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Adler
Speaks
by Mark Stone and
Karen Drescher
Reviewed by Jesyca Vilensky
Adler Speaks-The Lectures of Alfred Adler, was very well compiled
and edited by Mark H. Stone and Karen A. Drescher.
Both of these editors are faculty members of the Adler School of
Professional Psychology and give excellent commentary throughout the book to
help elucidate Adler’s main ideas. This
book is a profound collection of the lectures that Adler gave during the end of
the 1920’s and the early 1930’s mostly throughout the
New York City
area. Even though the chapters are
short and concise, they offer the depth and breadth needed for a clear
understanding of Individual Psychology.
The
purpose of the book is first to point out how the misguided behavior of the
individual affects the harmony of our social and communal life; second, to teach
individuals to recognize their own mistakes; and finally, to show them how to
adjust harmoniously to their social environment.This book, therefore, is dedicated to the task of illuminating
society’s progress towards a better understanding of human nature.
Adler believed that in order to understand people, we have to understand
them more as unified wholes than as a collection of bits and pieces, and we have
to understand them in the context of their environment, both physical and
social; this created the theory of Individual Psychology and the idea of holism.
Instead of talking about a person’s personality, with the traditional
sense of internal traits, structures, dynamics, conflicts, and so on, Adler
preferred to talk about style of life or life style.
Life style refers to how you live your life, how you handle problems and
interpersonal relations.
Adler’s idea of
social interest or social feelings, which was translated from the German term Gemeinschaftsgefuhl,
could be translated as community feeling. Adler
felt that social concern was not simply inborn, nor just learned, but a
combination of both. It is based on
an innate disposition, but it has to be nurtured to survive.
Adler meant social concern or feeling not in terms of particular social
behaviors, but in the much broader sense of caring for family, for community,
for society, for humanity, even for life. Social
concern is a matter of being useful to others.
On the other hand, a lack of social concern is, for Adler, the very
definition of mental illness. All
problems in life are due to a lack in social interest.
The book creates an overview of Adler’s essential theories and
contributions to society through his Individual Psychology.
The beginning lectures are somewhat of a comparison of some of Freud’s
theories and his ideas that make up “Drive Psychology” to Adler’s beliefs
and his ideas that make up Individual Psychology.
There is a more thorough presentation of cooperation, unity, movement
toward a goal, and an individual’s style of life, while Adler just touches on
such issues as bashfulness, laziness, eating disorders, stuttering, and
migraines.
Adler very effectively discusses the ideas of cooperation, parenting, the
unity of the person, and the meaning of life, as the underlying important themes
throughout the book. “All the good
characteristics are those of cooperation: to be good, to be true, faithful,
brave, courageous and to be optimistic”. “Cooperation
is the most important thing for living” (p. 3).
There is a significant difference between compliance and cooperation, in
that cooperation is not the obedience of something, instead the joining and
contributing of efforts for the problems of life and social problems.
“It is not possible that in the mind of an individual there are two
different tracks. It must always be
unity. Parts of an individual
produce coherence only when combined as a whole” (p. 4).
This concept is the essence of Individual Psychology and the unity of the
person. The unity and style of life
is said to be fixed at the mere age of four or five years old in childhood.
The theory of Individual Psychology is very future oriented, which
involves the movement toward a goal. “The
goal is the future. The future is
our mind. The future is
accomplishment in our mind, not the past. Both
mind and bodies are in movement toward the goal” (p.25).
Also, along the lines of future orientation, Adler’s lectures and ideas
involved the love task. This is
emphasized as a task for two and “the welfare of society is dependent upon the
future of love” (p. 69).
For
someone seeking to understand Alfred Adler’s work and his relationship to
other psychologists of the day, this work is a must.There is an overview of each major thought/idea.Through the use of his own lectures he helps to place the teachings into
context.This book, as a collection
of his personal lectures is an attempt to acquaint the general public with the
fundamentals of Individual Psychology. At the same time it is a demonstration of
the practical application of these principles to the conduct of one’s everyday
relationships, not only to the world, and to one’s friends and acquaintances,
but also to the organization of one’s personal life.Adler is an excellent lecturer, and his simple language and the clarity
of his thoughts make this a great read.
As
much as this book had its benefits, I also think it had its drawbacks.
