A. Will to Power (early, up to around 1908) - emphasized poser and aggression.

B. Striving for Superiority or Perfection (after 1912) - "Probably, the greatest source of unhappiness is the failure to meet expectations".

1. Similar to self-actualization, but for Adler, this process always occurs within a social context.

2. Teleology - views motivation according to some final purpose - looks for ideal or final design.

a. Adler: "We cannot think, feel, or act without the perception of some goal"

b. Aristotle: "Everything has a telos (purpose or goal). Thus, every acorn has the essence of a tree".

c. "Pull Theory" (by some goal) as opposed to "Push Theory" (Causality & Freud).

A. Organ Inferiorities: Physiological defects that can trigger strong feelings of inferiority.

B. Feelings of Inferiority: Normal and inevitable feelings of weakness, which result from our helplessness during childhood. Are not necessarily pathological or undesirable (may work to overcome).

C. Inferiority Complex: Exaggerated and pathological feelings of weakness, including belief that one can not overcome one's difficulties through appropriate effort.

D. Compensation: The process of overcoming real or imagined inferiority through effort and practice, or by developing abilities in different areas.

1. Positive Compensation: always healthy, and within a larger social context. Helen Keller, Demonesthenes, etc.

2. Overcompensation: carried to an extreme. Unproductive for the individual or society.

3. Superiority Complex: A false feeling of power & security that invariably conceals an underlying inferiority complex. From attempt to evade one's problems rather than face them.

E. Fictional Finalism: possibly fictional goals that guide behavior. Examples might include:

• 1. Men (women) are superior to women (men).
• 2. Aryans belong to a super race.
• 3. World is out to get me.
• 4. God, Heaven, Hell exist
• 5. Doctors care about their patients.
• 6. Honesty is the best policy.

F. Style of Life: The unique ("Individual") mode of adjustment to life that influences almost everything a person does.

G. Social Interest: an innate sense of kinship with all of humanity. This is the key difference between the way neurotics & normals strive for superiority. Normals are aware of other and have high social interest. Neurotics are basically selfish with low social interest.

H. Creative Self: A later concept, refers to the freedom to choose between alternative life-styles and fictional goals. "Heredity and environment provide the bricks; the final form of the building is up to us".

Adler does not have a stage approach. He says that adult lifestyles are influenced by temperament, family atmosphere, and family constellation.

I. Temperament: Adler maintained that he could observe differences in temperament in children shortly after birth. Although he did not get more specific, recent researchers (Buss & Plomin) have identified three temperaments which the believe are the basic building blocks of personality and appear to be stable into adulthood. They are:

A. Emotionality: excitability & arousal - to both positive (pleasurable) and negative (anxious, fearful) emotions.

B. Activity: amount of physical energy and vigor.

C. Sociability: for contact & interaction with others.

III. Family Constellation: Birth Order

A. Oldest - typical achievers, interested in power (Freud)

1. Gets undivided attention of parents (good), but parents are basically incompetent (bad).

2. Is "dethroned" by second child. If child is old enough to understand the significance of this (3 yrs. minimum), can be good. Otherwise, can result in inferiority complex.

3. Most likely to seek out therapy ("I'll fix it").

4. Possible outcomes:

a. Given responsibility to take care of & set example for younger sibling. As adults, are very responsible & like power.

b. Dethronement can result in inferiority complex & feeling of not being loved.

5. Research:

a. First (& only) children have average 5 IQ points higher. In general, the fewer the number of children, and the greater the spacing between children, the smarter each child is likely to be. (There is a -.30 correlation between IQ and family size).

b. Achievers: 52% of Presidents, 91% of original astronauts, 56% of generals and admirals.

B. Second - the best position in many ways - a natural "peace-maker".

1. Has a pacesetter in older sibling. Has competent parents. Can never be "dethroned".

2. Competition with older child can be healthy or unhealthy.

a. Healthy competition can stimulate faster development. Sometimes they surpass the first-born in achievement, but they are seldom as concerned with power.

b. If second child can not compete with older sibling, can produce severe feelings of inferiority.

c. Typical bad scenario: Oldest is a boy, second is a girl, and they are close together in age. If the girl is better than the boy, it kills the boy's ego. If the boy trounces on the girl, it makes her inferiority feelings even worse (and girls have it tough enough as it is).

3. Least likely to be in therapy

C. Youngest

1. Never even partially dethroned

2. Can be pampered by parents. Some research shows that pampered children have a higher chance of becoming alcoholics.

3. Always seeks attention - tends to become family clown - actors, TV weathermen (Willard Scott).

D. Only

1. Like first born who has never been dethroned.

2. Spends more time in the company of adults and tends to mature rapidly.

3. Likely to become individualistic & struggle with perfection.

Periphery of Personality

I. Styles of Life

A. Ruling type: Show high activity, low social interest

1. Very energetic & aggressive in pursuing their own goals. Can exploit or manipulate others ("what is good for me is good for the company").

2. Similar to Horney's "Against" Orientation.

B. Getting type: low activity, high social interest

1. Often charming, but use their charm to lean on others. The most common type.

2. Similar to Horney's "Toward" Orientation

C. Avoiding type: show low activity, low social interest

1. They neither work nor relate. Tend to be stubborn, lazy, and passive-aggressive. The worst orientation, according to Adler.

2. Similar to Horney's "Away" Orientation

D. Socially Useful type - high activity, high social interest.

1. Copes with life's problems within a well-developed framework of social interest. Orients toward success in proper, realistic ways.

2. Is successful in the three arenas of life: vocational, love, and social roles.

II. Development of Faulty Lifestyles: due to three faulty childhood conditions:

A. Physical Inferiority: Sometimes can lead to healthy compensation, but sometimes leads to strangulation of social feelings. Instead of focusing of adjustment to society, they become continually preoccupied with themselves and the impression they have on others.

B. Neglect: Neglected children have never known what love and cooperation are like. They feel worthless and express inferiority complexes through suspiciousness, isolation, and maliciousness.

C. Pampering (spoiling): The most serious of all parental errors. Pampering robs children of their independence and initiative, shatters their self-confidence, and creates the parasitic impression that the world owes them a living. (Note: Adler considered Freud's patients to be mainly pampered adults, maybe even Freud himself).

III. Neuroticism

A. Neurotics show a Cowardly Life Style

1. Neurotics are low in activity, self-regard, & social interest, but high in grandiose fictional goals and self-preoccupations.

2. Basically neurotics expect too much, but do too little. Neurosis is often the exploitation of weakness. Neurotic behavior can produce monumental power over others. Their behavior often brings sympathy & care from others.

B. The answer is courage. Neurosis is basically a withdrawal from the struggle for superiority & perfection. Therapy consists in helping clients work through their inferiority complexes and misguided fictional goals. The therapist would encourage the client to tackle life's problems directly and to become more involved in society.

IV. Method of Early Recollection: A way to identify a person's true style of life.