Individual Psychology
Compensation, mastery over one's environment, birth order, and the role of fantasy in shaping life goals. Adler rejects the chaotic unconscious, focusing instead on the individual's pursuit of significance and the drive to correct past mistakes by reshaping one's life path. Will our protagonist's story reflect social interest or devolve into pettiness, avoidance, or exploitation of others?
Style of Life
Takeaway: Social consciousness is virtuous; self-centeredness is harmful
Unlike Freud, Adler shifts away from sexual origins of neuroses and mind structures, proposing instead a personal narrative ("guiding fiction") rooted in early life experiences. Individuals strive to overcome limitations through adaptation (compensation), creating a style of life based on social contribution.
Mistaken styles are lifestyles harmful or indifferent to society. The ruling type is authoritarian, domineering over others. The getting type pathologically depends on others. Avoiding types withdraw from society, retreating into self-isolation. This concept parallels Fromm’s escape mechanisms and Horney’s neurotic trends.
Developmental Theory
Takeaway: Overindulgence in childhood is harmful
Pampering
Excessive care can foster entitlement, while neglect fosters distrust and belief in a hostile world.
Earliest Recollection
1921: The Neurotic Character
Terms
- Avoiding type
- Birth order
- Compensation
- Community feeling
- Getting type
compare to Moving toward in Karen Horney's Theory of Neurosis - Guiding fiction aka Fictions, Fictional goal, Fictional finalism
- Early recollections
- Inferiority complex
- Inferiority feelings
- Neglect
- Masculine protest
- Organ inferiority
- Ruling type
compare to Authoritarianism in Frommian Psychology, Moving against in Karen Horney's Theory of Neurosis - Pampering aka Spoiling
- Social interest
- Striving aka Striving for superiority, Self-perfection, Perfection, Significance
- Style of life
- Socially useful type
- Superiority complex