Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic Approaches-Psychoanalytic Therapy Theorist Alfred Adler
Marshira Holmes-Neal
Soc 307 “Theory Applied to Pratice”
Mid-Term
October 11, 2012
Biography
Alfred Adler was born in the suburbs of Vienna on February 7, 1870, the third child, second son, of a Jewish grain merchant and his wife. As a child, Alfred developed rickets, which kept him from walking until he was four years old. At five, he nearly died of pneumonia. It was at this age that he decided to be a physician.
Alfred was an average student and preferred playing outdoors to being cooped up in school. He was quite outgoing, popular, and active, and was known for his efforts at outdoing his older brother, Sigmund.
He then turned to psychiatry, and in 1907 was invited to join Freud 's discussion group. After writing papers on organic inferiority, which were quite compatible with Freud 's views, he wrote, first, a paper concerning an aggression instinct, which Freud did not approve of, and then a paper on children 's feelings of inferiority, which suggested that Freud 's sexual notions be taken more metaphorically than literally (adler,pg1).
Theory
Alfred Adler postulates a single "drive" or motivating force behind all our behavior and experience. By the time his theory had gelled into its most mature form, he called that motivating force the striving for perfection. It is the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. It is, as many of you will already see, very similar to the more popular idea of self-actualization. (Hoffman pg. 1)
Striving for perfection was not the first phrase Adler used to refer to his single motivating force. His earliest phrase was the aggression drive, referring to the reaction we have when other drives, such as our need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved, are frustrated. It might be better called the assertiveness drive, since
Marshira Holmes-Neal
Soc 307 “Theory Applied to Pratice”
Mid-Term
October 11, 2012
Biography
Alfred Adler was born in the suburbs of Vienna on February 7, 1870, the third child, second son, of a Jewish grain merchant and his wife. As a child, Alfred developed rickets, which kept him from walking until he was four years old. At five, he nearly died of pneumonia. It was at this age that he decided to be a physician.
Alfred was an average student and preferred playing outdoors to being cooped up in school. He was quite outgoing, popular, and active, and was known for his efforts at outdoing his older brother, Sigmund.
He then turned to psychiatry, and in 1907 was invited to join Freud 's discussion group. After writing papers on organic inferiority, which were quite compatible with Freud 's views, he wrote, first, a paper concerning an aggression instinct, which Freud did not approve of, and then a paper on children 's feelings of inferiority, which suggested that Freud 's sexual notions be taken more metaphorically than literally (adler,pg1).
Theory
Alfred Adler postulates a single "drive" or motivating force behind all our behavior and experience. By the time his theory had gelled into its most mature form, he called that motivating force the striving for perfection. It is the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. It is, as many of you will already see, very similar to the more popular idea of self-actualization. (Hoffman pg. 1)
Striving for perfection was not the first phrase Adler used to refer to his single motivating force. His earliest phrase was the aggression drive, referring to the reaction we have when other drives, such as our need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved, are frustrated. It might be better called the assertiveness drive, since
Cited: * Chapter 5: Psychodynamic and Neo-Freudian TheoriesCopyright © 1999-2003, AllPsych and Heffner Media Group, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Last Updated November 29, 2011 * The International Journal of Individual Psychology. ALFRED ADLER. Dr. C. George Boeree Copyright 1997, 2006 * The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (1927, psychology) * http://www.nndb.com. Copyright ©2012 Soylent Communications * Hoffman, Edward, The Drive For Self: Alfred Adler And The Founding Of Individual Psychology, Addison-Wesley, 1994. http://www.chesco.com/~artman/adler.html