2. A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
“When you really exhaust an experience you
always reverence and love it.”
-Albert Camus
• Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Vienna, Austria.
Adler was sickly and nearly died of
Pneumonia at age 4. He struggled within his
family for a stable place amongst his
siblings, was plagued by feelings of
inferiority and low expectations from his
family and teachers (they advised him to
become a Cobbler.)
• He rose to the top of his class, Studied
Medicine at The University of Vienna
eventually specializing in Neurology,
Psychiatry, and childhood incurable
diseases.
• Adler was an original member and eventual
President of The Viennese Psychoanalytical
Association from which he departed in 1911.
Freud denounced him as a heretic.

3. A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY (CONT.)
• After this period of approximately 10 years collaborating with Freud, he
moved towards ideas centered in personality integration, away from
Freudian determinism and toward purposeful individual teleology. He
believed we each create for ourselves a unique style of existence that is
a expression of desired goals and a movement toward these goals.
• He passionately worked toward reforms in child-rearing and school
practices. And wrote in jargon free prose directed toward the general
public, selling hundreds of thousands of copies of his work
Understanding Human Nature in the U.S. alone. Adler worked with large
audiences of social workers, physicians and teachers in demonstration
workshops, founded clinics, and lectured tirelessly until his death of
Heart failure in 1937in The Netherlands.

4. RUDOLF DREIKURS
• 1897-1972
• Born in Vienna, developed Adler’s into a logistical measn for
understanding the misbehavior of children.
• Claimed misbehavior stemmed one of four mistaken goals by the child
1)Undue attention 2)power 3)revenge 4)avoidance
• He was an American Psychiatrist who is chiefly responsible for
popularizing Adler’s work in The U.S.
• Wrote over a dozen books on parenting and child discipline.
• Died in Chicago

5. ADLER: ONE OF THE FIRST GROUP THERAPISTS
Jacob Moreno first coined, “group Therapy,” in 1931 in reference to the
Psychodrama groups he had had been employing in his practice
throughout the 1920’s.
Adler likewise first began utilizing a, “group therapy approach,” in his Child
Guidance centers in 1921 making him, along with Moreno and a few
others, one of the first to employ the technique.
Adler believed our problems have strong social stems and that groups
provided a microcosmic social context in which social conflict could
unfold in a controlled and safe way allowing for patient development of
sense of belonging, social connectedness, and community.
Interpersonal
Content
Interpersonal
Process
Group
Process
Intrapersonal
Change

6. SCHISM WITH FREUD: INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOLOGY
F R E U D I A N
P S Y C H O A N A L Y S I S
• Human motivation
is reducible to sex
and aggression
(deterministic)
• People cannot
change their
temperaments or
personalities
• Behavior is a result
of past
experiences.
• Subconscious
motivations have a
primary role in
behavior.
A D L E R I A N
I N D I V I D U A L P S Y C H O L O G Y
• Human motivation
is toward social
success and
superiority
(etiological)
• People Determine
who they are and
possess the
capacity for
change.
• Behavior is a
means toward a
speculative goal.
• Most people are
aware of what they
are doing and why
they are doing it.
Divisions within Division, and Schisms
within Schism. ALL Divide and Conquer.
-anonymous

7. THE PRIMARY POINT OF CONTENTION
Freud
Current Ontology of Client
Present personality and
behavior is a result of formative
event in the first few years of
life.
(deterministic motivations)
Adler
Present personality and
behavior is orientated toward
achieving a lifestyle formulated
in first few years of life.
(teleological motivations)
Adler’s early theories seemed to almost completely deny the subconscious and
attribute even erratic, neurotic behavior to a conscious stratagem toward achieving
final goals.
He seems to have backed off of this contention somewhat in later years conceding
An increasing amount of motivations to formative events and childhood attachment,
But always maintained optimism is peoples ability to understand themselves, change
faulty interpretations, and lean to habituate more effect interpersonal behavior.

