Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler was born February 7, 1870 in Vienna, in the suburbs of Australia. Adler was the third child of his parents. Adler was the son of a Jewish grain merchant. During his early child hood Alfred developed rickets, from this Adler was unable to walk until the four and at the age of five he developed pneumonia which he almost died from. At an early age Alfred knew that he wanted to be a physician. Alfred considered himself a normal child preferring to be outside rather that in school. Adler was active and well known. In 1895 Adler received his Medical Degree from the University of Vienna in 1895 and later married his wife Raissa Timofeyewna Epstein in 1897 and had four children of which two became Psychiatrists. (Adler, 2009) Adler career began as an Ophthalmologist, which he later switch to General practice and clients were of a poor class. Adler made another switch as a Psychiatrist in 1907 and later was invited to Freud’s discussion group. Adler wrote many papers on “Organic inferiority” which was similar to the views of Freud. One of Adler first papers that he wrote was about aggression and instinct that Freud disagreed with. The strong views of that paper was not enough to stop Sigmund Freud, from naming Adler as the president of the “Viennese Analytic Society and the co-editor of the organization news letter.” The feud between Adler and Freud did not stop the criticism of Adler against Freud work that suggested that the sexual notion of Freud work was more metaphorically than literally.” Adler later resigns from the Viennese organization. In 1934 Adler and his family left Vienna. Adler became involved in a series of clinical projects and state schools. On “March 28 1937, during one of Adler lecture at Aberdeen University he died of a heart attack. (Adler, 2009)

Theory Adler theory formulates “A single drive behind of motivating force behind all of our experiences.” (Adler, 2009) As Adler theory molded into a mature form, Adler later change it to the “motivating force, the strive for perfection. Adler theory was known as the desire to fulfill all your potential, to get closer to an ideal way of what you see through self actualization. Adler believed that many individual had a difficult time trying to be perfect and live in an ideal way. Carl Rogers also made emphasis on this issue. One of Adler beginning phrase was the “aggression Drive or assertive Drive.” The aggression drive examined our needs based on eating, sexually satisfied being loved, frustration and able to get things done. The aggression theory was the cause the dispute between Freud and Adler. Although Freud disagreed with the idea, Freud him self came up with a similar view.
Another part of Adler theory was “compensation” the basic motivation or achieving to overcome. Adler believed that all individuals had shot comings and personality contributed in the way one did or performed certain actions. The lifestyle individuals led
Represented theory personality, which differ from the id, ego and superego concept developed by Freud. Adler theory consisted of many other approaches of his theory. The Holism, Individual Psychology, Style of Life, Teleology, The Philosophy of as if, the Social Interest, Inferiority, Organ Inferiority and the different psychological types, Birth order and diagnosis. Adler believed that his theory approach all had something in common, the way an individual personality represented their actions I their daily actions. (Adler, 2009)

Conclusion Adler theory was not as interesting as “Freud with sexuality, Jung’s mythology, but was similar to Carl Rogers band of therapy.” The differences were Adler theory was view more as a collection of techniques and not as a source of values oriented psychology. The goal of Adler theory was merely a way of living not treating symptoms of an individual with aggression or self-centeredness. (Adler, 2009)

Reference

Alfred Adler. http://medilibrary.org. Retrieved April 13, 2009. medlibary.org