Introduction to Alderian Theory-Chapter 2

Although Alfred Adler has had a profound effect on such later theorists as Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, Julian Rotter, Abraham H. Maslow, Carl Rogers, Al- bert Ellis, Rollo May, and others (Mosak & Maniacci, 1999), his name is less well known than that of either Freud or Carl Jung. At least three reasons account for this. First, Adler did not establish a tightly run organization to perpetuate his theories. Second, he was not a particularly gifted writer, and most of his books were compiled by a series of editors using Adler’s scattered lectures. Third, many of his views were incorporated into the works of such later theorists as Maslow, Rogers, and Ellis and thus are no longer associated with Adler’s name.
Although his writings revealed great insight into the depth and complexities of human personality, Adler evolved a basically simple and parsimonious theory. To Adler, people are born with weak, inferior bodies—a condition that leads to feelings of inferiority and a consequent dependence on other people. Therefore, a feeling of unity with others (social interest) is inherent in people and the ultimate standard for psychological health. More specifically, the main tenets of Adlerian theory can be stated in outline form. The following is adapted from a list that represents the final statement of individual psychology (Adler, 1964).
1.The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success or superiority.
People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality.
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
4.The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest.
5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life. 6.Style of life is molded by people’s creative power.
Striving For Succes or Superiority
The first tenet of Adlerian theory is: The one dynamic force behind people’s behav- ior is the striving for success or superiority.
Adler reduced all motivation to a single drive—the striving for success or su- periority. Adler’s own childhood was marked by physical deficiencies and strong feelings of competitiveness with his older brother. Individual psychology holds that everyone begins life with physical deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority— feelings that motivate a person to strive for either superiority or success. Psycholog- ically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority, whereas psychologically healthy people seek success for all humanity.
Early in his career, Adler believed that aggression was the dynamic power be- hind all motivation, but he soon became dissatisfied with this term. After rejecting aggression as a single motivational force, Adler used the term masculine protest, which implied will to power or a domination of others. However, he soon abandoned masculine protest as a universal drive while continuing to give it a limited role in his theory of abnormal development.
Next, Adler called the single dynamic force striving for superiority. In his final theory, however, he limited striving for superiority to those people who strive for personal superiority over others and introduced the term striving for success to de- scribe actions of people who are motivated by highly developed social interest (Adler, 1956). Regardless of the motivation for striving, each individual is guided by a final goal.
The Final Goal
According to Adler (1956), people strive toward a final goal of either personal supe- riority or the goal of success for all humankind. In either case, the final goal is fic- tional and has no objective existence. Nevertheless, the final goal has great signifi- cance because it unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible.
Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal, one con- structed out of the raw materials provided by heredity and environment. However, the goal is neither genetically nor environmentally determined. Rather, it is the prod- uct of the creative power, that is, people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality. By the time children reach 4 or 5 years of age, their cre- ative power has developed to the point that they can set their final goal. Even infants have an innate drive toward growth, completion, or success. Because infants are small, incomplete, and weak, they feel inferior and powerless.To compensate for this deficiency, they set a fictional goal to be big, complete, and strong. Thus, a person’s final goal reduces the pain of inferiority feelings and points that person in the direc- tion of either superiority or success.

If children feel neglected or pampered, their goal remains largely unconscious. Adler (1964) hypothesized that children will compensate for feelings of inferiority in devious ways that have no apparent relationship to their fictional goal. The goal of superiority for a pampered girl, for example, may be to make permanent her parasitic relationship with her mother. As an adult, she may appear dependent and self-deprecating, and such behavior may seem inconsistent with a goal of supe- riority. However, it is quite consistent with her unconscious and misunderstood goal of being a parasite that she set at age 4 or 5, a time when her mother appeared large and powerful, and attachment to her became a natural means of attaining superiority.
Conversely, if children experience love and security, they set a goal that is largely conscious and clearly understood. Psychologically secure children strive to- ward superiority defined in terms of success and social interest. Although their goal never becomes completely conscious, these healthy individuals understand and pur- sue it with a high level of awareness.
In striving for their final goal, people create and pursue many preliminary goals. These subgoals are often conscious, but the connection between them and the final goal usually remains unknown. Furthermore, the relationship among prelimi- nary goals is seldom realized. From the point of view of the final goal, however, they fit together in a self-consistent pattern. Adler (1956) used the analogy of the play- wright who builds the characteristics and the subplots of the play according to the final goal of the drama. When the final scene is known, all dialogue and every sub- plot acquire new meaning. When an individual’s final goal is known, all actions make sense and each subgoal takes on new significance.