8. CENTRAL TENETS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
1. The motivational force behind all behavior is a striving for success and
superiority.
We are born weak and helpless which engenders feelings of
inferiority.
2. Individual Subjective perceptions mold personality and behavior.
People have a drive toward completeness or wholeness. This is
the impetus toward the goal of superiority.
3. The dynamic interplay between our current self and our ideal goals
creates a motivating cycle which moves us constantly toward
superiority and away from perceived inferiority.
Feelings of
Inferiority
Goal of
Superiority

9. CENTRAL TENETS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
(CONT.)
3. Personality is unified and consistent.
As young children we begin to formulate our ideas for individual success
(harkens to Erickson’s stages) All our behavior, even seemingly erratic, is
toward a determined goal.
4. Human activity is evaluated through it’s effect on social interests.
We may strive for a personal superiority detached from social good if our
feelings of inferiority are exaggerated.
Psychologically health people promote social interests and success for
mankind. (This social interest depends on a healthy relationship with both
parents)
Innate Striving
Force/ Physical
Deficiencies/ Feeling
of Inferiority
Exaggerated
Feelings
Gemeinschaftsgefuhl- Social feeling or community feeling.
Personal Gain/
Personal Superiority/
Final Goal Dimly
Perceived
Normal Feelings of
Incompletion
Social Interest/
Success/ Final Goal
Clearly Perceived

10. CENTRAL TENETS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
(CONT.)
5. The self-consistent personality manifests itself in a style of life.
A healthy style of life (developed by age four or five) involves a persons
interests, goals, self-concept feelings to others. It is a the socially
benevolent way in which people solve the three problems of life.
a) neighborly love
b) sexual love
c) occupation
6. Style of life lies in individual creative power.
Using your genetics and life circumstances as the bricks and mortar to
produce a unique architecture of social and personal utility.

11. THE CYCLE OF NEUROSIS
The Cycle of Group Process
New Shared
Experiences
Experiences
Of The Past
Holistic Group
interpretations
Subjective
Interpretations
More accurate
Conclusions
Unhealthy
Conclusions
Better
Understanding
of The Present
Confirmation of
Confirmation
of Subjective
New
Interpretations
Experiences
Self
Self-Affirming
Destructive
Actions
understanding of
Self and Present
Actions
Experiences within group therapy, using the group to reflect behavior, helps
Individuals to discard faulty beliefs, mistaken notions, and fruitless pursuits.
This cycle can thus be broken.

12. THE ESSENTIAL LIFE TASKS
Because we are primarily social beings our well-being depends on how we
accomplish three main life tasks. Neurosis can arise from desperate
attempts to maintain the completion of these tasks, even when they are
no longer healthy connections for us, or by purposelessness derived
from not completing these tasks.
• Building Friendships (social task)
• Establishing Intimacy (love/marriage task)
• Contributing to Society (occupational task)
Dreikurs and Mosak add two additional tasks (1966,1967)
• Self (getting along with ourselves task)
• Existential (spiritual task)
These areas and the individual values and beliefs surrounding them can be
discussed in a group and destructive beliefs pertaining to self or society can be
Replaced constructive beliefs.

13. ADLERIAN THERAPY GROUP-ALL ARE WELCOME
Groups are based on accepting ourselves and others as imperfect.
They avoid the alienation endemic to society by not pre-screening for
group candidacy or denying admission to anyone.
To do so would debase the concept of accepting the varying levels of
imperfection within society at large.
The taciturn, narcissistic, and disruptive, who might be screened out, are
seem as the individuals with the most to gain in personality adjustment,
maturity, and feelings of inadequacy.

14. THE FAMILY CONSTELLATION
• Children learn a great deal about life from their parents (Bandura’s
Modeling)
• They learn even more from their interactions with their siblings. One’s
perceived position within the family influences later personality
development. (But does not dictate this development or preclude it’s
purposeful alteration)
• Evaluating Family Relationships
1. How does each pair show affection.
2. How do they handle disagreements.
3. How do they divide and share roles.
• Early family life can be influential in the formation of self-perception and
outlook upon society and the world, but the beliefs engendered in family
of origin are not causal or subject to remediation and revision.

15. TRAITS BY BIRTH ORDER (ADLER’S
GENERALIZATIONS)
Positive
Traits
Oldest
Nurturing and Protective
Good organizer
Second Child
Motivated, Cooperative,
Moderately Competitive
Youngest Child
Realistically ambitious
Only Child
Socially mature
Negative
Traits
Oldest
Anxious, Hostile,
Exaggerated Feeling of
Power, Critical,
Uncooperative, always
“Right”
Second Child
Highly Competitive
Easily Discouraged
Youngest Child
Pampered, Dependent,
Unrealistically Ambitious
Only Child
Exaggerated Superiority,
Uncooperative, Inflated
Ego, Pampered

16. PHENOMENOLOGICAL DYNAMICS
Formed by our beliefs about
ourselves and the world. Provides
The universal human capacity the lens through which we see the world.
To influence and create events.
Lifestyle
Creativity
Private
Logic
Fictional
Finalism
A movement toward an
Individual ideal. The
imagined goal of
perfection we pursue our
entire lives but never attain.
The patterns by which we orient
ourselves in the social world. A conceptualization
of our unique existence in the world.

