to occur when we seek to rise above
mankind about us. It is when we become self centred and egocentric, that
the feeling of inferiority turns from a blessing to a problem. It is when
we feel that we must overcome this minus feeling by rising above the others
in our field of view, that the goal of superiority as a fiction is starting
to be created.
There is an unspoken piece in this argument. It is that every child
has made an evaluation of himself. And this is so. Had no evaluation
been made, there would be no movement in the child. As he watches his parents
and perhaps siblings walking about above him, he has seen that first, he
is below and that second, he would like to be above. This self evaluation
based on entirely subjective information and produced by the unfinished
and very young mind, becomes the bricks and mortar for the inferiority
feeling and its compensating fictional goal of superiority. This evaluation,
because it is done before any form of adult logic begins to develop, is
the foundation and ground of the subsequent private logic. It is all self
created based on childhood conclusions. It has very limited validity and
it is not tested. In the case of minds that have any sort of efficiency
of thought, it leads to the minus feeling. The child and indeed the adult
feeling the pressures of the world around them feel caught between the
need enhance the appearance of the self in the world and the tension of
fearing the experience of a defeat. The notion of personal ability is not
innate. It is measured against the interplay of the perception one has
of the characters on the stage of life around him. The appearance that
the big people are more capable would seem to be an evident conclusion
for a child to draw. This leads to the over arching sense of deficiency
that becomes the not thought through inferiority feeling. Now as one grows
older, since this notion has become entrenched at a preverbal age, the
view of cosmic forces will serve most often to deepen the feeling of ineptitude.
A strong unspoken negative view of the self is formed and it is a sense
of being below. Now let me be clear. This individual is no more inferior
than any other person. He wants to be on top and feels he can not. His
vanity is threatened because he can not achieve his lofty and impossible
goal. Thus it is he puts on a side show of symptoms to appear as if he
can not do thus and so when the truth is, he conceals that doing what is
reasonable for a human should do does not satisfy his vain view of life.
Symptoms
are the defensive smoke screen he develops to conceal his hidden plan that
he feels has failed as it should. He can not be number one!
This minus feeling takes root very early in life. It starts as the child
perceives a relative inability in himself compared to the world around
him. The German word is "Minderwertigkeit" or a thought or feeling of being
in a minus position. Now compared to adults every child is in a relatively
minus position. The feeling we are discussing is of a feeling of being
in an abnormally minus position. This child has no real basis on which
to conclude such a thing however overburdening problems like health issues
or social circumstances, may indeed accentuate the feeling of inferiority.
These situations do not create it never the less. It is the creation of
the individual based on his own assessment of the situation and his evaluation
of where he "should be". What starts to grow so early is this egocentric
desire to be the first and as capable or more capable than those who go
before him. This child is not satisfied to be a little learner. He must
move immediately to the top of the class. So the real origin of this feeling
is as always in this psychology, a lack of community feeling. Unlike Freud
who spoke of the infant (I believe) wish to desire the breast, this child
wants to own it. It starts to become his right in life to have all of his
wishes fulfilled. Failing that, he sees himself as a failure. There is
only first. There is no sense of others and being a part of the community.
Now the way life is may contribute to this feeling. After all if he cries
he is fed. If he dirties his pants he is changed. Indeed the most damaged
child is the pampered child. All of his wishes and desires are done for
him and to him. His wish is the world's command. He, from his lofty throne,
has the earth as his kingdom. He has never had to put his own skills to
the test. He will most often conclude that he has little ability and therefor
we must serve him. Having no opportunity to explore the area of personal
courage, he may not know he has any. Neglect is not to be recommended but
a child may see from his neglect that he can overcome the problems of life.
Abuse creates terrible difficulties for a child, but if he can rise above
it and move on with life he can already see he has ability and resilience.
Pampering leaves a legacy of feeling weak, powerless and inept in many
instances.
The
role of Individual psychology now becomes very clear. It is a role of providing
deep, extensive and precise encouragement for these childhood misapprehensions.
The child has had a mistaken start due to the inadequacy of his perceptions
and these are to be precisely addressed and encouraged for the first
time. The most hopeful intervention would have to be in the earliest
years of a child's conscious life. Thus Adler appealed to teachers more
than to physicians later in his career. This sense of self defeat seems
to set in even as early as the first year of life. This is the period when
the child starts to conceive of himself as deficient with reference to
those around him. This means that many of these perceptions may not even
be supported fully with words. They may be very primal, so to speak. It
is at this very earliest phase of life that he starts to conclude that
his inability will not permit him to meet his perception of the demands
of life. Out of this sense of incompleteness he hones his skill at looking,
in his own eyes, like he has become big and important. He tries, in an
expression my son uses that I find quite amusing, "To become a legend in
his own mind". The higher his fantasy legend is raised, the more he removes
himself from reality and mankind and the deeper the sense of insufficiency
will grow. Thus he becomes distant and negative and often quite pessimistic.
He increasingly avoids putting his real skill to the test and isolation
more and more rides over his common sense. It may also occur that he seeks
to dominate more and more also to compensate for his perceived imperfection.
More and more he avoids the new. More and more he withdraws from the arena
of human useful endeavour.
In a truly and fully encouraged child, such a feeling will not grow to
fruition. This psychology suggests that the incidence of troubled people
would be greatly diminished if parents and teachers better knew how to
encourage children and to teach them to care for others as much as they
care for themselves. If they did this one thing, this child would have
social interest and could not easily become egocentric or self serving.
So in the prevention of neurosis and psychosis, a heavy burden falls to
teachers and parents. However it also recognizes that they also must be
encouraged. In the latter part of his life, Adler gave much effort to assisting
teachers to encourage children since he deemed quite rightly that prevention
is better than a cure!
The discouraged child will feel that he is not capable of being fully part
of the community. He will have a sense of unworthiness. He will be deficient
in his ability for cooperative and he will lack self confidence. He will
address the tasks of life in a manner that only considers his feeling of
being deficient. He will lack the courage to rise above this because he
became discouraged only because he chooses to give up and not attempt a
new or different approach to the problems at hand. His prophecy will be
self fulfilling and he will succeed in failing in the community. He will
feel he falls short in one or two or even all of the three tasks of life.
A major contributing factor in such a discouragement, is often pampering.
This person as a child, had far too much done for them so they never discovered
the extent of their own resources. In adult life they may want this back.
In the presence of deficient social interest, they may well develop symptoms
to support a neurotic style of life. But a central truth in human existence
is that it does not matter nearly so much what one brings to life, but
rather what one does with his potential and no one can be excused from
this task from the understanding of this psychology. Unfortunately having
tangled ourselves in this spider web of the feelings of weakness and inferiority,
we seem to surrender any attempt at taking charge of the direction and
proper goal for our existence. We utterly lose the bigger notion of the
potential for cumulative benefit if we apply ourselves to the task of assisting
others with passion and fervor. The loss of this bigger picture is directly
linked to our degree of vanity and self-centredness. Adler invites us to
lift up our eyes to the cause of humanity and stretch ourselves both as
persons and for others. What a world it could be if we all should do this!
Such a task can only be achieved when we set aside our vain pursuit of
personal grandeur and perceived power. It is a stark truth that if humanity
does not surrender its self centeredness, it faces extinction!
The compensation is the creation of the despondent self who feels so inept.
It is the the fictional goal of perceived superiority. Even the child will
know that this is a fraud but will not understand how to stop this compensatory
activity. At least then he can attempt to deceive others into feeling that
he is bigger than he feels he really is. This is carried forward on automatic
into adult life like a compass for the psychic life. The deeper the inferiority
feeling, the loftier will be this goal so much so that the first clue an
Adlerian therapist has about the goal, sometimes, is by its grandiose nature.
The nature of the compensatory striving is also determined by the nature
and depth of the sense of defeat. And all of this is the creation of the
person who is a little one, under the age of five, based on his childhood
sense of deficiency. Thus it is that the sense of defeat can only be overcome
when this goal is brought down because it is self destructive and utterly
self defeating. As long as the lofty goal rides high, this person can never
feel secure in his community. He can never give himself because it is just
the proper thing to do. He will almost always give to get back .. to make
a big impression. He will always seek not to benefit mankind, but rather
to inflate his vanity.
Soalthough
the
feeling and realization that we are incomplete is a benefit, the notion
that we are more incomplete than others and therefor must rise above them
on our own vain wings, is the source of serious social and psychological
problems. The creative power of the human mind when used for community
good is a blessing. When it is used to promote the self in its vanity,
it is a serious curse! The use of the personal creative power of an individual
may work in a useful direction or sadly, may be used to develop a fictional
egocentric goal of being above or its opposite, a goal of being the best
at being the worst.
So this fictional goal is the child's compass to free him from the feeling
of insufficiency. He creates this to free him from the perceived harsh
bondage of the inferiority feeling. His compass is being more and more
set in an egocentric direction away from social interest. He has found
a fictional method by which he can grasp his standing among mankind. From
this point on, his creation becomes more and more his master as he is
drawn, as if by a siren song, to the shoals of his personal defeat.
And all of this is based on his creation as a child. From this point on
he will seek to elevate his self worth but will start the downhill slide
of missing his place as the one among the many. The perceived beauty of
the long haired sirens and their strange call will fascinate him. He must
be taught to close his ears to their call. This fiction he has produced
becomes his constant safeguarding method. His vanity is already piqued
and the inferiority feeling will grow anon. The greater the difficulties
the child faces in his home the higher will be the goal. (The fictional
goal of superiority is often shortened to the term "the goal".) The neglected
child will produce a goal of one height. The abused child yet another height,
but probably the highest goal will be set by the pampered child who wishes
to continue to be served in the manner to which he has grown accustomed.
We should all serve him! The child with deficiencies in his organism may
use these to demand that he be served. He may even accentuate these constitutional
problems to receive a perceived advantage. A girl child may mount a protest
because she is not a boy. The fictional goal acts like a sentry post always
looking forward to those things that may disrupt the persons vanity. There
is always the anticipation of a defeat in life. There is little courage
to join with others to better the world. No, this fictional construction
comes pretty close to "If I am not the first, then I am nothing" in all
too many discouraged humans. This same compass and sentry may urge the
person to depreciate the world around him. He will exalt himself in his
own eyes. This goal produces many tricks and some quite nasty behaviour.
This compass goal will eventually be his undoing if it is set very high
at all. This person will founder on the rocks of his own creation when
a fully developed neurosis is developed. His vain ambition has like the
waves of the sea, driven him against the lonely rocks that he has set his
compass for. He becomes the author of his own destruction when this goal
is fully set in a very high manner. He founders because in his goal other
humans are not fellow beings but rather are targets to be surpassed or
defeated. The movement is increasingly egocentric as the goal becomes higher
and higher. He is more and more deluded by his own plan of life. He loses
any sense of direction save the call of his goal which draws him like a
super conducting magnet. I suppose the ultimate expression of this is in
the philosophy of Nietzsche, "the will to power". In truth, to be utterly
accurate, Adler described a fictional goal of personal perfection.
It is this self ideal of perfection compensating for the inferiority feeling,
that draws the soul life of the individual like a great internal vector
oriented magnet.
The formulation of this fictional goal is a covert, clandestine operation.
It is not only concealed from others but even from the self. In fact the
goal and its utter impossibility must be concealed from the self, or it
could never be maintained. This high flown goal must be contained away
from consciousness, because if the person became aware of its nature, the
very weight of its folly would cause it to collapse like a house of cards.
