1 / 28

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler. 1870 - 1937 INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY. Alfred Adler. 1902 Joined Freud's discussion group on neurotics 1910 Co-founder with Freud Journal of Psychoanalyses 1912 Separates from Freud and founds the Society for Individual Psychology.

Download Presentation

Alfred Adler

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Alfred Adler 1870 - 1937 INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

  2. Alfred Adler • 1902 Joined Freud's discussion group on neurotics • 1910 Co-founder with Freud Journal of Psychoanalyses • 1912 Separates from Freud and founds the Society for Individual Psychology

  3. Symptoms have a purpose Dreams are meaningful Influence of early life on later life Theory of instincts Biological determinism Role of transference in therapy Freud and AdlerAgreementsDisagreements

  4. View of Human Nature • Holistic and social view of humans • Humans are • Social beings who choose their goals, they are self-determined, decision-makers • All behavior is purposeful • Freedom to choose implies values and meanings • Social interest is the most important value • The main motivation for behavior is striving for significance • Phenomenological approach

  5. Social Interest • Adler’s most significant and distinctive concept • Refers to an individual’s attitudetoward and awarenessof being a part of the human community • Mental healthis measured by the degree to which we successfully share with others and are concerned with their welfare • Happiness and success are largely related to social connectedness

  6. Striving for Significance • Compensating for weaknesses • Attaining a unique identity • Achieving a sense of belonging • Security • Competence (vs. sense of inferiority)

  7. Phenomenological Approach • Adlerians attempt to view the world from the client’s subjective frame of reference • How life is in reality, is less important than how the individual believes life to be • It is not the childhood experiences per se that are crucial, but our recollections and interpretations of these events

  8. Life presents challenges in the form of Life Tasks • Society ability to share with others • Work making a contribution to others • Sex achieving intimacy • Spiritual personal meaning in life, relation with cosmos • Coping with oneself self-acceptance

  9. Family Constellation • Primary social environment where the child, through exploration and observation, • learns what gains approval and • how to achieve significance (sense of competence and acceptance).

  10. Life Style • Conclusions about the self, others, and the environment based on subjective experiences with parents and siblings. • Conceptualized as a cognitive structure or map from which we apprehend reality and interpret experience

  11. Life Style • It is largely out of awareness and includes convictions about: • Self-concept Who I am • Self-ideal Who should I be to be significant • The World around What others demand of me • Ethical beliefs Sense of right and wrong

  12. Psychologically Healthy Individuals • Have developed social interest • Commit self to life-tasks w/o excuses • Have a sense of belonging • Have positive self-esteem and feel acceptable • Are able to accept their imperfections

  13. Concept of Psychopathology • Discouragement • Acting as if one is inferior • Avoid life tasks • Symptoms function as excuses for avoiding life-tasks and save face

  14. Behavior Call Attention Power Struggle Revenge Display Hopelessness Feeling Irritated Challenged Hurt Hopeless Purpose of Maladaptive Behaviors (Dinkmeyer)

  15. Adlerian Therapy • Cooperative and educational enterprise • Goals -- Help clients: • Change faulty thinking and mistaken assumptions • Increase social interest • Decrease inferiority complex • Overcome discouragement • Make changes in their lifestyle (mistakes, perceptions, goals)

  16. Faulty Thinking and Mistaken Assumptions (Private Logic) • Overgeneralizations: life is dangerous; people are mean • False or impossible goals of security: I must please everybody • Misperceptions of life demands: To succeed you must be perfect. • Denial of self-worth • Faulty values: succeed no matter what.

  17. Stages of Therapy • Establishing the Relationship • Assessment: Exploring the Individual’s Dynamics • Gaining Insight • Reorientation

  18. I. Establishing the Relationship • Collaborative relationship • Based on trust • Attend to subjective experience of client • Exploration of client’s issues • Setting general goals • Learning process

  19. II. Assessment • To explore the clients’ life-style and how it affects life tasks • Techniques • The Life Assessment: Topics • Explore how initial concern(s) relates to life tasks • Experiences in family constellation • Early recollections (content and associated affect) • Number one priority of client • The Question – examine secondary gain of symptom (What if…?) (e.g. psychosomatic symptoms)

  20. III. Gaining Insight • Help the client understand their life style and how it affects engagement in the life-tasks: • Explore faulty perceptions, mistaken beliefs, and values • Understand their own role in creating problems • Gain awareness of responsibility for actions

  21. III. Gaining Insight : Techniques • Interpretation • Bring to awareness client's goals and beliefs and how they motivate their behaviors • Focus on purposes and consequences of behaviors • Confrontation – Challenge clients with: • Discrepancies in clients conduct • Rationalizations for behavior, mistaken beliefs, private goals, and unproductive behavior

  22. IV. Reorientation • Action oriented phase to help clients put insights into practice and get the courage to make changes in their lives. • Techniques: ImmediacyActing as-if Paradoxical IntentionPush-button technique Spitting on the soupTask setting Catching oneself

  23. IV. Reorientation: Techniques 1/2 • Immediacy (parallel process) • attending to behaviors occurring in the therapy relation to help clients explore their motivations and behaviors • Paradoxical intention • prescribe the symptom • Spitting in the soup • identify secondary gain of a given behavior or symptom • Catching oneself • to help gain control of behaviors one wants to change

  24. IV. Reorientation: Techniques 2/2 • Acting as-if • Rehearse desired behaviors • Push button technique • Imagine pleasant and unpleasant situations and attend to feelings generated • Task setting • Step-wise process of behavior change to assure success, foster feelings of encouragement, and increase self-esteem

  25. Encouragement • Encouragement is the most powerful method available for changing a person’s beliefs • Helps build self-confidence and stimulates courage • Discouragement is the basic condition that prevents people from functioning • Courage develops when people • Become aware of their strengths • Feel that they belong • Have hope for their lives

  26. Adler’s Contributions • Precursor of cognitive-based therapies and the existential approach • Emphasis on educational and preventive aspects of psychology – • Adler’s ideas have been applied to marriage counseling, family counseling and group work. • Influential in the training of counselors for schools and community health services • Emphasis on human’s ability to change and focus on positive aspects and strengths of patients

  27. Limitations • Adler’s writings were difficult to apply directly to developing counseling interventions • Applications of his theory have been formulated by his followers

  28. Neo-Freudian • Minimized role of psycho-sexual stages • Culture, spirituality, society also influence personality and behavior • Personality development occurs through life-span

More Related