Alfred Adler. Eminent psychologist of Jewish origin. It occupied a leading place alongside the classics of psychotherapy Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung . Create individual psychology with emphasis on the individual himself and his person. He dedicated himself to investigating all things, complexes, specifically that of inferiority. He formulated the concept of compensation.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical data
- 1 Birth
- 2 Trajectory
- 1 Contributions
- 2 Influences
- 3 Publications
- 4 Death
- 5 Sources
- 6 External links
Biographical data
Birth
He was born on 7 February as as 1870 , in Vienna , Austria ; He was the second of six brothers of Jewish origin.
Trajectory
Adler occupies an important place in the history of psychotherapy, together with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, they constitute what is often called “the big three”, the founders of Deep Psychology . Adler was among Freud’s supporters in the early days of Psychoanalysis , but later he had disagreements with him and started his own school of psychotherapy, called Individual Psychology . In contrast to psychoanalysis, Individual Psychology emphasized the importance of the conscious will and the capacity of each individual to assume his own destiny. Before dedicating himself to Psychiatry , Adler worked as a doctor specializing in Ophthalmology, and from his care of patients with vision problems came to formulate the concept of compensation. He noted that some of these patients became avid readers and placed excessive importance on the faculty of vision. Adler had begun collecting material from patients with physical disabilities, studying their organic and psychological reactions. It was in 1902 when he finally joined Freud’s psychonalysis, he and other thinkers met every Wednesday at Sigmund Freud’s house.
Contributions
In 1898 , at the age of 28, Adler wrote his first book and five years later, in 1907 , Adler published his book on compensation. At that time, the views of Freud and Adler began to distance themselves and great discrepancies appeared, finally Adler left Freud’s circle in 1911 together with nine other members of the group and formed their own school. In 1911, Adler, creates his own psychoanalytic system that is based on the importance of compensations (the integration of the individual in the environment). Offsets are intended to offset complexes. The most studied complex in Europe and the United States of AmericaIt is that of inferiority, which is compensated by psychologically creating a superiority complex (in the unconscious sphere, feeling superior to others). Both inferiority-superiority mechanisms usually occur together. Adler thus creates Individual Psychology where the important thing is the individual, the person. He is interested in integration, with an I that controls all facets of the personality, to see how a person adapts and integrates into society. For this psychology, the individual must integrate into society and be as happy as possible. An important point here is the environmental situation in which the person moves, in order to know the values where he lives. Progressively, when visiting an individual, the assessment of his family was incorporated into psychoanalysis as a reference. Another important factor for Individual Psychology that allows the integration of the person, are the goals, the objectives that the person proposes. The proposed goals or objectives should require an effort but should not be very difficult to achieve (it is a kind of psychophysical balance) since if they are not achieved they cause frustration (defined as the state resulting from not being able to achieve the illusions and expectations set in a objective).
Influences
Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings greatly influenced Adleron the subject of the will to power, defined by the philosopher as an innate drive toward dominance, competition, and superiority over others. Adler was persuaded that the will to power was as important in human affairs as the sexual drive, and argued that his frustration generates an inferiority complex, a feeling of inadequacy that is at the basis of many disorders. That was one of several theoretical points on which he disagreed with Freud, Adler argued that Freud had attached excessive importance to the sexual drive, and Freud, for his part, thought that Adler had exaggerated the importance of the will to power. Towards the end of his life. Adler defined the concept of the creative self, which is the power within each individual to confront the external forces that shape the personality. It is the ability of the person to create their own personality to some extent. In essence, Adler argued that the human being is not an instrument of destiny and does not need to assume the role of victims in the game of life. These views of Adler are related to the ideas of existentialism and make him a precursor of humanistic psychology.