His advice and theories leave me with a bit of a hole. It seems that he
too often illustrates all the negative aspects of certain types of human
behavior stemming from various childhood experiences without offering as much of
a solution to the problems as I would have hoped for. He might throw in a short
paragraph of advice at the end of a passage but overall it is not as much as an
Adlerian clinician in this field could really benefit from.
Adler’s
clear descriptions of people’s complaints, his straight-forward and
common-sense interpretations of their problems, his simple theoretical
structure, his trust and even affection for the common person, all make his
theory both comfortable and highly influential.
All of this incorporated into Adler Speaks-The Lectures of Alfred
Adler make this book most beneficial to clinicians, Adlerians, and students
in the field of psychology. I highly
recommend it and know it has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf!
Reference
Adler Speaks. The Lectures of
Alfred Adler compiled by K.A. Drescher and M.H. Stone
(2004).
Lincoln
,
NE
: iUniverse, Inc.
A Long-Awaited Book on Adlerian Psychotherapy for the Modern Reader
Adlerian Therapy: Theory and Practice
By Jon Carlson, Richard E. Watts, and Michael Maniacci
Washington, D. C. APA Books, 2005, 304 pp. ISBN 1-59147-285-7
$59.95 ($44.95 to Members and Affiliates)
Reviewed by Eva Dreikurs Ferguson
Eva Dreikurs Ferguson, Department of Psychology, Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1121. E-mail: efergus@siue.edu
This review appeared in an APA electronic journal devoted to
reviews. It appeared in
the February 22, 2006 issue of PsycCRITIQUES
Alfred Adler’s name is familiar to most introductory psychology students.
However, their knowledge typically comes from small textbook paragraphs in
connection with Freud, Adler’s name being a kind of post script to
psychoanalysis. Occasionally students associate ‘’birth order" with
Adler’s name. When undergraduate majors and graduate students learn more about
Adler, often that entails misinformation. At one time the European and American
public had knowledge of this famous psychiatrist who was a staunch advocate for
the welfare of children and for women’s rights. Today, the public as well as
modern psychologists and psychiatrists have little awareness of Alfred Adler’s
massive contribution, nor do they know that Adler’s theory and methods are
widely applied and practiced today.
Adler’s Mature Work from the 1920s and 1930s is Alive and Well Today
Many professional psychologists think Adlerian psychology was practiced only
in the early part of the 20th century. They do not know of the
world-wide Adlerian activities in the 21st century. Readers of Adlerian
Therapy: Theory and Practice will now have the opportunity to learn that
Alfred Adler’s approach is at the forefront of contemporary psychology, in
clinical practice as well as in the fields of developmental, educational, and
social psychology. The cognitive-social-dynamic theory of Adler, widely
promulgated by his younger colleague, Rudolf Dreikurs, was many years ahead of
its time (Ferguson, 2001) and, as a result, is now congruent with many facets of
contemporary psychology.
By 1937, when Adler died, his methods and ideas were known and practiced in
many countries. Today they are actively applied in the fields of education
(Dreikurs, Cassel, & Ferguson, 2004) and parenting (Dreikurs & Soltz,
2005), as well as in psychotherapy and counseling (Grunwald & McAbee, 1998).
It was Adler, in the 1920s, who first placed pivotal importance on ‘the need
to belong’ (Ferguson, 1989). This is a prominent concept in modern social
psychology, usually discussed without reference to its origin in Adler’s work.
Happily, social and clinical psychologists now have the opportunity to have a
better understanding of the richness of Adlerian theory and practice. The
American Psychological Association is to be commended for publication of Adlerian
Therapy: Theory and Practice, a book that promises to bring to light many of
the potent ideas and methods that are part of contemporary Adlerian psychology.
Jon Carlson, Richard Watts, and Michael Maniacci clearly describe the way
contemporary Adlerian psychotherapy is practiced. Two of the authors received
doctoral training in the Adlerian institute founded by Rudolf Dreikurs, and
their mentors, Bernard Shulman and Harold Mosak, were long-time colleagues of
Dreikurs. The book, Adlerian Therapy: Theory and Practice, describes many
of the key concepts and methods developed by Adler. Emphasis is properly placed
on Adler’s psycho-educational approach, the importance of ‘social
interest’ (also known as ‘community feeling’) and the need to
belong and to contribute to the human community, the key motivational
dynamics of goals, the importance of beliefs and cognitions in
both healthy and pathological functioning, and life-style as the core of
personality.