The Striving Force as Compensation
People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness. Adler (1930) believed that all humans are “blessed” at birth with small, weak, and inferior bodies. These physical deficiencies ignite feelings of inferiority only because people, by their nature, possess an innate tendency toward completion or wholeness. People are continually pushed by the need to overcome in- feriority feelings and pulled by the desire for completion. The minus and plus situa- tions exist simultaneously and cannot be separated because they are two dimensions of a single force.
The striving force itself is innate, but its nature and direction are due both to feelings of inferiority and to the goal of superiority. Without the innate movement to- ward perfection, children would never feel inferior; but without feelings of inferior- ity, they would never set a goal of superiority or success. The goal, then, is set as compensation for the deficit feeling, but the deficit feeling would not exist unless a child first possessed a basic tendency toward completion (Adler, 1956).
Although the striving for success is innate, it must be developed. At birth it ex- ists as potentiality, not actuality; each person must actualize this potential in his or her own manner. At about age 4 or 5, children begin this process by setting a direc- tion to the striving force and by establishing a goal either of personal superiority or of social success. The goal provides guidelines for motivation, shaping psychologi- cal development and giving it an aim.
As a creation of the individual, the goal may take any form. It is not necessar- ily a mirror image of the deficiency, even though it is a compensation for it. For ex- ample, a person with a weak body will not necessarily become a robust athlete but instead may become an artist, an actor, or a writer. Success is an individualized con- cept and all people formulate their own definition of it. Although creative power is swayed by the forces of heredity and environment, it is ultimately responsible for people’s personality. Heredity establishes the potentiality, whereas environment con- tributes to the development of social interest and courage. The forces of nature and nurture can never deprive a person of the power to set a unique goal or to choose a unique style of reaching for the goal (Adler, 1956).

In his final theory, Adler identified two general avenues of striving. The first is the socially nonproductive attempt to gain personal superiority; the second involves social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone.
Striving for Personal Superiority
Some people strive for superiority with little or no concern for others. Their goals are personal ones, and their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority, or the presence of an inferiority complex. Murder- ers, thieves, and con artists are obvious examples of people who strive for personal gain. Some people create clever disguises for their personal striving and may con- sciously or unconsciously hide their self-centeredness behind the cloak of social concern. A college teacher, for example, may appear to have a great interest in his students because he establishes a personal relationship with many of them. By con- spicuously displaying much sympathy and concern, he encourages vulnerable stu- dents to talk to him about their personal problems. This teacher possesses a private intelligence that allows him to believe that he is the most accessible and dedicated teacher in his college. To a casual observer, he may appear to be motivated by social interest, but his actions are largely self-serving and motivated by overcompensation for his exaggerated feelings of personal superiority.
Striving for Success

In contrast to people who strive for personal gain are those psychologically healthy people who are motivated by social interest and the success of all humankind. These healthy individuals are concerned with goals beyond themselves, are capable of helping others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff, and are able to see others not as opponents but as people with whom they can cooperate for social ben- efit. Their own success is not gained at the expense of others but is a natural tendency to move toward completion or perfection.
People who strive for success rather than personal superiority maintain a sense of self, of course, but they see daily problems from the view of society’s develop- ment rather than from a strictly personal vantage point. Their sense of personal worth is tied closely to their contributions to human society. Social progress is more im- portant to them than personal credit (Adler, 1956).