Primer of Adlerian Psychology: The Analytic - Behavioural - Cognitive Psychology of Alfred Adler

208 Pages·1999·14.51 MB·English

by  Harold Mosak

A PRIMER OF ADLERIAN PSYCHOLOGY
A PRIMER
OF ADLERIAN
PSYCHOLOGY
The Analytic-Behavioral
Cogn itive Psychology
of Alfred Adler
Harold H. Mosak
Michael P. Maniacci
Published by
Brunner-Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain
Brunner-Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
A PRIMER OF ADLERIAN PSYCHOLOGY: The Analytic-Behavioral-Cognitive
Psychology of Alfred Adler
Copyright © 1999 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of
this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored
in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.
4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Cover design by Marja Walker.
Cover photo courtesy of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates
Edited by Hilary Ward and Mark Eggerts
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this publication meets the requirements of the ANSI Standard
Z39.48-1984 (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mosak, Harold H.
A primer of Adlerian pyschology: the analytic-behavioral-cognitive pyschology of
Alfred Adler/Harold H. Mosak, Michael P. Maniacci.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58391-003-4 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Adlerian psychology. 2. Adler, Alfred, 1870-1937.
1. Maniacci, Michael. II. Title.
BFI75.5.A33M68 1999
150.19'53--dc21 99-25738
CIP
ISBN 1-58391-003-4 (paper)
Dedication
Harold H. Mosak: To Ada, a class act ...
Michael P. Maniacci: To the two women of my life, Laurie and Emily ...
CONTENTS
Preface IX
Alfred Adler and Adlerian Psychology: An Overview 1
Basic Assumptions and Philosophy of Individual Psychology 12
The Development of the Life Style 30
The Style of Life 46
Typology 63
Inferiorities, Inferiority Feelings, and Inferiority Complexes 78
The Tasks of Life 96
Psychopathology 112
Understanding a Person 131
Encouraging Growth 146
A Critique of the Theory of Individual Psychology 162
References 176
Index 191
VII
PREFACE
All men by nature desire to know.
Aristotle (circa 350 BC)
BELIEVING is what we humans do best.
Michael S. Gazzaniga (1985)
Who am I? Where do I come from? What is all of this about? Ques
tions like these have been on the minds and in the hearts of humanity
for what seems to be an eternity. Aristotle (350 BcIl941), in The Meta
physics, posed just such questions and attempted to lay the foundation
for those answers in philosophy and logic well over 2000 years ago. He
was the founder of a school that trained some of the greatest minds of
ancient Greece, he himself having graduated from Plato's Academy sev
eral years earlier. In The Metaphysics, Aristotle attempts to explore how
to understand "being," that is, the nature of all that exists. In the very
first paragraph of this monumental work, he turns his attention to
human beings and their ability to sense and perceive, and how that per
ception leads them to search for answers to such eternal questions. "All
men by nature desire to know" is the first line of the book (p. 689).
Some 2000 years later, a cognitive neuroscientist, Gazzaniga, begins
his book, The Social Brain (1985), with "BELIEVING is what humans do
best" (p. 3). In it, he attempts to understand how the neural networks of
the brain have both reflected and created the social networks of our
community, culture, and environment. Much like Aristotle before him,
Gazzaniga finds himself intertwined with the issue of our senses and
human perception.
Human beings, as a species, have been, and continue to be, preoccu
pied with these issues. Though our answers to these questions have var-
IX
X Preface
ied across time and culture, with technology allowing us more precision
in our responses (but no less rigorous answers than philosophers), the
mere fact that we continue to ask these questions may be one of the
fundamental distinguishing characteristics of human nature. The nature
of what is "known" is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish from the
nature of those who are seeking to know; or, put more simply, what is
"seen" is often influenced by who is "looking." This book is written by
two psychologists, and our "answers" are couched in the science and
philosophy of psychology. Though both of us have been trained in fields
of inquiry other than psychology, and other disciplines and theories
within psychology, our primary affiliation is with the system of psychol
ogy and psychotherapy of the psychiatrist Alfred Adler. It is through this
perspective that we practice and teach.
Alfred Adler, and those who have joined him in a similar world view,
have built a system of psychology called Individual Psychology. It provides
not only a strategy of psychotherapy but a philosophical framework
with which to interpret and comprehend information relevant to an
understanding of human nature. In fact. Adler's most popular book,
written in 1927, was entitled Understanding Human Nature (1927/1957).
Adler's system is a growing, evolving, vibrant system, whose basic te
nets have been gradually incorporated into diverse fields, not only
within the disciplines of psychology and psychiatry, but in anthropol
ogy, sociology, social psychology, and education. His insights have
gained widespread acceptance, even though his name has often been
forgotten. As Adler himself wrote in a book foreword in 1933,
Individual Psychology, which is essentially a child of this age, will have a
permanent influence on the thought, poetry, and dreams of humanity. It
will attract many enlightened disciples, and many more who will hardly