It must be maintained against the force of logic because logic clearly
dictates that no human can be globally above another. All that is available
and all that needs to be available, is a variation in skills in accord
with one's uniqueness. It is the burden of the presumed inferiority that
presses this creation to exist. The downward thrust of the inferiority
feeling forces it up like the magma from a vent in a volcano. It has to
be formulated in secrecy because it carries such an aggressive attitude
to the world around. This hostile attitude toward mankind that seeks to
elevate the self above all others, must be carried out in a secretive manner,
or the person will be bereft of those he can rule. They will all forsake
him and flee! It is usually covered with what Adler called a counter fiction.
The counter fiction will be carefully structured to make the self acceptable
to those who do not see the goal. It is a means to look good while maintaining
strict egocentricity. An example might be a wealthy person who gives millions
to charity, but only so that the world will admire him. Such a person will
always ensure that his left hand knows what his right hand is doing and
his left foot and the local radio, TV and news outlets! He does this purely
for self aggrandizement. It is not for his fellow man. So he maintains
a counter fiction of being a giving person while taking all the self elevation
he can find.
Unfortunately
this attitude of enlarging the self seems to be present in every human
because we have all developed a feeling of inferiority. If you will, it
is the Adlerian version of "original sin" wherein sin means in Greek and
I believe in Hebrew, to fall short of the mark or standard. Perhaps someone
with training in these ancient languages could correct me if I am wrong.
We all seem to strive for power above others, some more and some less.
Only when this fictional goal causes obvious social difficulties, does
it usually bring the person to the care of a psychologist. That usually
occurs because of the compensatory striving although in people who use
depression, for example, it may appear as a total surrender. Of course
this "upward movement" is always the result of the perception of insufficiency.
It has destroyed individuals and it has also destroyed great nations when
it is acted upon by a national group with a national inferiority feeling
and a frightening overcompensation that does not regard the welfare of
the human race! In an individual, when this goal of superiority is highly
tuned they may flee to self exalting religiosity, artistic aestheticism,
neurosis, psychosis or even to criminal behaviour. Such a person will loudly
proclaim his greatness, all because he feels so broken. The greater the
sought after elevation of the self above his fellows, the deeper we know
is the pain of the depths of the despair of the perceived defeat.
This goal also renders its carrier unable to deal with reality. He, in
Adler's words, "is nailed to the cross of his own construction". He is
self deceived and immobilized by a set of beliefs he created in childhood.
He suffers but the cause of the suffering is not that which he acknowledges.
Anything that seems to stand between himself and his hidden goal will create
intense emotional vibration or on the other hand it may create paralysis.
His exaggerated personality ideal is a hard and heavy burden pressing down
on him like the weight of a mountain. His life is hard and burdened but
the back pack he carries says "made by me". He does not read the label.
Even
the criminal has a goal, the goal of being admired or even feared by other
criminals, or perhaps the goal of increasing his personal possessions without
his own effort. If the goal is to be feared, then the younger criminal
must "earn his stripes" so we see the escalation of the severity of his
behaviour. The older criminal has a different problem. As his physical
organism ages and his ability to frighten others therefore diminishes,
he may lose his coveted and selfish feeling of false power. Under these
conditions he may burn out and give up his criminal endeavours. He may
do the opposite however, and enlist a following, usually of younger men
with a lust for power, to do his bidding. All criminals are almost totally
lacking in social interest.
The
more neurotic the individual and therefore the higher the goal, the more
this individual will seek unceasingly to prove his elevation, his superiority.
This fiction draws the life to misery and ship wreck all to counter a situation
that does not exist by a measure that is not available! Indeed once the
therapist truly understands this fictional goal, he starts to be able to
anticipate what this person will do next. When this has happened the therapist's
hypothesis will stand confirmed by a reasonable scientific test, but only
in the case of this one individual. The longer the Adlerian therapist trains
and the more fully he understands this theory, the more quickly and constantly
this will occur. The art surrounds knowing how and when to expose the life
plan to this person who is creating their own suffering, but to do it in
a gentle manner so it may be received and corrected.
There
is a world of difference between the sense of being incomplete that we
all share and the desire to be superior. Striving for superiority is to
strive for power over others. The striving for completeness from the situation
of recognizing that there is much more we both can and should do with or
lives, is laudable. When we seek superiority to fill in a perception of
being less when we want to be above those around us, we go astray. As I
have mentioned above, the striving to rise above our limitations is part
of our being from birth. The attempt to rise above others comes from a
sense of being less but being at the same time deficient in our care for
others and thus trying to subjugate them to us and rise above them in myriad
ways. Adler does point out that the "purest expression of God succeeds
in this goal of completeness". (CCWAA Vol. 7, Page 97) A goal of seeking
superiority while leaving his life tasks unaddressed, is actually moving
in an opposite direction as he seeks to avoid what he conceives of as potential
defeats. The more one moves in this egocentric direction, the more one
guarantees his personal defeat. When a society looses its way in this manner,
it is headed for extinction. Many great societies in human history have
foundered on this shoal and disappeared! When one is driven by this sense
of true incompleteness to add what he can to the course of human history,
each in his own small way, the future of that social structure has a renewed
hope. Gemeinschaftsgefühl solves the human dilemma both individually
and societally.
In contrast
to this fictional goal, the real goal of a human life must be in Adler's
words, "To add to the stream of human evolution sub specie aeternitatis".
Anything less than this will diminish what this person might add to life
and living and will leave their own lives less fulfilled. It is getting
tangled up in the web of the childhood feeling of deficiency and compensating
with the untrue fictional goal, that holds humanity back from fruition.
Then too there is the tyranny of the perceived urgent immediate problems
of life ... the day to day perceived crises that divert the gaze from the
distant call of the needs of humanity. Lost in the noise of the moment
and captive to the feeling of inadequacy, the soul is lost in the noise
of the present and ignores the distant rising sun of the future which can
only be secured if we each add to the whole our fair part. Thus our individual
vanity and egocentricity must be set aside.
.The
Style of Life
A skilled therapist as a good observer is always refining his understanding
as he sees these bits and pieces of the movement (see movement in index
above) and memories of this person. Adler therefore suggested that
we constantly revise and test our guesses about the life style as we observe
various movements by the client. The initial hypotheses are often off target
and must be revised, but the therapist continues to formulate an image
of what this person is moving toward ... the goal of "fictional superiority.
Each guess that is made to understand the person when the response is given,
leads to the next in the series of guesses. Adler suggested that these
guesses be written in chalk with our right hand on a blackboard, with an
eraser ever present in our left hand to erase guesses that prove to be
incorrect. In mathematics this is known as "successive approximation".
However a highly skilled Adlerian therapist can discern the unique style
of movement from very small pieces of information. This is because of the
wonderful understanding and insight that Adler achieved when he spoke of
the "consistency
of the lifestyle".
In fact the term "Individual Psychology" in German refers to the central
notion Adler held dear, that of the "unity of the person". This is in very
real contrast to the tripartite construction of Freud with the "id", "ego",
and "super ego". Adler saw the person as one whole being, and the unifying
principal is the movement toward the goal of each individual.
It becomes apparent that the ground underlying all of the perceived difficulties
is the previously mentioned feeling of deficiency, the Inferiority Feeling
(German = "Minderwertigkeit"). It takes root as the child makes note of
its surroundings and starts drawing conclusions with such limited information.
We do not know how early this process starts, but it may even start before
birth. The conclusions of the child however, are drawn in a social
context. They
are not drawn in a vacuum. They are connected to the perceived abilities
of those about the child in relationship to his perception of his own ability.
Because a child has real physical and intellectual difficulties that are
just age related it is easy to see that he will develop usually, a feeling
of being in a minus position soon after birth with a little developing
brain that wishes all too soon to have all of the abilities of the "big
people". Adler proposes that from the very beginning , the inferiority
feeling is already growing, the sense of ineptitude ... the sense that
the child is less and does not measure up. Although the feeling of inferiority
is universal, the degree varies greatly from person to person, from those
who are greatly encouraged to those who forsake the fray. All of this is
done with almost no valid information other than the flood of sensory inputs
to the mind with nothing stored in association areas in the brain, save
that which it can hear, and feel, and see. The conclusion of a discouraged
child may lead to this feeling of deficiency long before the child can
communicate this with others and from that point forward it runs unexamined
creating all sorts of mischief. From birth, the child has not yet developed
social interest but rather receives on its command, the answer to nearly
all of its needs from others. Often these "needs" are provided first by
mother, then from father, then the family and eventually a discouraged
child may conclude that he is entitled to the same service from the community
of mankind. This may effectively reinforce the deficiency feeling but in
some people it produces a wonderful degree of wishing to contribute. A
person from a slum development may become a great benefactor of mankind.
This life style is unique to any given person. No other person will have
the same style. It is every bit as unique as a finger print. Adler also
called it "the person's unique law of movement". This unique law of movement
will exclude any activity that stands between this person and their fictional
goal of superiority. Anything seen to block this personal goal of fictional
perfection will automatically be excluded. The life style rides rough shod
over the logic of community living. It continues, without an effective
therapy, to exist throughout a person's life. It certainly may modify in
certain regards as a result of various life influences, but it really does
not change dramatically. I have been trying to think of an appropriate
demonstration of this and what came to mind is the music of the great composers.
I have only very minimal training in music to do with classical pipe organ,
but I suspect any person with a reasonable ear for music will understand
this comparison. Most of us would agree that the music of Mozart, Bach,
Beethoven and Scriabin is distinct and different to each composer. Even
if we have not heard a certain work we will probably say, "That sounds
like Mahler" or "that piece reminds me of Bruchner." From an Adlerian perspective
this is because the music of the composer is connected directly with his
"Style of Life". So we will hear a rather sombre tone in Mahler (if I am
correct) and perhaps a triumphant joyous sound in Handel's work. This is
so evident to me that a few years ago I found out that the Mozart Requiem
was not fully written by Mozart. He died and was buried in a pauper's grave
before the work was completed. Indeed I had heard parts that did not sound
like Mozart to me and I have very minimal training in music as I have noted.
I listened to this Requiem a number of times and tried to note what parts
I felt Mozart indeed had written. I then read a scholarly report of how
the work had been completed and was quite surprised that I had identified
the "non Mozart" parts with some (not total) accuracy. I believe that this
has happened because as hard as the scholars tried to be faithful to Mozart's
unique style, even with some of his unfinished scores in hand, and with
consultation with his wife, the experts own life styles still showed in
what they attempted to compose in a Mozart style! In the same manner, a
trained Adlerian therapist can see the (musical) theme of a given person's
style of life and no other person will ever produce the identical "music".
This theme will run through every individuals life and throughout their
lives barring a significant intervention or some unusual or traumatic event
that changes the inferiority feeling and the compensatory goal.
If this illustration does not assist you, just carry on but do read some
of Adler's writing now fully available in an excellent English translation
through Dr. Henry Stein's web page through this link. CCWAA
This notion of the unity of the person is very much at odds with Freud's
notion of the self as a veritable battleground between the Id, the Ego
and the Super ego. The human person is not a battle of conflicting forces
but a unified movement from the Inferiority Feeling to the Fictional Goal
of Superiority. The person is the author and creator of this conflict and
not some strange "instinctual force". This is clearly more hopeful because
the creator of the difficulty may also "uncreate it" when given the insight
and courage to do so.