17. GROUP LEADER: ROLE AND FUNCTION
Adlerian group facilitators are actively involved in an egalitarian manner
with each member of the group and model the behaviors sought as
goals for the members including showing imperfection, being willing to
take risks, being collaborative, and having enthusiasm for the
usefulness of the endeavor.
They lead each group as if it were the last. They provide the structure
which allow for an environment that can facilitate interaction,
involvement, acceptance, and confrontation.
They
1. Help members define personal goals
2. Conduct psychological assessments of group members
3. Offer tentative interpretations
4. Guide group assessment

18. ADLERIAN PROCESS STAGES
1. Establishing Cohesion Between Members
Mutual respect and involvement must prevail. Cooperation is fostered by the facilitator
by building rapport and cohesion. Mutually agreed upon goals, that are meaningful to
the group, are established as areas to investigate and change.
2. Analysis and Assessment
Goals and current lifestyles are assessed. Issues of current functioning, and feelings
of self-worth are explored. Use of family constellation, birth-order, early recollections,
dreams, and artwork are used to assess each member’s private logic. (life convictions
and core assumptions about self and the world)
3. Awareness and Insight
Understanding gained in stage two is translated into awareness and insight as
explanations for current behaviors. The group members mirror each other and provide
collective insight and interpretations for each other. Personal goals and faulty notions
are examined. Personal roles in the creation and maintenance of problems as well as
means to solve problems are explored.
4. Reorientation and Reeducation
Implementing new beliefs about self, life, and the world to supplant faulty one’s is
imperative in this stage. This is the main working stage. Taking risks and making
changes is encouraged. Group members adopt hope in their ability to change and
realize new options and this hope is mirrored in each member and is synergistic.
Encouragement opens up possibilities, new creative avenues for living, and positive
asset recognition. Members are challenged to act , “as if,” and to, “catch themselves,”
repeating old behaviors. Insight is turned into action.

19. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
• Typically memories before 10 years of age are most relevant.
• ER’s, “tell on a client,” as to what is important to them and provide a wealth
of insight to the Adlerian Therapist about the client.
• ER’s leave us with misconceptions of meaning based on our youthful
subjective interpretations and lead to, “basic mistakes,” that effect current
lifestyle. (These are akin REBT Cognitive Distortions)
1. Overgeneralizations
2. Unrealistic goals regarding security (in the uninterrupted continuity of the
three main life tasks)
3. Misperceptions of life demands
4. Minimizations of one’s value
5. Faulty Values (Lacking Social Interest)
• “The Question”-akin to the miracle question used in other brief therapies
such as “Solution Focused Therapy.”
1. “How would you life be different if you didn’t have these concerns?”
2. “What would change in your life if you had a magic pill to make you well?”

20. ADLERIAN GROUP THERAPY
A D V A N T A G E S
Since Adler’s Individual
Psychology was intrinsically
social in nature, a group
setting is ideal for
restructuring of social
perceptions.
The short–term nature of
Adlerian therapy keeps
therapists and clients
focused on active change.
Lends itself especially well to
school counseling in it’s
search for meaning,
encouragement, social
dimensions, self-esteem
building, and work with
emotional intelligence.
Works especially well in
multicultural contexts
because of it’s emphasis on
self-in-social relation, the
role of family, it’s holistic
approach, and it’s communal
orientation.
D I S A D V A N T A G E S
Requires some introspection
on the part of clients to
connect earlier
experiences with current
lifestyles.
Requires more than a
superficial understanding
to be effectively
employed by a therapist.
Is culturally limited in
contexts where equality
is not a given, it relies
heavily on social equality.
Short-term groups may not
have the time or interest
to explore family
constellations or early
recollections.

21. SOURCES CITED
Feist & Feist. Theories of Personality. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. Print.
Corey, Gerald. Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy.
Belmont: Brooks/Cole, 2009. Print.
Corey, Gerald. Theory and Practice of Group Counseling. Belmont:
Brooks/Cole, 2008. Print.