Adler Chapter 4

1. AdlerChapter 4

2. Early Influences • Illnesses as a child • Poor student at first • Older, “perfect” brother • Domineering, socialist wife • Interest in everyday problems and people • Freud

3. Organ InferiorityVersion 1 • “Weak” Organs • Compensation • try to improve weakness, or • emphasize other functions to make up for weakness • Overcompensation • Conversion of a biological weakness into a strength

4. Feelings of InferiorityVersion 2 • Emphasis shifted from physical to subjective inferiorities • All people born “inferior” • The desire to overcome inferiority is the primary motivator in life • Masculine Protest • Inferiority Complex

5. Striving for SuperiorityVersion 3 • Life Goal: seeking superiority or perfection • Final version: striving for superior or perfect society • Superiority Complex

6. Vaihinger’s “As If” Philosophy • All experience of “reality” comes through our senses • Humans have a natural tendency to give these sensations meaning, or fictions

7. Fictional Goals and Lifestyles • “As if” applied to lives of individuals: • Because of past experiences, world views created • Subjective reality more important than physical reality • Lifestyle: ways a person attempts to gain life goals

8. Creative Self • Free element of the personality that allows a person to choose between alternative fictional goals and lifestyles

9. Social Interest • Three major problems or goals in life: • Occupational tasks: advance society • Societal tasks: cooperation/division of labor • Love/marriage tasks: procreation

10. Mistaken Lifestyles • Mistaken Lifestyle: any lifestyle not aimed at socially useful goals • Lifestyle types: • Ruling-dominant type • Getting-leaning type • Avoiding type • Healthy lifestyle must be socially useful

11. Where do mistaken lifestyles come from? • Physical inferiority • Spoiling/pampering • Neglecting

12. Safeguarding Strategies • Used by neurotics to save self-esteem • Excuses • Symptoms created to explain short-comings • Aggression • Deprecation • Idealization: use of unrealistic standards to judge others • Solicitude: giving advice to point where you believe others cannot live w/o you • Accusation: blame others for own short-comings • Self-accusation: self-harm w/ the goal of gaining attention

13. Safeguarding Strategies • Distancing • Moving backward: revert to less complicated time to escape social responsibilities • Standing still: inability to move forward in life • Hesitating: vacillating with problems, delaying, avoiding • Constructing obstacles: creating minor barriers to success • Experiencing anxiety: amplification of all distancing strategies • Using the exclusion tendency: living within narrow limits

14. Goal of Therapy • Awareness of incorrect old lifestyles and creation of a more healthy lifestyle • Therapists avoids blame or criticism • Prevented from using neuroses to gain sympathy from therapist

15. Methods of Research • Birth Order • Firstborn • Second born • Youngest • Only

16. Methods of Research • First Memories • Dream Analysis

17. Evaluating Adler’s Theory • Empirical Research • Criticisms • Falsifiability • Overly simplistic and optimistic • Contributions • Social variables • Influential

18. Horney (1885-1952) Part 1

19. Early Influences • Mother: supportive, independent • Father: very religious, believed women source of evil • Large family, felt unwanted • Bouts w/ depression • Unhappy marriage, sexual promiscuity

20. Influence of Freud • Trained in Freudian tradition • However, she discover her clients had different problems from the ones that Freud described • Developed her own personality theory to better explain what she saw • Emphasis on culture rather than biology

21. What causes neuroses? • Social experiences • Esp. important • Relationship between parent and child

22. Childhood • Two basic needs • Satisfaction • Safety

23. If… • Need for safety satisfied • Healthy person • Need for safety not satisfied • Parental Indifference: THE "BASIC EVIL" • Neurotic person

24. Making a Neurotic Person Basic Anxiety Parental Indifference Basic Hostility

25. 10 Neurotic Trends or Needs • Affection/approval • Partner who will run one’s life • Live life in narrow limits • Power • Exploit others

26. 10 Neurotic Trends or Needs • Social recognition and prestige • Personal admiration • Ambition / personal achievement • Independence • Perfection

27. Adjustment Patterns • moving toward • compliant type • moving against • hostile type • moving away • detached type

28. What is mental health? neurotic: overemphasizes one orientation healthy:uses all 3 orientations

29. Neurotic: MOVING TOWARD PEOPLE • needs affection, approval, a partner • compliant, manipulative, temper tantrums • represses competition, rage, anger, hostility • lives life within narrow borders • "poor little me"; martyr; saint Motto: "If I give in, I will not be hurt."

30. Healthy: MOVING TOWARD PEOPLE In healthy people, "moving toward" enables us to give and receive social support.

31. Neurotic: MOVING AGAINST PEOPLE • needs control, dominance, recognition and power • hostile, exploitative, perfectionistic, need to be right, Machiavellian, but likeable facade • self-worth  success and prestige • chooses a partner to enhance prestige, wealth, or power • identifies with the ideal self Motto: "If I have power, I shall not be hurt."

32. Healthy: MOVING AGAINST PEOPLE In healthy people, "moving against" enables us to be appropriately assertive Notice that socially approved competition can be a "moving against" symptom

33. Neurotic: MOVING AWAY FROM PEOPLE • need for privacy • self-sufficient, detached, emotionally flat, lacks goals, overly sensitive to coercion or advice • belittles own potential • vacillates between despised real self and ideal self • attitude of "I don't care about anything" Motto: "If I withdraw, nothing can hurt me."

34. Healthy: MOVING AWAY FROM PEOPLE In healthy people, "moving away" enables us to be self-reliant (when this is appropriate).