It should logically flow from these concepts that an individual is not
a victim of his circumstances or his genetics. He is an active creator
of his world view and thus of the largest portion of his intrapsychic life.
The style of life is the creation of each individual and is as unique or
even more so than his physical appearance. Our appearance we have very
little control over. Our life style is the clay of life's events interpreted
by our own creative minds and fashioned on our own potter's wheel. So,
once more, this life style is not the result of intrinsic drives and the
accidents of life, but rather is the unique creation of each individual.
This creation is even more unique to this person than is the music of Handel
to Handel, or J.S. Bach to Bach!
Indeed "All the world is a stage" as the life style is played out. And
it is done without any (or at least very limited) understanding of the
plot. The client acts as if they are an alien behind enemy lines, as if
they want to be king, as if they are the "worst sinner on earth". But the
story line is always the same to the skilful eye of the Adlerian observer.
They always move from the perception of being minus to the fiction of being
an exhaled plus. And it is all a fiction, just like most stage plays. The
sad part of this type of existence is that this deeply discouraged person
has played this role so long and so automatically, that they really may
come to believe they are the part! And the role they have learned to play
is every bit as unique to them as the music of Beethoven is to Beethoven!
(Just as an aside I at one time thought I had worked with several people
suffering from "multiple personality disorder" or what ever it is called
now. Dr. Henry Stein challenged me in a telephone conversation to discern
the life style of each "part". To my chagrin I found the parts all had
the same movements, the same inferiority feeling, and the same goal. They
were like a Greek tragedy with the actors wearing only a mask. The notion
of the consistency of the life style prevailed and I surrendered the notion
of "MPD", which was really quite a relief when I knew of a psychiatrist
who started working with a lady with six "alters" which grew to ninety
until the therapist client relationship was dissolved when the lady trashed
her office! I could guess that the patient's compensation for her inferiority
feelings was to "enlarge her person and extend her authority!")
The
goal is the unifying principle of human existence. As you have seen above,
the goal is a creation of an individual based on their own sense of inferiority,
whereby the goal becomes the compensation for this uncomfortable conclusion.
The goal becomes the unifying force of the life style. It is the fixed
point of every person. This goal is secretly creating a sense of order
in the chaos of life, yet when this goal is properly examined, it really
does not exist. It is just a fiction about which the psychic life is organized.
However this goal driven activity is not a fiction in this psychology.
It is the driving force of each psychic life. It is the fixed reference
point of this goal that makes the style of life consistent in any individual
because it is specific to them and the conclusions they have created. So
the modus operendi is fixed by it, and the style of life becomes a self
consistent creation of this person. Underlying this is the tormented feeling
of inferiority. It seems to eat at the soul. But it is also a creation
of this person so it too, is a fiction. Thus propelled by one fiction and
drawn by another, the life style becomes utterly consistent in any given
person! The compensation is the unique creation of each and every discouraged
child. Thus it is unique to that child who carries it forward into adult
life. No two humans will ever compensate for their inferiority feelings
in the same manner. Therefor, the encouragement that corrects the compensation
must be for this specific person who created it, and this person alone.
No encouragement the therapist has been able to provide for another person
will correct the difficulties of this person. Each individual must be understood
in their uniqueness. This notion is very much in keeping with my concerns
expressed subsequently about the use of the DSM process. It can not be
applied in an Adlerian therapy!
So in summary, the utter consistency of the style of life of any individual
is firmly based on two factors or poles. The first is the precise nature
of their inferiority feeling and its depth. The second factor is the degree
of their feeling of community. These two areas and these alone, push and
draw the style of life in any person. Thus it is consistent in that person
and with out an intervention that takes these two poles into consideration,
it will also be persistent. The inferiority feeling is the creation of
an individual as is the degree to which they commit themselves to their
human surroundings. It is quite easy, when these factors are clearly understood
to see that the style of life is consistent within any individual and that
it is their own creation. It also becomes clear that the emotional suffering
that falls out of this situation is also a creation of the individual.
In fact a very high degree of the emotional suffering of the human race,
falls directly out of these two factors spread across all of humanity.
The current dysfunction in this world will not change until and if mankind
is relieved of these self created burdens! It would seem self evident that
if the degree and expression of care for others in the form of social interest,
the outlook for humanity is bleak. Indeed like species before us, we may
become extinct!
It also should be evident that the philosophic basis for the potential
healing of the human condition is carried in the philosophy of life that
Adler has offered to us. The life style may be consistent and quite discouraged
in many people, but with understanding, commitment and devotion to the
ideas in this psychology, much could change and improve. Indeed the teachings
of Adler can have a ripple effect. When I am working with clients I, as
one intervention toward increased social interest, invite them to share
what they are learning and have learned with their friends. This will lead
to more healing in themselves.
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So it now seems I am making value judgements and Adlerian psychology does
make value judgements. Surely it would be wrong to not notice those things
that impede the stream of human evolution. That which does not benefit
mankind is not useful. That which benefits mankind is good and to be encouraged
in ourselves and in others.Adlerians
generally feel that the failure of other psychologies to make such evaluations
is a real weakness in some theories. How can humanity improve its functioning
without some real standards that are lived and taught?
The feeling of deficiency is so uncomfortable, that all humans withdraw
from it as they will from any other "noxious stimulus". This withdrawal
is one form of movement, although in healed people, it will be a stimulus
to learn and be more rather than an impediment. The "movement" I am describing,
is that of the person with a persistent Life Style based on a feeling of
deficiency and a compensatory notion of being above. This above notion
is the creation of a child and is not apparent to the individual even though
it pulls (the fictional goal of superiority) and pushes (the inferiority
feeling) their lives continuously! This pushing and pulling is in fact
the motive force that creates the Life Style.
The inferiority feeling stands like a mountain range between the person
and the sense of community and of social interest. This sense of deficiency
is one of the deepest wounds of the human soul and only as it is healed
can the person become a functioning part of the fabric of the community
in his best sense. Concentrating on personal power and influence must interfere
with feeling as a fellow man. To feel as other than a fellow human is a
cruel self deception and with this deception in place, the usual movement
can not be toward others, but rather seeks to go above. "Above" is a lonely
place. Here the value of this person will founder on the rocks of his own
vanity. Only when a person is involved and cooperative as a person, can
a true sense of satisfaction and perhaps even of happiness emerge. This
inferiority feeling is created by the person in the first three to five
years of his life. It will not be easily discerned. When it is compassionately
understood and corrected the movement to above will serve no further purpose
and thus will usually cease. To untangle this, the private logic of the
childhood years with its basis in childhood private logic must be clearly
seen and unfolded to the client. When this is done fully a new logic arises
from the ashes, the logic of community living.
Return to
The notion
that all life and perception is to be understood in a dynamic and not
static reference
frame is aptly descibed by the theoretical physicict David Bohm in
his book "Wholeness
and the Implicate Order" (Published by Ark Paperbacks in 1983
Pages 48-50)
This work is a very good read if you have an appetite for the hard sciences!
"The notion that reality is to be understood as process is an ancient
one, going back at least to Heraclitus, who said that everything
flows. In more modern times, Whitehead' was the first to give this
notion a systematic and extensive development. In this chapter 1
shall discuss the question of the relationship between reality and
knowledge from such a point of view. However, while my explicit
starting point is generally similar to that of Whitehead, some
implications will emerge that may be significantly different from
those of his work.
I regard the essence of the notion of process as given by the
statement: Not only is everything changing, but all is flux. That
is to say, what is is the process of becoming itself, while all objects,
events, entities, conditions, structures, etc., are forms that can
be
abstracted from this process.
The best image of process is perhaps that of the flowing stream,
whose substance is never the same. On this stream, one may see
an ever-changing pattern of vortices, ripples, waves, splashes,
etc., which evidently have no independent existence as such.
Rather, they are abstracted from the flowing movement, arising
and vanishing in the total process of the flow. Such transitory
subsistence as may be possessed by these abstracted forms implies
only a relative independence or autonomy of behaviour, rather
than absolutely independent existence as ultimate substances. (See
Reality and knowledge considered as process 49
chapter 1 for a further discussion of this notion.)
Of course, modern physics states that actual streams (e.g., of
water) are composed of atoms, which are in turn composed of
'elementary particles', such as electrons, protons, neutrons, etc.
For a long time it was thought that these latter are the 'ultimate
substance' of the whole of reality, and that all flowing movements,
such as those of streams, must reduce to forms abstracted from
the motions through space of collections of interacting particles
However, it has been found that even the 'elementary particles'
can be created, annihilated and transformed, and this indicates
that not even these can be ultimate substances but, rather, that
they too are relatively constant forms, abstracted from some
deeper level of movement.
One may suppose that this deeper level of movement may be
analysable into yet finer particles which will perhaps turn out to
be the ultimate substance of the whole of reality. However, the
notion that all is flux, into which we are inquiring here, denies
such a supposition. Rather, it implies that any describable event,
object, entity, etc., is an abstraction from an unknown and unde-
finable totality of flowing movement. This means that no matter
how far our knowledge of the laws of physics may go, the content
of these laws will still deal with such abstractions, having only a
relative independence of existence and independence of behav-
iour. So one will not be led to suppose that all properties of
collections of objects, events, etc., will have to be explainable in
terms of some knowable set of ultimate substances. At any stage,
further properties of such collections may arise, whose ultimate
ground is to be regarded as the unknown totality of the universal
flux.
Having discussed what the notion of process implies concerning
the nature of reality, let us now consider how this notion should
bear on the nature of knowledge. Clearly, to be consistent, one
has to say that knowledge, too, is a process, an abstraction from
the one total flux, which latter is therefore the ground both of
reality and yf knowledge of this reality. Of course, one may fairly
readily verbalize such a notion, but in actual fact it is very difficult
not to fall into the almost universal tendency to treat our know-
ledge as a set of basically fixed truths, and thus not of the nature
of process (e.g., one may admit that knowledge is always changing
but say that it is accumulative, thus implying that its basic elements
are permanent truths which we have to discover). Indeed, even
to assert any absolutely invariant element of knowledge (such as
'all is flux') is to establish in the field of knowledge something
that
is permanent; but if all is flux, then every part of knowledge must
have its being as an abstracted form in the process of becoming
so that there can be no absolutely invariant elements ot
knowledge.
Is it possible to be free of this contradiction, in the sense that
one could understand not only reality, but also all knowledge, as
grounded in the flowing movement? Or must one necessarily
regard some elements of knowledge (e.g., those concerning the
nature of process) as absolute truths, beyond the flux of process/
It is to this question that we shall address ourselves in this chapter.
2 THOUGHT AND INTELLIGENCE
To inquire into the question of how knowledge is to be understood
as process, we first note that all knowledge is produced, displayed,
communicated, transformed, and applied in thought. Thought,
considered in its movement of becoming (and not merely in its
content of relatively well-defined images and ideas) is indeed the
process in which knowledge has its actual and concrete existence.
(This has been discussed in the Introduction.)
What is the process of thought? Thought is, in essence, the
active response of memory in every phase of life. We include in
thought the intellectual, emotional, sensuous, muscular and phys-
ical responses of memory. These are all aspects of one indissoluble
process To treat them separately makes for fragmentation and
confusion. All these are one process of response of memory to
each actual situation, which response in turn leads to a further
contribution to memory, thus conditioning the next thought."
