Adler was surprised to find this concept singled out for attention from his entire theory. Most people have heard of inferiority complexes. This can mean trying extra hard despite initial failures, or working around difficulties to find another way to succeed. To compensate, in Adlerian theory, is to react against difficulty or hardship by fighting back or developing new tactics, instead of giving in to despair and doubt.Ī person who compensates for what Adler called felt inferiorities (situations that make you feel inferior) is a person who makes adjustments in order to excel.
You can be defeated and give up hope, or you can fight back or change what you do, to overcome difficulties. How you react to feelings of inferiority can shape the person you become. That is a universal part of human experience. (Every part of the Adler legend illustrates a key concept from Adler's theory.) In this case, the triumph in math class illustrated is the Adlerian concept of compensation in response to feelings of inferiority.Īdler believed everybody has feelings of inferiority at times. This vignette illustrates another Adlerian concept.
How did Adler fight back against feelings of inferiority? From that time on he was the best pupil in the mathematics class. Adler suddenly stood up and said, "I can solve the problem."ĭisregarding the teacher's sarcastic remark, "Of course, if no one else can, you will surely be able to," he walked over to the blackboard amidst the laughter of his schoolmates and solved the problem. Some time later the teacher wrote a mathematical problem on the blackboard which none of the pupils nor the teacher himself could solve. Young Alfred fought against his setback, studying his math industriously. Instead, his father encouraged him to remain at school and redouble his efforts. This led to another episode that became an example of principles in his theory.Īdler heard his teacher advise his father to take him out of school and apprentice him to a shoemaker. He flunked mathematics in secondary school and had to repeat it. He was clumsy, homely, and got poor grades. How did the arrival of a baby brother influence Adler's theory?Īlfred struggled in school. Sibling rivalry in general is competition between brothers or sisters for parental attention and approval. The result is one form of sibling rivalry. Dethronement occurs when a young child, initially the focus of attention, is replaced in the mother's affections by a newly arrived infant. This illustrates two fundamental Adlerian concepts: those of dethronement and sibling rivalry. However, "when my younger brother was born she transferred her attention to him, and I felt dethroned, and turned to my father, whose favorite I was." What led Adler to resolve to become a doctor, as a young child?Īdler reported that his mother was good-humored, truthful, kind, and totally devoted to the children. The result, Adler said, was that Adler resolved to "overcome this thing called death." Ultimately this led him to become a doctor.
He thought positive and negative experiences early in childhood could lead to reactions that would establish lifelong personality orientations or goals.įor example, Adler's brother died beside him in bed when he was three. He said he was merely an acquaintance, not a follower.Īdler believed that personality was formed early in life. Adler naturally resented this and was always quick to correct people who referred to him as a follower of Freud. Like Jung, he later broke with Freud over Freud's insistence that members of the Vienna Circle endorse Freud's sexual theory.įreud always looked down on Adler, while Freud regarded Jung a powerful man of ideas. Adler was invited to join Freud's circle (a group that discussed Freud's ideas) after defending Freud at a lecture. Alfred Adler was born in 1870, the second of six children in a family who lived in the suburbs of Vienna.
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