know the names of its pioneers. It will be understood by some, but the
numbers of those who misunderstand it will be greater. It will have many
adherents, and still more enemies. Because of its simplicity many will
think it too easy, whereas those who know it will recognize how difficult
it is. (Dreikurs, 193311950a, p. vii)
Adler's words have been prophetic. Many of the insights he
articulated have become "mainstreamed" into contemporary thought,
particularly in psychology. As is evident throughout this work, psycho
analysis (particularly self-psychology and object relations theory),
cognitive therapy, systems theory and family therapy, existential psy
chotherapy and philosophy, and social psychology, to mention only a
few therapy systems, have incorporated much of what Adler espoused
as early as the turn of the century. This book is an attempt to clearly ar
ticulate the system Adler began building at that time.
Preface XI
There have been other attempts to systematize Adler's work in the
form of introductory textbooks. Dreikurs (193311950a), Manaster and
Corsini (1982), Wexberg (1929), and Wolfe (1932) have written such
texts, but alL except Manaster and Corsini, have (at the time of this
writing) gone out of print. Many of Adler's original works are out of
print as well, but the work of Ansbacher and Ansbacher has served to
collect, edit, and systematize Adler's writings (Adler, 1956, 1964g,
1978). This book is an attempt to provide those in the field of Adlerian
psychology with an introductory text and those who are as yet unfamil
iar with the work of Adler a single source from which to evaluate his
system as it stands today. It is not a book about Adlerian counseling and
psychotherapy per se; rather it is a theoretical book that will touch upon
counseling and psychotherapy as some of its topics. It is a text about the
theory of Individual Psychology.
This book is an exploration and elaboration of the theory and system
of Individual Psychology. Chapter 1 reviews the historical background
of Adlerian psychology.
Chapter 2 begins with an analysis of the basic assumptions and phi
losophy of Individual Psychology. It is intended to familiarize readers
with the underlying assumptions of the system, in much the same way
Chapter I attempts to acquaint readers with Adler himself.
Chapter 3 examines human personality development as conceptual
ized by Adlerians. The development of the life style entails taking into
account the biologicaL psychologicaL and social influences upon per
sonality development in light of the aforementioned assumptions of
Adlerian theory.
Chapter 4 provides an overview of the style of life, Adler's phrase for
what is now known as personality. What it is and how it is used is detailed.
Chapter 5 is, for all practical purposes, a continuation of Chapter 4
and is called "Typology." Certain life styles have themes, or clusters of
issues, that can form recognizable patterns theorists call "types." Adler's
original four types, with some current additions, are detailed.
Chapter 6 is titled "Inferiorities, Inferiority Feelings, and Inferiority
Complexes." This chapter discusses how individuals respond to chal
lenges posed by life and the social situations they both find themselves
in and help to create and maintain. The general challenges people face
can be clustered into six key areas .. and these are discussed in Chapter 7,
"The Tasks of Life,"
In "Psychopathology," Chapter 8, various pathological methods of
functioning are analyzed. Topics such as diagnosis, symptoms, and psy
chodynamics are viewed from the interpersonaL goal-oriented perspec
tive of Adlerian psychology. A detailed case history is presented that
highlights the topics addressed in the chapter.
XII Preface
Chapter 9 is an overview of what Adlerians assess when they begin
understanding a person. How the individual's style of life is assessed, the
person's current movement in regards to his or her social field, and the
meaning and purpose of behavior are the focus of this section.
Intervention strategies is the topic of Chapter 10. Issues of prevention,
parenting, parent and family education, counseling, psychotherapy, and
psychoanalysis, including the reconceptualization of Adlerian psycho
therapy as an "analytic-behavioral-cognitive" system, are explored.
Finally, in Chapter 11, a critique of Individual Psychology is pre
sented, along with an annotated bibliography of Adlerian works that
readers may wish to examine for themselves, and a glossary of key
terms. If Adlerian theory is to flourish, its strengths need to be high
lighted and its limitations noted and corrected. Although Individual
Psychology is a comprehensive, broad-based system, there are many
areas future Adlerians must address if the system is to remain viable.
Also, we examine Adler's influence as it continues today, particularly as
it relates to one of the newest trends in clinical psychology and psycho
therapy, cognitive constructionism. The chapter concludes with some
comments upon the future of Individual Psychology.
This is intended to be an introductory text; therefore at the end of
each chapter, we have some questions that may be useful for instructors
and students in classroom settings. In addition, summary points high
lighting the key issues of each chapter are found immediately before the
review questions.
Because, as we have stated previously, the answers people find are in
timately related to the "natures" of those who do the "looking," an ap
propriate place to begin a textbook of Adlerian psychology is with the
individual himself, the man who "did the looking," Alfred Adler.
Harold H. Mosak
Michael P. Maniacci