To clarify our thinking, movement is a "metaphoric construction of reality".
I am given to understand that metaphor is derived from two Greek words
"meta" - over, and "phorien" - to drag or carry. (Just as an interesting
aside, Freud's word that is translated transference [I think a weak translation]
is "ubertragen" from uber - above or over, and "tragen" to drag or carry,
so transference perhaps has a somewhat similar meaning.) However in this
metaphoric world we cannot do a perfect job of transferring shades of meaning.
We attempt to drag the feeling or meaning from one known idea and then
apply it to a somewhat similar "unknown" idea. All the movement metaphor
can do is point out to us a type of activity a person consistently undertakes
to deal with life's perceived problems. Simply put, "movement" is
an imprecise metaphor to be used in the context of the larger theory.
Movement always is in reference to something else. Einstein makes that
abundantly clear in his theory of special relativity. In the same way there
is a "theory of relativity" to psychological movement. In Adlerian psychology
the reference frame in all regards, is always social or communal. That
is because the human only can exist in community. A single white north
American dropped off in the Amazon rain forest without community support,
would survive for hours at the most. A single human being on planet earth
could not survive at all. Adler departs from Freud when he notices what
some psychologies have failed to recognize. Humans exist in community,
not in an intrapsychic vacuum. The human is not the victim of inherited
and capricious libidinal drives, but rather is a being who chooses how
and how much he will be involved as a participant in the community of mankind.
The decision to participate more fully shows courage. The withdrawal from
the social task and its degree, show both a discouragement and its depth.
From the perspective of a lifestyle, movement may be either an activity
or an inactivity. A person who does nothing and just sits there like a
bump on a log has a movement. The movement is a sitting still movement.
So movement may be an activity or a lack of activity. Frantic running around
driven by anxiety is a movement, but they go nowhere. In this case the
movement is to stay where they are! So to and fro (rocking) is also a movement
that goes nowhere. The person who stays in the house, pulls the shades,
turns out the lights and goes to bed has a movement. It is away from mankind
or a withdrawing movement. The person who gives all their earthly possessions
to the poor and has it announced on a major television network, has a movement
but it may be a "bad" one. They want us to think how wonderful they are.
It is a movement to elevate themselves over all the "selfish egocentric
people out there" so it is a movement above. It is a sneak attack
of egocentricity aimed at elevating themselves head and shoulders above
others. These are just a very limited example set of movements. There are
almost as many psychological movements as there are people because the
human mind is so creative.
Movement in the context of Adler's theory is from the inferiority feeling
to the goal of fictional perceived superiority. So it should be self evident
that there is "good movement" and "bad movement". Perhaps a more palatable
way of expressing this, is to say there is movement in both useful and
useless (to self and others) movement. An extreme example of useless movement
would be "enlarging the self" for the purpose of being admired by all in
one's self proclaimed fictitious kingdom. All psychological movement originates
in childhood at the time the discouragement was building the inferiority
feeling, the sense of deficiency. The therapist usually is first able to
see the fictional goal of superiority by watching the movement, and then
discerns by deduction the precise nature of the inferiority feeling. During
all of this endeavour, the therapist is confirming his deductions using
all the information the client has given. This
is not a cookbook type understanding, but must be precise for this client
in each and every case. All
human movements have a goal. There is nothing that we do from conscious
activity that does not have a goal. Human activity is not random and chaotic.
We do not bounce around like grains of sand blown by the wind. We get up
each morning with goals in mind. Movement is never chaotic like Brownian
movement. It is always from below to above from the reference frame of
the individual. That is the nature of thinking beings as opposed to lifeless
particles. If the goal is egocentric and not of benefit to mankind, then
the movement needs to be brought to the light of proper examination. This
goal renders the movement in any individual utterly in all of history,
UNIQUE TO THAT PERSON! The movement to above probably starts even before
the person begins to walk. So the goal of superiority begins at the earliest
stages of human consciousness. The child in its crib may already be developing
a very simple plan to "get up". The height of the goal is set creatively
by the perceived depth of the child's perceived situation. The deeper the
perceived deficit, the higher the pinnacle becomes. This pinnacle may not
seem like a high place until the logic is understood. How can staying in
a psychiatric facility be a pinnacle? Well it would be if one should wish
to have all their meals and lodging provide with twenty four hour a day
seven day a week attendants to wait on them. It would not appeal to many
folks, but if sufficiently discouraged and if one so lacked a proper view
of what a human should do, that could be a goal. Or suppose a person feels
that they are at the social bottom. A compensation of an extreme type could
be to seek to become a despotic ruler like Hitler. Another example which
was more common when I was younger, is that of a woman who concludes that
only men will be on top and rule. Her movement could be to try to manipulate
males or another form could be for her to attempt "to be one of the boys"
which would fit with the notion of the "masculine protest".
Movement is a "vector quality" In that it has a degree and a direction.
It moves along a line. Adler shares with us a very important notion. Movement
often may proceed in a direction that we might anticipate, or it may go
in the very opposite direction! In German he says "Alles can auch anders
sein." (Everything may be the very opposite.) If the therapist expecting
a client's apparent movement, does not consider the real possibility of
the opposite movement, serious mistakes can be made. People, as they are
being understood from the perspective of "their life style" become somewhat
predictable as long as one takes this antithetical movement possibility
into consideration.
Movement
is also observed in bits and pieces by the therapist. We only observe this
person for a few moments at a time. What we are seeing is rather like the
30 frames per second of the NTSC television signal of North America. However,
a trained and skilled therapist can from these frames discern the general
trend line of the style of life of the person in therapy. These observations
are to varying degrees affected by our own personal biases from our own
life style. However given that many data sets are acquired in the interviews
and visits, a reasonably clear and consistent picture does emerge such
that we are able to discern the goal this person has set as well as the
type and origin of their unique discouragement. A pattern emerges that
is akin to handwriting. With sufficient training and understanding of this
complex theory, a pattern will be demonstrated that is unique to the person
being studied. It is very difficult to freeze the various moments that
are seen. What emerges is a line of movement and a direction. From this
line the unity of this person's life line can be seen quite adequately
to provide the assistance they require. This is because there are two recognizable
and fixed points on the line of movement. The first is the feeling of deficiency.
The second is the compensating goal of fictional superiority. Once these
are clearly understood the rest of the "snapshots of the movement", become
a unified whole.
The driving force behind the movement is a childhood discouragement. This
discouragement has no true factual basis, however all perceived inferiorities,
senses of deficiency, and desires flow from this discouragement. There
is no rational basis for the discouragement from an adult perspective.
Rather the problem originates when the sense of self as one with mankind,
does not suit the person's vanity. The vanity then sets a goal of a sort
of "super-self" which is the fictional goal of superiority. Thus it is
evident that the neurotic psychic life is drawn by the imagined "super
self" goal and pushed by the perceived deficiency. The life is drawn as
if by a magnet, toward this finale. Thus every action of this person past,
present and even future falls under the compass needle of this goal. This
goal is the one created by this person in response to his perception of
his childhood situation or perceived childhood difficulty. It is a lifetime
"compensation plan" for the perceived inferiority. The plan is based on
the creativity of each and every person. So all of this movement is a compensation
for a perception of inferiority. This striving for personal advantage runs
directly against the best benefit for mankind if this individual does not
have a proper understanding of social interest. When this understanding
is low or absent then the life line will run diametrically opposed
to social interest.
By now it should be evident that the movement the Adlerian therapist is
watching, is, in fact, compensatory striving.
Diagram it
this way ...
|
V
(The Movement)
So
when an Adlerian talks about watching movement he is trying to observe
the clients private logic moving them from the perceived position of inferiority
to the goal of fictional superiority that was developed by this individual
in
childhood from the level of discouragement that they felt they experienced.
This movement is as unique to any given person as is their finger print,
so there are only guidelines to discern it! To see the movement is an art,
not a science.
If you consider the diagram above carefully, it will not be surprising
to you that the construction of a neurosis is also antithetical as in "above-below",
"good-bad", "helpful-hurtful" because the psychological movement is along
a single line with only two dimensions. An antithetical perception tends
to see things in only two dimensions. From photography I know that although
I used to enjoy black and white photography, there really is no black and
white. Even in the darkest places in the universe, there are some photons
around. So the antithetical construction used to support a neurosis has
no basis in truth. There is also no place (I know of) that is totally saturated
in light and no situation utterly devoid of any possible benefit if it
is used creatively for mankind. The antithetical construction has its entire
basis in private logic. In the full blown use of a neurosis much of the
person's life will be interpreted as up-down or black-white, there will
be very little common sense in the middle ground. This same neurotic construction
is always self serving even though the egocentricity may wear a disguise
and appear as an unlikely logical conclusion. It is a carefully crafted
trick to relieve this discouraged person from one or more life tasks. This
antithetical construction will also appear in the early recollections and
even in the approach to the therapist!
For a moment
think about "doubt" as a movement. It seems innocuous but the person has
set a trick trap. There are two options. What shall I do? They hesitate.
Then they DO NOTHING. Once more, thinking teleologically, what does doubt
buy a person? It gives an excuse to make no movement. The movement of doubt
is to stand still while appearing to have the excuse of weighing these
heavy options ... another trick!
Movement in the context of the Adlerian theory is a very difficult notion
to learn to see in a client. Once the therapist begins to see the movement
it gives the clearest possible picture of the life style. Precise observation
of the movement will give a clear indication of the nature of the encouragement
that must be provided because it also sees the depths of the despair from
which it comes. Adlerian therapists when properly trained, always watch
the movement, not to be brilliant, but to encourage the client with the
precision that the client really needs! What an Adlerian therapist longs
to create in each and every human is a much deepened sense of being part
of and contributing to the community. Against this movement, there can
be no argument.
Some of the types of movement that are commonly seen in the therapy room
are these. The patient may regress or move backward. By this they distance
themselves from surrendering the use of the symptom. They may simply attend
visits with great enthusiasm complete with pages of notes, but they make
no changes. They may even speak at such great length like a theatric monologue
so the therapist can not make an intervention. They wish to cling to their
affliction. They may move backwards and forwards either in one visit or
from week to week. They wish to produce the illusion of cooperation, but
give no real substance. If they should feel they have to make a movement,
they would have to surrender their symptoms. They may create all sorts
of obstacles to remain at the usual distance from cooperation. The characteristic
movement in the neurotic is the retreat often framed with a "yes-but".
By this device they agree with the logic presented to them in the therapy
room but return with a device to excuse them from the necessary endeavour.
We may for example, discern that working would benefit humanity and themselves
and they agree. They say "Yes I should be working but if I do, I shall
lose my disability pension". That is a very common "yes-but" with the ever
present ease of our rather socialistic country of Canada.
Meanwhile as
all of this is sustained, the therapist must be watching this movement
so that the matter can be addressed in a manner appropriate to this person.
The observation of these movements is clearly telling the skilled Adlerian
observer what is really going on. He will not be tricked!
Return to Top
Here in we see that the patient, and in particular the neurotic patient,
in the context of his world view, does not have memories, he uses memories.
