Category:Adlerian psychology

Alfred Adler was an Austrian physician who was, early in his work, influenced by Freud's ideas. However, he lost his initial enthusiasm and developed his own views of psychology that could be called personal psychology. This is the notion that to understand human behavior one has to understand the whole person. Central to Adlerian thinking is the importance of inferior feelings as being the prime mover of human behavior. Adler described inferior feelings as being part of normal development which need to be overcome through maturation. In general there are two main styles of overcoming inferior feelings the useless and useful. The useless style of behaving is one in which the person only takes from others. The useful style is when the person gives back to others or has a sense of the other. Adler worked in schools in Vienna and had open-discussions with parents and teachers about the causes of misbehavior in school children. In his view the "pampered child" is the primary culprit leading to "neurosis" in late adolescence and adulthood. Information taken from personal interview with Harold Mosak Ph.D. founder of the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, Illinois.