Readers will appreciate the clear exposition of how DSM categories can be
translated in functional and dynamic ways. Whereas the DSM for clinical
diagnoses has a medical and largely non-dynamic foundation, and Adler’s
approach to diagnosis and psychotherapy is in terms of dynamic and educational
processes, contemporary clinicians will find it useful that the book gives
examples of how a functional perspective is possible when using the DSM in
diagnoses. Readers will also benefit from the examples that show how life style
can be analyzed, how family constellation and family dynamics play a key role in
the adult’s personality and symptoms, how brief therapy fits the Adlerian
model, and how therapy can help individuals alter pathological beliefs and
goals. The importance of social interest-community feeling for effective
functioning is clearly described, and therapists will be able to follow why
social psychological concepts are so prominent in Adlerian therapy.
The authors highlight the
importance of cognitive processes throughout the book while properly integrating
the dynamics of goals with cognitions. Adlerian psychotherapy is, indeed, a
cognitive therapy, but it differs from other cognitive approaches in its
emphasis on motivation and on the pivotal role of goals. One cannot understand
behavior, motivation, and emotion without appreciating the overarching
importance of goals (Ferguson, 2000), and the authors ably bring this
perspective forward in their writing. They show the ‘subjective’ aspect of
Adler’s approach, and how individuals make choices and decisions in their
adaptation to life’s demands. They properly integrate the concept of Adler’s
tasks of life, with healthily functioning individuals having close
friends, maintaining deep love relationships, and doing effective work that
contributes to society. They describe the therapeutic relationship as one of
cooperation and they show the necessity for the therapist to provide
encouragement. Importantly, they lead the reader to understand the optimism
inherent in Adler’s theory and practice. If choices and decisions in early
life can create pathology in adulthood, then with new insights the adult can
make new choices and decisions and set new goals. This ‘soft determinism’
characteristic of Adler’s theory is expressed well in the book, as is the fact
that Adler’s psychotherapy is eminently congruent with the emphasis today on positive
psychology.
What Can Adlerian Theory and Practice Bring to Contemporary Psychologists?
The influence of mechanistic thinking on psychology is well known to
students of the history of psychology. Many prominent psychologists have viewed
the task of science to be a careful understanding and description of mechanisms.
Behaviorism emphasized mechanisms, and associationism in its various forms
throughout the history of psychology has tended to treat mind and behavior in
mechanistic terms. Thus, much of psychology has placed major importance on
either structure or biology. In contrast, Adlerian theory and practice places
importance on function and psycho-social processes. The Gestalt principles of
holism and the importance of context on mind and behavior are not a major theme
in the history of psychology, in spite of attempts like those of Tolman to
integrate cognition with the dynamics of motivation and the pivotal role of
context. It is easier to think of dynamics in biological terms, as Freud did, or
to think of environmental influences in mechanistic terms or in molecular ways
that are characteristic of associationistic theories, than to explain mind and
behavior in relativistic, holistic, and socially adaptive ways as does Adlerian
theory and practice.
The authors of Adlerian Therapy: Theory and Practice have in
many respects preserved the holistic, contextual, psychosocial, and dynamic
aspects of Adlerian theory and practice. They have given case material that
shows the importance of context, such as the life situation that triggers
pathological functioning in a previously ‘healthy functioning’ individual.
That is, for a given life style, when circumstances are benign and support the
personality with its goals and beliefs, an individual can function well, but
when a crisis situation occurs and new beliefs and goals are called for so that
the person can meet the demands of life, the person may experience extreme
stress and adopt pathological methods of coping. This contextual aspect of
Adlerian theory and practice is brought forth well in the book. The authors also
show the holistic aspect of Adlerian concepts and methods by excellent
descriptions of both top-down and bottom-up processes. That is, organ
deficiencies or biological weaknesses (bottom-up processes) are shown to play a
role while the impact of social beliefs and goals for finding one’s place in
the human community (top-down processes) are ably described in their power to
change a person’s bodily functioning. The authors bring out well the Adlerian
concept that ‘biology is not destiny,’ and they ably show that our
social-personal beliefs can change our physiology and chemistry as much as the
latter can influence the former. In this way, the book contributes to a
broadening perspective for all psychologists, and the psychosocial holism of
Adler’s theory and practice is easy to follow in the book.
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