They are sober reminders of what to avoid, of what will harm his prestige,
of how he can enhance his prestige etc., all from the view point of a discouraged
child. They are the window to the "private logic" that we seek to discern. There
are subtle nuances and details that only can be seen after a great deal
of training in this deep psychology. These E/R's can act even as predictors
of how the relationship with the patient may unfold. Remember that memory
is not a passive function. It is selective through the apparatus of the
client's biased apperception, so of course his movements are spelled out
to the trained Adlerian therapist's eye. These recollections have to be
gone over with a fine tooth comb like Sherlock Holmes. This is an intense
but enjoyable exercise of the therapists perceptive abilities based on
this very powerful theory.
When interpreting early recollections, context is critical. We have many
clues to look at, from the way the patient speaks, the way the patient
dresses, the way they sit in the waiting room, and indeed everything they
do! The early recollections are just another clue. These early recollections
since they are being used all show us as a little theatric production of
the life style. Each one is a "morality play", that is exactly in the direction
of the life movement (don't forget the opposite movement). The real skill
of the Adlerian therapist is not to get caught up in the smoke of the recollection,
but rather to find the flame. To borrow from a saying Henry Stein uses
"The therapist does not blow away the smoke, he puts out the fire". The
therapist goes right to the heart of the matter in a gentile and encouraging
manner. The style of life is a coherent whole, and the early recolections
are yet another window into the soul life of the person.
In an Adlerian approach, there is no formula for the interpretation of
any early recollection. The therapist must be curious about the person
providing this memory. It may be helpful to ask ones self, why would a
person recall and relate this event? What would a person have to believe
about self/world/others to retain such a memory? What belief system in
private logic would be consistent with the retention of this memory? What
are the movements in the memory? Are they active or passive? Do things
happen to this person, or are they acting on things/people? From all of
this information the therapist starts to discern the unique line of movement
of this individual and it is unique in each person. Let me say that again;
no two people have the same movement or lifestyle! As the image of the
movement unfolds into the unique perceptions of this person in the therapist's
mind, it is gently reflected back to the patient and the patient's response
is carefully observed. If the patient does not show a recognition response,
the therapist's conclusion must be rejected or modified. If the client
connects with the understanding in a co-operative and collaborative environment,
a bit of encouragement is given. This encouragement must be specific to
the needs of this person. In dealing with early recollections, whether
or not the historic details are accurate is of no importance but historic
facts may be noted. This is an iterative process to be repeated as required.
The above questions (and many others) used to start exploring early recollections
are just a few samples, and they may be of value to the therapist
as he attempts to refine his understanding of this person's uniqueness.
Pay more attention to the how and why of the the recollections rather than
the reported facts! The real facts are seldom given and the "memory" may
have never happened. This is not to infer that the client is being misleading,
but rather that in the blur of the childhood years, the memory may have
been created. Whether the recollection is historically accurate or not,
it contains valid information about the life style of this person.
Indeed the lifestyle is fully represented in the "choice of the memories"
this person presents. Remember, these memories are only fleeting instances
out of a few days in a period of 10 or more years. The mystery to the non
Adlerian, is why there are so few. There are so few because the person
only recalls that which supports his life line or its antithesis.
Reflected in each of the client's early recollections, will be his movement.
In fact these recollections encapsulate the movement and are used to fine
tune this understanding. They show the way the person blocks or traps themselves.
They demonstrate the "caution signs" they throw up in life. They show in
what direction the patient wishes to advance or retreat. They remain as
solemn reminders of the things in life this person is willing to tackle
or will seek to avoid. E/R's are to be looked at like little life plays
and they contain in a microcosmic format, the person's perception of self
and others and their willingness to cooperate and/or be part of mankind.
Early recollections also show this persons feelings and attitudes. They
will not be aware of them because the style of life is self perpetuating.
If it ran at the level of self awareness, it usually would not be sustained.
The tools of Adlerian psychology are like a microscope allowing the therapist
to peer into the soul through these seemingly innocuous stories. It only
takes a very few and sometimes only one of these stories, to achieve a
rather good understanding of the individuals attitude toward others and
his level of egocentricity and vanity.
The early recollections that are provided to the therapist show quite clearly
the client's degree of social feeling, his activity level and also
his level of courage. They also show how this person trained themselves
for the tasks of life. When these early recollections are understood and
interpreted in the light of the patient's style of life, they give the
most valuable insight into the direction of a person's striving. They also
underline the person's perception of the things in life that are to be
avoided. They demonstrate this person's "caution signs". They tell us how
this person views the world in which they live and how they approach this
world. This all becomes clear to the trained therapist because of the selective
function of the biased apperception that includes only those details that
fit this person's way of dealing with life and living. The E/R's are constant
reminders to the person of what their perceived difficulties and goals
in life are seen to be. They also demonstrate perhaps more fully than any
other tool at our disposal, the origin of this person's style of life.
Perceiving the life style is an early and continuing activity in the therapeutic
process. Dissolving the lifestyle and beginning to perceive the lifestyle
are very different matters. The dissolution of the life style requires
much more cooperation from the client than does perceiving it!
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Neurotic
apperception will always exclude any part of life the client does not feel
they have the courage to face. Strangely these are examples. If the discouraged
person rules by being unhappy, then happiness can not fit with their goal.
Indeed as bizarre as it may seem, they can only be happy when they are
unhappy because only unhappiness draws others under their hidden goal!
Adler points out that "agoraphobia will disappear when the person is at
home and has someone to rule". (CCWAA Vol. 6, Page 50) The goal of the
agoraphobia is to exclude social contact because of the fear of loss of
prestige. When this person has someone to rule the created symptom of agoraphobia
no longer serves a purpose. The life style goal is for the moment, achieved.
Once the lofty goal of fictional superiority is in place, the possibility
of social interest is greatly diminished. The fictitious goal of superiority
takes over like a spell even though it is utterly outside the realm of
normal common sense. A skilled Adlerian therapist will see the cold logic
of the plan and the strategy for such an attack.
One task the Adlerian therapist attempts to undertake is to see into the
client's apperceptive devices and gently comprehend them. As the therapist
sees to what degree the client's apperception deviates from common sense
to a larger degree, then a discouragement has been uncovered to be filled
in and the client is invited to examine the situation and move back to
consensual logic. So the therapist's task is to invite this person to rejoin
the tasks of mankind by filling in the discouragement, such that the lofty
goal no longer has any use or meaning and it will then be dropped.
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For example I notice that the only child has no child with whom he can
compare himself so for me they may see themselves as particularly incompetent
compared to the all adult home. The "big people" can do anything they want
the first time they try and this child may be easily discouraged. He may
also feel that he has to run like crazy to achieve the things he sees these
big people do, and thus he may tend to become an over achiever or on the
other hand may become overwhelmed and give up the struggle entirely. The
first born child may also have the complete attention of two parents and
thus become pampered and dependent. Since he is all by himself and the
centre of attention, he may not learn to share so he could become self
centred.
The only child may easily become discouraged because so much may be done
for him. He is often pampered which robs him of his own sense of capability.
He may then wish to continue having the complete service of others as a
compensation, because he is haunted by doubt about his own capabilities.
Feeling overwhelmed by life's perceived demands, he may also retreat into
his own isolated little work, peeking out at mankind from behind his stockade
wall. Pampering is very damaging. It may be more damaging than abuse because
at least the abused child can look back on those aspects of his difficulty
he overcame. The pampered child can only look back on his inability and
thus feel he must be served because he has never had an apparent opportunity
to explore his ability. I notice that an only child may prefer adult relationships
as children and therefor often has trouble socializing with the peer group
so only children may become "loners".
Now the baby in the family may have another problem. He may have many parents
to look after his every wish and thus conclude that it is his right to
be pampered. He may want to continue to be the baby with everyone looking
after him. It is not uncommon for the baby to have big ideas but do little
to achieve them. He gets the big ideas from his fore runners, but has no
notion of the work needed to achieve these grand scale ideas.
The only child may have different problems he perceives. He spends much
of his childhood alone and he may then wish to avoid contact with others.
He may in fact, be a pampered child and may wish to continue having everything
done for him.
Imagine the dilemma of the third born girl in a farm home when dad wants
a boy to help with the farm work. But then again this child may strive
to be "one of the boys" in a kind of example of the "masculine protest"
Adler spoke of. I have not addressed this notion yet but given enough time
I will get there.
Imagine
being the second born with a child eighteen months ahead of you. The older
child may have a target on their back and it is not at all unusual to see
the second born "roar" past the first born. You see the second born often
has a heavy hitter ahead of them and will run very fast to catch up. They
often not only catch up ... they frequently run past. It is commonly said
that the second born "runs faster". But what if the older child has a 3
1/2 year head start, in which case the child may become discouraged. Then
the second born has never experienced being alone with the adults. He may
therefor conclude that he receives insufficient attention which also may
motivate him to try to get the spot light from the oldest child. The gender
of these two children will also have a bearing as will how they perceive
the desire their parents had for their gender. The younger child may decide
that the task is insurmountable and give up or at least move in a totally
different direction if the first born is perceived to have too big a head
start.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be child number 13 in a family
that has a child every year or less and is financially not well off. I
have dealt with one of these folks. It seemed clear to them that they were
an accident and should not even be here. Darn, not another one! This person
just kept very quiet and moved very little. They were literally afraid
to be noticed! Always remember it is not a circumstance that creates the
psychological problem. It is the creative power of the child that draws
the conclusion. Sorry folks, there is no cook book and no formula. You
must look at each individual in order to ascertain what conclusions they
have drawn and this will lead you to the private logic just as a compass
points north and south (Inferiority Feeling to Compensatory Goal of Fictional
Superiority). Still the skill of the therapist comes into play and many
hours of study and experience are required before this task appears to
be done easily and quickly.
Picture
being a middle child, squeezed on both sides from above and below. I often
see these folks feeling "invisible". They may have great difficulty feeling
they belong. However the perceived injustice of their situation can press
them to "fight for the under dog" and become a champion of justice. You
see it all depends on their conclusions they draw ... there IS NO FORMULA!
We must also take note of the fact that in a large family with a number
of years separating the children, the 5th born can become the oldest child
in a subset family with two siblings younger than he, if the age difference
is not too great. You see we are looking at the unique creativity of the
individual. Once more there is no recipe. It is a mistake on the part of
the therapist to look for prescribed patterns which is one reason that
I was hesitant to even do this section on birth order.
Henry Stein makes mention of being behind a ghost child. In this case an
older child has died. If this death occurred when the deceased child was
very young the parents may perceive the lost child as a little angel. After
all a six month old child really has not had a chance to be active enough
to distress the parents. Now the "replacement" arrives. First off, this
child can not replace a dead child and second, if the new child does grow
to an age where a bit of independence emerges, they may be resented and
even abused. After all, "our dear dead Jimmy never caused us any problems
and look at you!"
Now
above all never forget that there are no simple formulas in the complexity
of a human life. Birth order may provide you with some hints about this
persons style of life, but then again as Adler has reminded us, everything
may be the diametric opposite of what you may anticipate!!!
The construction of a neurosis is also unique to the person. The task of
the therapist is to identify to this person the way in which his thoughts,
actions and feelings suit and fit his goal. He needs to have identified
to him the conclusions from childhood on which he is constructing his life
and his world view. This neurotic person needs to understand fully that
the picture he has produced of the world is a fiction and is his creation.
