Psy 201 Week 1 Compare And Contrast Adlerian Psychology

Ryan McFarland-Bauer

Dr. Amy Bucher

Psychotherapy

4/1/2015

Extra Credit for Exam #1

5.) Although an early supporter of Freud’s ideas, Adler was also critical of some aspects of the older man’s works. And from early on with the association between Adler and Freud, Adler began to develop his own distinctive understanding of how the mind worked. Ultimately, these differences of approach proved irreconcilable and in 1911 Adler and his followers broke away from the Freudians to form their own separate group. Later adopting the term individual psychology to describe their approach, Adler’s major contribution to depth psychology focused on what came to be called the inferiority complex. This concept was developed and changed over time.

Initially prior to the split with Freud, Adler thought in terms of an individual psychological compensation for some perceived physical defect or inferiority. One response to such a sense of inferiority weakness was over compensation by excessive striving. Examples include American President Teddy Roosevelt (who was originally a weakling in developing his physical prowess) and Friedrich Nietzsche (who was physically infirm but wrote of philosophy and power). Over compensation was also found in the so called masculine protest, thus striving by some men to be seen as strong and powerful in compensation for feelings of being

Instead, Adler focused on the relationship between the individual and their family members and others, in particular in perceived differences of power. It was problems in the individual’s social interactions with others rather than an adequate sexual development, which underlay neurosis. To Adler, the infant’s psychological development was linked to its changing relationship with the outside world, rather than the internal psychosexual development outlined by