Where there is a Will, there is an Adler
Author: Christopher Chayban
Adler’s ideas and contribution to Depth Psychology, like Janet flew under the radar. With Freud, the power lied within the object, and most of his interpretations (not all) were causal and reductive, which means to bring everything back to the known history of the patient. Freud emphasized mainly the causal symptomatic aspects in the psychology of the individual, things that would define and determine his psyche forever. With Adler, psychic life had a goal and was future directed (Discovery of the Unconscious pg.606). There was more telos than reduction and the determinative power returned subject. More specifically, the determinative power of choice to change the future of one’s “fictitious lifestyle or life goals” that one was striving towards. These goals were yes, reductively analyzed as unconscious drives that were created in childhood (Discovery of the Unconscious pg.627) but for Adler, this didn’t remain as the ultimate psychic determinants, like Freud wanted to conclude. One could “modify” or alter their course. Also, Adler discovered the line of aggression that was another pole added on to the Freudian’s pole of sexuality.
Adler is perhaps most known in Depth Psychology for the development of the inferiority and superiority complex, which were Neitzschean notions derived from the philosophical construct and elaboration on man’s striving towards “Superiority” called “The Will to Power.” However, this power drive towards superiority Adler says, arises out of feelings of just the opposite, which “inferiority.” These feelings could comprise of physical inferiority (height or organ deficiency), not living up to the social or societal standards, or they may come from a sibling rivalry and birth order.
I can’t help but think this is still somewhat true. Especially in the workplace or the gym. I see it mostly in males but I suppose I could see it in females too. In males, it seems like this would serve as a kind of “Napoleon Complex,” where the will to power is really obvious. I happened to experience this first hand with a former boss. It was the running joke that this boss disliked me (perception of the employees) because I was almost a foot taller than him. There was a weirdly competitive style to his interactions with me and everyone else. I also see it in the gym, where people are sizing each other up. Seeing whose “muscles” are bigger or more defined.
I don’t know if organ in “organ deficiency” is the right word in Adler’s scheme. It seems more like appearance deficiency. I know these examples might sound archaic but I am actually surprised that the archaism is still around and observable. I think we forget sometimes that the collective is not studying psychology and is liable to much more archaism that we are willing to admit. Adler’s contribution seems to have been to work with the lay people, which is likely why his principles can still ring true.
His “Will to Power” concept is one out of many others, which would later serve Jung’s Typology, as an analog for describing the Introvert who gives “sovereignty to the subject” over the influence of objects in the Freudian sense. The Freudian analog, of course, referring to the Extraverted principle striving towards Sexuality. Jung’s Introvert is Adler’s “Minderwert” or person who feels that they are of lesser value (in the world) and compensate their feelings inferiority for a striving to overcome life’s obstacles.
Ellenberger says “Adler conceived the striving to superiority itself as derived from the individual’s creative power.“(Discovery of the Unconscious pg.630). Now, as I understand it, this will to power, (given the fact that the neurotic person was not a criminal) signified also a social interest or “community feeling.” This sheds a little light on how the primitive in our earlier studies sought validation of the group. The feeling of being “on trial” with the group and wanting their value validated by the group, almost perpetuates eternally across time and is sprinkled in here in disguise with Adler.
Certainly Adler’s “life style and life goals” draw a parallel, to Jung’s Individuation process, where one is naturally living their own “life style’ and pursuing their “life goals.” This community feeling idea, likely was the wink and the nod, that was captured by Jung who informed us that Individuation (not individualism) always requires an “other” and relationship. Perhaps it even contributed to Jung’s idea of the persona, which requires you to compromise some of your “will to power,” and embrace a certain degree of inferiority that we all feel and must succumb to in the group, in order to “fit in” and survive. But also, the flip side, when one is individuating or doing what they are born to do continuously, it has a positive effect on their peers and society as a whole.
Perhaps, Adler’s greatest contribution to Depth Psychology was the education of the subject, no matter if the subject is an adult or child (Discovery of the Unconscious pg.609). Adler’s says that education helps with alcoholism, infections, venereal disease, etc., but also that education should begin with the child’s parents and furthermore, the most powerful form of education is love (Discovery of the Unconscious pg.602). This idea of love is carried out in the clinical session where one, is not merely sitting behind the couch, nodding “uh huh” to the patient, in the Freudian sense, but is involved and engaged with the patient, taking social interest and educating them towards their healing and wholeness.
Resources:
Ellenberger, H. (2006). The discovery of the unconscious: The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry. New York: Basic Books.
Leave a Reply