It is not a fact. This person needs to be encouraged to join the real world
of humanity feeling as an equal. He needs to see that his feeling of insufficiency
is based on wrong understandings so that when these are corrected, he will
then wish to join the task of being a human and will be content to be his
own unique self in the world of the many. With just a modest growth in
his sense of being part of the community, his ability to cooperate will
start to grow and he is then starting on the road to healing and integration.
He will then begin to have the courage to address more fully, the three
central tasks of living. He will no longer feel like an alien behind enemy
lines in a world that constantly places his vanity at risk!
The
uniqueness of the individual is a consequence of the constant movement
starting as a tiny child to rise above the limitations of its lowly state.
Each child has its own creative and novel way of dealing with the obvious
deficiencies of its tiny, untrained state. The unity of the individual
arises because each human creates their own life from the materials that
seem to be at hand. Yes there is a genetic limitation, but its influence
is very much overshadowed by this creative striving. Because of the innumerable
means to adapt that are available to each new born child and because of
their inherent creativity as well as the unique nature of the "Sielenleben"
(soul life German), each person is an artist sculpting their own work of
art from their own creative endeavour. Thus the result is unique and peculiar
to each human artist. The style of life they create is one of a kind! It
is this self selected goal that is the real basis of the utter difference
between people. It is the draw of this upward movement that is propelled
by the perception of deficiency, that is the clarion call to rise and stand
and to do it "my way" that is the foundation of human personality. When
this movement is exaggerated, then it stands in the way of the "stream
of human evolution" and it then becomes problematic. When the creation
of an individual adds to the total of mankind, this personal uniqueness
flowers in all its glory. Sadly, such a bloom is rare. The most probable
experience a child will have from the nearby adults, is the struggle for
power that he will see at every turn. Since this struggle seems normative,
he will most commonly join it and feel quite justified in doing so. He
is unlikely to be shown the error of this attitude because of the ubiquitous
nature of the inferiority feeling the almost universal compensation for
it. He will think that this is how one must act. He will be shown that
all kinds of aggression is encouraged and allowed in the "rules of the
game of life". So life becomes a battle and the feeling of insufficiency
will grow. The "will to power" starts its malicious work!
Masculine protest also applies to men who may feel that the societal demands
placed on them are just too high and they are not able to meet them. Such
men may feel "unmanly" and may develop quite a sophisticated counterfiction
to cover this up.
The ideal is that men and women although somewhat different constitutionally,
should be fully equal in the community. If that should happen, neither
men or women would be so disposed to use this problem as an excuse from
the three life tasks of life through the use of a neurosis.
In the usual order of things, the mother next introduces the child to the
father, and if this experience is good it assists the child, but should
it be deficient, the child may also become discouraged. The next initial
experience of community for the child is the siblings if they are present.
From each of these situations, the child is drawing his own conclusions
about what his world is like and remember, these conclusions are totally
based on the data base of a very young child. They are never tested to
see if they fit into the larger scheme of more generally accepted common
sense. They exist as the private logic ... purely the creation of a child
(with some reality testing having been applied from the family usually).
The birth order of the child may also contribute to this problem, but I
hope to introduce that idea later. Perhaps
the real brilliance of Adler is that he identified us as social beings,
and noted that all psycho pathology, indeed all of a person's personality,
is developed in a social context compared
to some other psychologies that see the disorder as intrapsychic.
A person who has not experienced encouragement appropriate to their needs,
may well lack this interest in others. They also will lack the feeling
of being "at one in the world of others". This also however will apply
to the person who has been pampered. In fact there is rather strong evidence
that the pampered individual may be the most damaged!
Can you begin to imagine the conclusions an infant may draw when he is
raised by a mother who is distant or neglectful. This child does not have
the first expected social experience available to him. He may be deeply
wounded and feel very insufficient. He may also conclude that the world
is a hostile place and he is behind enemy lines. Thus his social interest
will usually be quite low. He has an overburdening difficulty. An unloving
or aggressive and demanding mother may result in a similar conclusion about
life and this world he lives in. The development of a social feeling seems
to be strongly tied to the social feeling the child experiences first with
the mother. A person so discouraged, may well withdraw from life and really
not understand why they feel so unloved. They have never had love demonstrated
to them in those early formative years and it is more difficult to learn
it later in life. His lack of social interest will compound the problem
because he distances himself from what he perceives to be a hostile world.
He needs to be invited back and perchance he may experience some of this
missing love and acceptance in the therapist's office.
Adler points out that all maladaptive psychological movement occurs because
of a deficiency in social interest. So the real underpinning of neurotic
striving is to be found in this deficient social interest no matter what
degree of detrimental or advantageous genetic material the person experiences.
In fact a neurosis demonstrates a failed attempt to free ones self from
the inferiority feeling by vainly trying to induce a self deception of
superiority. Adler does not deny that any particular individual has a propensity
to deviate from psychological health in a given direction. In fact he is
the developer of the notion of "organ inferiority" which I hope to discuss
further subsequently. What he strongly indicates is that any person, no
matter how deficient their physical organism may be, when sufficiently
encouraged and having proper social interest, will and can still be a fully
contributing member of the community of mankind within their abundance
or their limitations. It is the duty of every human to contribute "to the
stream of human evolution sub specie aeternitatis". (If you feel this psychology
has spiritual overtones, you are quite correct although it does not favour
a particular set of religious dogmas.) There are no "personal exemptions"
from this task! Having made such a very strong statement, it becomes self
evident that this psychology is existential. The neurosis which is developed
by the discouraged human, becomes a trick or an excuse to relieve ones
self from the perceived impossibility of just being a contributing fellow
human. It is not a silly or stupid thing for a child to do or for an adult
to feel afflicted with, because, after all, it has not been examined by
common sense (that which we would all generally agree to be true and accurate).
However the wisdom of such ideas and behaviours persisting into adult life
may appear rather nonsensical when they are so identified. These notions
are never treated as being nonsensical, but anyone in hindsight might view
them in such a manner. They are the mistaken notions of a child who has
convinced himself that he is more deficient than others or more entitled
than others, sometimes rather globally and this conclusion draws this person
away from the best benefit for mankind and social interest. All that is
needed is to identify the perceived impossible this individual created
as a child and provide gentle but precise encouragement. The
dissolution of the neurosis produces a person who now can begin to learn
to co-operate.
Social interest when it is properly and fully developed allows a person
to feel truly part of mankind. It celebrates the uniqueness of each and
every person, but only as they fit properly into the larger fabric of communal
living. Social interest allows one to feel fully connected with the community
around. It could never allow any human to feel above the others (save for
those put in positions of authority over us by the community. Such folks
usually find this burden heavy). When it is genuinely present the person
becomes truly meek and noticeably humble seeing what role he must play
and gladly receiving from those around the gifts of uniqueness the others
bring as they play their proper role in the community. High social interest
could never allow envy or greed to occur in a person. Such people are content
to be and give to the world. It is a sense of feeling one with mankind
and yet remaining unique but the uniqueness carries the burden of needing
that full self to be developed for mankind. It would be deficient social
interest to not achieve all that one can to improve ones self for the community
we touch. This active seeking for self growth asks no gold medal. It is
just what a person must do to be fully human.
Deficient social interest allows the person to continue to live in the
self deceived hinterland of emotional over sensitivity where the world
is filled with multitudinous perceived threats to his vanity. The person
finds every imaginable excuse to avoid joining the dangers in the world
he created in his own mind. He is burdened with such unbearable struggle
in his mock battle with life. He preoccupies himself with the theatre before
him behind the closed doors of his created perception. He isolates himself
from humanity by a trick producing suffering in himself and real loss to
mankind.
An Adlerian therapy will counter this in a real life experience of social
interest through the gentle compassion and empathy of the therapist. Once
more it is evident that Adlerian psychology must be a way of living and
not just a skill or a task.
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Dreams will also demonstrate in an abstract manner the person's general
attitude toward life and the world around him as well as his typical response
to life's problems. It will show if he approaches problems with courage
or with trepidation or with out right fearfulness and hesitation. The expression
of his method of apperception will also be present, but once again symbolically.
The dream will show as a one act play, his guiding line. The dreams will
also be a clear demonstration of the feeling state the dreamer wishes to
produce and use in response to a perceived life problem. It will show if
he has courage, wishes to hide or seeks a hasty retreat from the problem.
A brilliant insight that Adler achieved regarding dreams is described this
way. He says, "It occurred to me one day that perhaps the real significance
of a dream is that it is not to be understood; perhaps a dynamic of the
mind works to baffle us."
(CCWAA
Vol. 7, Page 159On
the Interpretation of Dreams ... click on link) He goes on to suggest that
we
fool ourselves through the dreams by the emotions that they arouse.
The purpose of the dream is to raise this emotion to support the otherwise
not so rational style of life. Thus, unlike freud who spoke of dreams as
the "royal road to the unconscious", Adler views dreams as just expressions
of the style of life. The dream is used to stir up the emotional vibration
that will drive on toward the fictional final goal. They are used as a
"life style accelerator" so to speak. They are also attempts to solve the
life problems the person is facing but the problem and the life style solution
is cloaked in symbols. The mood created by the dream is the real purpose
that it serves. I have just recently received and started reading Volume
12 of the CCWAA. Adler draws a very helpful insight into dreams in
Chapter IX when he says, " It is as if we were driving a car and we step
on the accelerator. We have the same direction and goal, but we have more
power now. This is what happens in a dream, which acts like an accelerator
to fuel the emotions required by a person's style of life. He would probably
do the same without dreaming. But he does it in a more powerful way influenced
by the feelings aroused in his dream by using impressions, poetic expressions
and metaphors."
The dream serves as a symbolic attempt to resolve a difficulty. Unlike
other psychologies may suggest, there are not predictable symbols involved
other than those that have a cultural context. The dream can only be understood
in the context of the person who has it. There are no archetypes! In fact
it is often helpful to have the patient explain the dream themselves. They
are its author so a cooperation between the therapist and the client may
be very helpful.
Adler's article just referenced above is very helpful in working with dreams.
I recommend getting this volume because the usual psychological approach
to dreams differs significantly from the Adlerian understanding.
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So the real measure of "mental health" becomes the degree of social interest
the person exercises. Adler goes so far as to suggest that "social interest"
when it is exercised by an individual, can solve all their human psychological
difficulties. (There is an interesting parallel from Judaeo-Christian scriptures
when God commands us to "Love thy neighbour as thyself" [Lev. 19:18]. This
tradition from at least 2,500 years ago seems to teach the same idea as
I see it, but theology is not my expertise.) This is not to suggest that
social interest will produce what may be deemed to be "happiness", but
rather that the person so inclined, will live life to its fullest measure
from the perspective of their person and uniqueness. I think that such
a person would experience joy and delight in engaging themselves fully
in aliveness. So the fundamental line of action for an Adlerian therapist,
is to move the client from the perceived deficiency position and away from
the misdirection of the notion of personal superiority, to a greater degree
of contribution to mankind, that is, to increase the client's "social interest".
It should thus be relatively evident that the term "self esteem" has little
place in this psychology because it all too often has an element of egocentricity
hidden in it when the notion of self esteem is more carefully explored.
Egocentricity is at odds with social interest, so, although a level of
appropriate self regard is in order, I tend to be cautious with the words
"self esteem". Maslow's notion of self-other esteem is much closer to the
intent of Adler. When one is encouraged to bring their best to humanity
by achieving as much of one's "best self" as one can, the need for safe
guarding and preoccupation with one's vanity simply disappears. This best
self is not in the service of the self, but rather is a requirement of
full human functioning. This best self is developed to bring the best benefit
to mankind and is not used to enhance personal vanity. Anything that builds
vanity is not social interest but is a trick to cover the minus feeling
within this individual. Social
interest when it is truly built, is an elegant solution to a set of symptoms
a person uses as an excuse or smoke screen to avoid the perceived impossibility
of merely being fully themselves.
Since the client sees them self to be in an inferior position, any attempt
to reduce the symptoms they use, will only result in a shift of symptoms.
They will switch to another battle field as quickly as the therapist attempts
to "blow away the smoke" because the "fire is still burning". The real
fire is the perception of wanting to be seen as "wonderful" in a chosen
area of endeavour for self serving purposes, which is only the cover up
for a perception of personal insufficiency. Remember this construction
is not usually a malignant device. It is a "hang over" in private logic
from childhood conclusions. Just to be quite clear, Adlerians do believe
that people use symptoms rather than have them and that these symptoms
are used to deliver them from their perceived impossible problem of being
one with mankind. (The symptoms I am describing are those of neurosis and
not those of organic disease.)
So what about the "chemical imbalance" notion that is mentioned so often?
Well in this psychology it is argued that the brain is in charge of itself.
What it thinks about based on its childhood conclusions, modifies neurotransmitter
levels and functions to support its own conclusions and thus support its
own style of life. Yes, when a person chooses to be depressed, serotonin
and other neurotransmitter levels do decrease because that is what the
mind has to do chemically to achieve the physiological conditions necessary
to reach the goal of depression. It is a clear logical fallacy to argue
that these depressed neurotransmitter levels are causal. There is no scientific
evidence that I have seen that addresses the whole matter of causality.
This is one of those "Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?" circuitous
thinking logical fallacies. Adlerian psychology argues that natural
selection, or if you prefer the design of the brain having appeared over
a sequence of events covering hundreds of thousands of years, is quite
fine for the survival of homo sapiens as a species. I am not aware of science
that can solve the problem of what the real cause of the neurotransmitter
upset is. I do however, believe that the argument advanced in Adler's understanding
makes more sense and it sure is more hopeful than innate biochemical forces
over which the mind has no control. My own experience over 15 plus years
has seen too many of these disturbances correct themselves via increasingly
precise Adlerian encouragement to believe in an innate and genetically
determined system although I can accept that a percentage of folks may
have genetic weaknesses in this regard, in keeping with Adler's notion
of "organ inferiority".
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Another thing Adler points out is that the neurotic (the person with a
deep feeling of insufficiency with a compensating fictional goal of personal
superiority), may actually "cling to a shock" as he described it. What
they have done is find a key event in their private interpretation of life
events, that might be seen to be a sufficient cause to stop moving
forward and seek to put others in their service to "fill their very private
feeling of inability. Having stopped then they must hold the memory of
this event like a valuable gold coin to excuse them from some life task
or tasks for the rest of their lives. I have folks tell me stories of unhappy
occurrences in their lives like they happened last week. I find on further
enquiry that the event happened 20 years ago. This is a trick. A painful
event may cause a hesitation in any human life as the grief or pain is
properly processed. The encouraged person then sees their responsibility
as a human and rejoins the tasks of life. The neurotic continues to hide
behind his smoke screen. There he is totally miserable and suffers but
feels that he is excused from joining in the common causes of humanity.
This person holding his chosen burden close to his bosom, wishes us to
pity him, when all he needs to do is lay down his heavy fictional load
and get on with life. He is too discouraged to do this because of the oppressive
overburden of his impossible goal and his deep feeling of personal ineptness!
He is not willing to test his ability in the common market place of life.
Another trick used by the neurotic is the fear of death. If you observe
their movement, it is not death they fear, it is life. This elegant
construction is used to excuse them from the normal tasks of life because
"the grim reaper is just around the corner". With such an elegant excuse
based on their perceived terror, society tries to calm them with solicitude
and caring. This is what they seek. They wish to be cared for and because
of deficient social interest and a well developed inferiority feeling,
they get excused from the normal three life tasks to varying degrees. When
the therapist has developed together with the afflicted sufferer sufficient
cooperation to develop sufficient courage to participate in the more normal
demands of life, this subterfuge falls away, and the patient now will rather
commonly participate more fully in life and the three tasks we are all
called upon to address.
These are but a few examples of how emotions may be used to camouflage
the desire to opt out of life as a fellow man. Again there is no formula
here. Each human is to be understood in their uniqueness so when a person
seems blocked by their symptoms, we must as Dr. Henry Stein says, "Not
blow away the smoke, but rather put out the fire." I find if I keep that
saying very clearly in my mind as I see a lot of emotional vibration in
a given person, I am more apt to find the depth of this person's unique
discouragement and thus will perchance be able to provide a very precise
encouragement! However, the encouragement can not be a generic type of
statement. The style of life of this person must be understood as deeply
and as completely as the therapist can. One must go back to the childhood
prototypes and having discerned very carefully how this person moves from
their inferiority feeling to their fictional goal, provide the necessary
insight that can assist this human being to have the courage to play their
full and proper role as a part of humanity.
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1) the
work task,
2) the social
task or
3) the love
task.
Symptoms are
not passive creations of some malfunctioning chemical or neurological scheme.
They are tools used powerfully to avoid one or more of the life tasks.
They are not a cause. They are an excuse or a protest. The person is often
not aware or only minimally aware they are doing this. Never the less The
symptoms are produced like an artist uses a brush to paint a canvas. But
they are a smoke screen for an opting out of being part of mankind because
of a deficiency in social interest. The emotions that are used are not
the the fire they are the smoke! The smoke is put in the service of the
neurosis to conceal the less than socially acceptable goal of the patient.
They
are quite dramatic, but they are a trick and they are not the problem.
The sad thing is that so few psychologies recognize this fact. The
whole notion of "chemical imbalances" in the brain that permeates modern
psychiatry, totally ignores the creative power of the individual and the
subterfuge they practice. The chemical imbalance theory is wanting in scientific
proof. What the keen eyed Adlerian sees is that this person uses the brain
by unbalancing its normal function in the direction appropriate to the
fictional goal, to achieve a withdrawal from the tasks of being human.
The true aetiology of the symptom(s) is the goal of this person and they
put the brain's chemical and electrical activity in the service of
this goal. The argument that the brain does this on its own, is fatuous.
The brain is functioning quite as it should when the person is thinking
in a wrong direction away from benefiting mankind where social interest
must be our duty. The neurotransmitters in the brain follow the conductor's
(patient's) commands in keeping with the style of life he has created.
The emotional disturbance is created on the command of the person who feels
they are not up to some perceived impossible demand, and then they
are sanctioned as having some deficiency in neurochemical brain function.
The trick is so successful, they even fool the psychiatrists!
Symptoms are used to avoid correcting a problem particularly the problem
of deficient social interest. Symptoms become the play the person wants
you to watch, not the real play of their discouragement and perceived inability
to be a fellow man. The symptoms become the "gegenschauplatz" in German,
the nearby theatre. They also draw the observers mind away from the goal
of fictional superiority which the neurotic would not wish to have discovered
any more than they wish the goal of fictional superiority to be seen. The
neurotic wants to look sick and afflicted, and not be seen as a person
who feels inadequate to the tasks of life and seeks his compensation by
ruling in his private kingdom. Symptoms are the smoke that many psychologies
attempt to blow away. The life plan with all its discouraging fictions,
is the fire that needs to be extinguished. This is the plan of exalting
ones self above ones perceived deficiencies, while not getting caught doing
so!
Symptoms
are also used to avoid an imminent defeat of the life style goal. They
transfer the battle to a different battle ground, so the symptoms become
the side show to avoid a perceived greater defeat. They are a way to preserve
the goal of superiority when the vanity is threatened. The symptoms used
will be those that seem to justify evading the apparent defeat from the
perspective of the person's world view and inferiority feeling. They conceal
the person's retreat from social interest in a storm of emotional vibration
to conceal the desire to be excused from the human task at hand. They constrain
the movement of this person to a predictable radius of vibration. Vibration
is a brilliant way to avoid any real progress or even regression. It just
makes a lot of movement in one place ensuring that this person goes nowhere
while seeming to be excused because of the "emotional disability". Such
an exquisitely sensitive emotionally tuned apparatus becomes a wonderful
tool to avoid social responsibility. The feeling that one needs to use
symptoms in this manner speaks very clearly to their feeling of personal
inadequacy and thus to the level of personal discouragement.
There are in fact three basic uses of symptoms.
1) To place
oneself in a "better light" because what is done is done with so much emotional
distress that it then is wished to be seen as a "double triumph" since
it was achieved against such difficult odds.
2) To provide
a seemingly believable excuse to avoid something that truly should be done
by this person.
3) To put any
decision making that would have to result in some action, into the distant
future to safeguard the test of actually doing the task and not being able
to do it at the super human level demanded by the goal of fictional superiority.
So the foundational goal of the neurotic who uses symptoms is to appear
better than they really are in these ways. Here again, is the "will
to seem". Thus the use of these symptoms take on an aggressive attitude
toward mankind by seeming "sick" to avoid a task a "well" person would
be reasonably expected to achieve. By the use of this trick, the neurotic
maintains his fictional superiority and covers up his presumed inferiority!
This pattern becomes quite fixed and predictable in any individual and
becomes his modus operendi. The movement psychology is always from
the perceived below to the fictional above. All of this is based on the
feeling of inferiority created by this person as a child which is then
"tendentiously adhered to and reinforced" (CCWAA Vol 3, page
118 ). The neurotic does not ask how he can live in harmony with mankind,
but rather seeks a set of devices that "will gratify (his) tendency toward
superiority and transform (his) unalterable feeling of inferiority into
a feeling of godliness". (CCWAA Vol. 3, page 122) So you can see
that this person kind of grows into his symptoms since early childhood
as a compensation for the pain of his assumed inferiority feelings. The
constant rumbling of his inferiority feelings which were created very early
in life, runs through almost all that he does. The compensating superiority
fiction he has created is unreachable, so he creates and continues to
use symptoms to avoid the impossibility of the exalted position he imagines.
He also utilizes these symptoms to create a smoke screen around his failures.
He even conceals these failures from himself in many instances by the intensification
of his self imposed suffering. His prestige is more important to him than
his life task and he will fight to the last step to protect his vanity.
Symptoms become his stock in trade in the melodrama of his presumed personal
insufficiency. His carefully created symptomatology would serve no purpose
what so ever if he would be willing to risk being a fellow man. This plan
has never been submitted to critical examination. If it is so examined,
it would serve no further purpose. Once more "the unexamined life is not
worth living", and it is sad and lonely when it is fraught with all of
this created emotional vibration that puts this person's energy in life
in motion away from the benefit of mankind. A cooperative and encouraging
evaluation of his use of symptoms, will when fully achieved, put the person
to rest because they would have no further purpose in continuing the emotional
excesses. The presumed inferiority he has carried like a cross is gone
as has the fictional goal of superiority, so self created neurotic symptoms
have NO FURTHER VALUE!
Thus,
in evaluating what is really going on in any given client, the symptoms
must be completely set aside save for perhaps noticing what cluster of
symptoms this person selects. One must concentrate completely on this individuals
personality because in doing so the style of life will become self evident.
It is a trap and a mistake to be drawn in by the symptoms and you will
never see what is going on if you rest the case at the level of symptom
removal. Believe me, this person is very creative and as fast as you extinguish
one symptom they will create another. Now realistically one must take note
of suicidal thought and actions and render the situation safe. However
Adler, as far as I can determine, never lost a person to suicide. But then
he got to the life style so quickly and provided such precise encouragement,
that he may not have been at risk to see a person terminate their lives
in their final disinterest in the community! The therapist must exert his
full effort in understanding this persons nature, goals and his level of
social interest. His desire either to involve himself in or run away from
social responsibilities and tasks will give a quite clear picture of what
this person is really up to. Of course the ability to see this movement
improves with skill, experience and proper training. It would be unusual
to not be able to discern a degree of activity in any person. The direction
it takes, defines the style of life as seen in movement terms. The degree
of distance a person produces between himself and the three life tasks
will be the therapist's first concern. Indeed it can be very enlightening
to ask the person in a gentle and friendly manner, "What would you be doing
today if you did not have this anxiety, fear, etc.?" When the answer to
this question is properly understood by the therapist, the purpose of the
symptom becomes quite transparent and then the goal is evident and can,
after trust is established, be corrected.
Now it can be helpful to notice what particular symptom this person has
chosen because that may extrapolate back to the goal. The choice of symptoms
has to appear to insulate this individual from the perceived impossible.
The emotional vibration used insulates them, in their perception, from
that area of human life. The symptom is "the horse they ride to beat the
retreat" so to speak. The horse is ridden like a revolt against societal
responsibility and a trick to make them look good. Remember the neurotic
individual wishes to be relieved of the burden of his human responsibility,
so the symptom chosen will indicate usually rather well, what area of human
endeavour they seek to avoid. So symptoms are not passive afflictions that
people have but rather are powerful tools they use to excuse themselves
from a life task(s). They are weapons against the stream of human evolution
wielded by craftsmen who have declared various degrees of personal bankruptcy!
The depths of the neurosis can be determined from the apparent power of
the symptom selection. A deeply discouraged individual will have symptoms
developed like a person in a full out battle. But it is a battle with the
wind and a revolt against the development of social interest. They insulate
themselves from the demands of the society about them as they continue
this mock battle with an enemy they have created. They use this as an excuse
to move backwards, to retreat at full run, from the tasks of life. They
have limited social interest and their own self created suffering is more
important than the success of mankind or often even of their own spouse
and family. The answer for the neurotically discouraged person, is to expose
the perceived impossible. They have set the goal to high and by this trick
they are excused from the task of life they seek to avoid. To counter such
discouragement, the ambitious vain goal must be reduced. Nothing can be
achieved until this goal is identified and set in a proper perspective
... the perspective of the perceived impossible!
As for the psychotic individual, it has been suggested that their social
interest is virtually absent so they beat a retreat to the hinterland of
the fantasy, alien and hostile world they have created. They wish no part
in ours!
It needs to be made very clear at this point, that when we speak of the
use of symptoms, it is not a negation of the person who does this. Indeed
Adler insists that when the situation of this person is fully understood,
the psychologist can honestly say, "Were I in the same position as this
child, had I the same misinterpretation of the meaning of life, then I
too, would have suffered from the same symptoms." (CCWAA
Vol. 7, Page 179 How the Child selects His Symptoms) The symptoms speak
to the creativity of this person. They are like a painting or a work of
art. But this work of art has some misunderstandings and misconceptions
that need to be addressed. This person, faced with his perceived difficulties
has chosen a modus operendi and a way to move about in life, based on his
childhood interpretation of events, which he holds before his face like
a radar screen as he flies his aircraft through the storms of life. The
misconceptions in this work of art have created the conclusion that "I
am not up to some of the tasks
of life, but I wish to have an excuse for my perceived ineptness, so I
create symptoms. Now faulty upbringing may be a major contributor to the
symptoms selected. This person must constantly check what sort of impression
they are making. And that impression must seem sufficient to excuse them
from a life task. For example the person who constantly depresses themselves
is acting as if some disaster had already occurred. With this "heavy overburden,
how then can we reasonably ask them to contribute to mankind, never mind
their local community. No the caution sign of the disaster prevents that!
In order to provide the need to use symptoms, there must be a deficiency
in social interest and also a very real feeling of being in a minus position.
This must also be driven by the vanity of wishing to achieve some self
created position of being above. This all fits quite well with the discouragement
of childhood being carried forward into adult life minus a necessary and
appropriate encouragement, and driven by the vain notion that one should
be the first, the foremost. Antithetically, the foremost may also be the
lowest and the worst as in the vilest criminal who is most feared by his
fellow prisoners!
One of the more powerful symptoms that these people use is compulsions.
They exhaust huge effort in pursuing them. While "compelled" to wash there
hands or to pray fervently for forgiveness for their many sins they distance
themselves from doing more useful things. They may also use compulsions
to reap a double reward. Look what they achieved with this burden. Imagine
how amazing and wonderful they could be without it. They spend their time
in the backwaters of their lives while they torment themselves with unremitting
fears, thoughts and worries. They fight such a heroic battle against a
foe that does not exist! The normal human task that lies before them can
not be addressed until they battle the dragon that they have created. All
of this because of a grandiose goal and the clear discernment that it can
not be met. They have to possesses a degree of intelligence and creativity
to succeed at this life plan. But the energy is not well directed because
their social interest is deficient. It seems easier to engage in the mock
battle than to engage in the tasks that evidently call to be done at a
level that is out of human reach.
A very
substantial clue to the goal the person neurotically seeks is that when
they achieve the desired neurotic result, the symptom ceases for the time.
I have mentioned what I saw in a psychiatric hospital, that early after
an admission, the patient's symptoms would greatly improve and that would
be before any medications that were used could really have an effect. Under
those conditions I would often conclude that this person was seeking to
be pampered ... to have all their perceived needs provided for them without
any personal struggle. Of course this "cure" is not enduring because it
is often much easier to get into such an institutional setting than it
is to get out. And in the institution there is the treatment program that
must be adhered to or one must face certain consequences that restrict
once more the goal of superiority. Thus it is that in a few days the symptoms
intensify or the person may switch to an alternate strategy. It surprised
me that the medical staff and nurses seemed unaware of what was going on.
Then the "diagnosis" would be changed, "PRN's" would be given or seclusion
rooms would be employed. Seclusion rooms might actually suit the goal of
a person low in social interest very well, so I found certain patients
were in that room most mornings and nobody seemed to expose the game plan.
These patients will fully justify their battle with the symptoms and the
therapist must see beyond this trick. If the therapist engages in attempting
to remove the compulsion, the patient is then treating the therapist so
to speak. The symptom is not the issue. The issue is the inferiority feeling
that underlies it with its attendant goal of fictional superiority. The
therapist must set aside the smoke of the symptom and find out why it is
being produced. Only when this is clearly in sight can the discouragement
be addressed such that the compulsion serves no further purpose. The treatment
must consist of making the facts at issue crystal clear to this person.
Then the mistaken childhood conclusions need to be addressed. Finally the
vain ambition and grandiose goal must be exposed in a gentle and co-operative
relationship. Adler suggested that the therapist must achieve these actions
while working "like an old grandmother". The brilliance of the therapist
is of no value unless he wishes to enhance his own vanity. Should this
be the case, it is unlikely he can assist such a person.
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Hostility and open and concealed aggression are two ends of the spectrum
of activity against being part of the social structure. The degree to which
they are practised, bespeaks the degree of discouragement as well as the
height of the goal. An example of hostile activity is the client who promises
to do a requested task or to be on time for an appointment but the task
is not achieved and they are always late for appointments, has a degree
of activity that is quite high. They seek to annoy the therapist and subvert
the work by a trick.
It may be helpful in considering this notion to think of a vibrating elastic
sphere. The radius of activity would be the amplitude of the spheres vibration.
The activity might be considered as the rate at which it vibrates. So a
person who paces frantically above, has a high degree of activity, but
a low radius. The person who obstructs humanity may have a low degree of
activity, but a high radius.
The degree and radius of activity will fit the client's life style and
life plan like a glove. In its own discouraged manner it will move toward
the fictional goal. That is why it is also crucial to make this observation
and integrate it with the manifold other movements that the therapist witnesses.
All of these moves point from the client's discouragement to their goal.
A
major intervention that goes hand in hand with the exposure of this diagnosis
is to clearly demonstrate that the degree of discouragement this person
carries is not justifiable. It is disproportionate to the real facts
of their lives and they are using it to support their movement away from
social interest. Once more this must be done in a very friendly and kind
manner. Two things are achieved by doing this. The therapist is able to
confirm his understanding of the diagnosis and the client receives an antidote
to his problem.
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To bring the greatest benefit to the client, the practising Adlerian therapist
needs to understand himself and this knowledge can not be achieved by self
analysis. That is the area of personal biased apperception. This
area if not addressed and made aware, can and will create personal blind
spots as the therapist struggles to achieve a deep understanding of the
client. Again it becomes of the utmost importance that the therapist have
a proper study analysis and that in its most desirable format, should be
on going.
Adlerian psychology is far more than a theory of psychology. It is values
based so the theory becomes a way of living. It is not just a set of beliefs
the therapist holds. It must be an attitude he demonstrates toward mankind.
Thus a full study analysis is even more essential. The therapist must demonstrate
to each client an attitude toward humanity that is respectful, kind and
gentle while being willing to confront the mistaken paths the client may
have followed in an egalitarian and warm manner. The insights presented
must be timely and accurate, but only given after the proper groundwork
is laid to ensure this person is fully prepared, through many small steps,
for this next step in understanding and change.
An area
that I have struggled with is to realize the utter necessity of my own
study analysis as a part of a full learning experience. My medical background
and my own lifestyle make me wish to get to the meat of the knowledge.
But this psychology is not a set of facts to be learned. It is a life changing
experience to be shared. Once more if you are looking at this material
to "learn Adlerian psychology", you will never achieve that by reading
and the understanding of a set of principals or methods!
Case Analysis
The
only way you can start to become proficient in understanding what is really
going on in any case, is to learn the theory in great depth, then work
with a training analyst like Henry Stein on many cases. There are simply
no short cuts. You will need determination and dedication to achieve this
ability but it can be done if you wish. Many case analyises are required
starting from the simpler ones to the more complex. Henry has carefully
designed such a training program and I highly recomend that if you have
a desire to do this work, you must undertake the discipline and commitment
of such an intensive study routine. Personal study analysis is also an
necessity.
For
the purpose of third party payment this vague and overly generalized material
is required. Thus it is that I make as full an Adlerian understanding as
I am able, then I get out the DSM-IV manual and put in the nearest muti-axial
equivalent I can find. It is of no value to me as an Adlerian therapist
but it is required. Then as I understand more, I take the liberty of revising
this mutiaxial thing in keeping with my understanding. I will then keep
this diagnostic catalogue stapled to the back of the file folder to keep
the system happy and I never use it in treatment planning because it conflicts
so severely with a full Adlerian understanding of what is really going
on! I have placed a red disclaimer stamp across this document to indicate
that it is only present as a legal requirement in the file and that it
does not and can not represent a true and proper Adlerian understanding
of this person and their difficulty.
.Always
under construction
I would be delighted to receive questions from people studying this complex
psychology. I shall try to respond to them in a timely manner. Please click
on the link below.
