Adlerian Psychotherapy

Introduction

They may be my enemies—that I cannot help—but I will not be theirs.

—Alfred Adler

lfred Adler wanted to help people get along with their family, friends,

and others. He valued the role of cooperation with and connectedness

to the world around each person (Adler, 1938; Ansbacher, 1992a; King &

Shelley, 2008). His message stressed the power of personal choice; the uni-

versal fellowship of human beings; the importance of a positive, encourag-

ing life focus; the eradication of social inequality; and the primacy of social

relationships.

Alfred Adler was a pivotal figure in the history of psychotherapy.

Although he originally was a colleague and early supporter of Sigmund

Freud, Adler developed his own theories of the nature of humankind and

soon split off from Freud to pursue these ideas (Fiebert, 1997). The split or

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0000014-001

Adlerian Psychotherapy, by J. Carlson and M. Englar-Carlson

AdleriAn PsychotherAPy

disafﬁliation from Freud by Adler—and later by Carl Jung—has been well

documented in the history of psychology (Ellenberger, 1981; Handlbauer,

1998), as Freud, Jung, and Adler are considered the founders of modern

psychotherapy. Yet it is strange to note that Freud and Jung seemed to have

maintained “fame” and name recognition while Adler is not as promi-

nent. However, Adler’s ideas, unlike Freud’s and Jung’s, seem to be the

ones that have lasted and comprise the core ingredients of most modern

approaches to psychotherapy. Although his name has faded into the back-

ground, his ideas have remained at the forefront. He has become one of

the most inﬂuential, yet most unacknowledged, psychologists in the ﬁeld

of psychotherapy.

Adler envisioned a psychology of growth, where people could strive to

overcome difﬁculties and actually change their lives. Even though Alfred

Adler inspired others (e.g., Ellis, Beck, Maslow, & Rogers) to incorporate

his ideas into their emerging theories, the Adlerian approach itself has

remained a comprehensive model of psychotherapy, one not well-known

although the component parts seem to be everywhere.

It is fascinating to us that Adler’s original ideas are consistent with

the state of modern practice—even though his entire model was created

nearly 100 years ago! His vision of the equality of people, encouragement,

the search for what is right or positive, the emphasis on mental health and

relationships, the concept of social interest, and the need to consider cul-

tural and contextual factors are examples of cutting-edge topics with which

Adler engaged to help people grow and develop their potential. Surpris-

ingly, these ideas and many others are the bases of today’s approaches to

helping (Carlson, 2015a), yet there is often little reference or recognition

given to Alfred Adler.

Adler’s ideas are at the heart of most of the contemporary or Neo-

Freudian approaches (e.g., Horney, Sullivan, & Fromm) to helping. There

was actually so much similarity between the Adlerian and Neo-Freudian

approaches that several scholars have suggested that these approaches

should correctly be called neo-Adlerian (Mosak & Maniacci, 1999). Most

of the leading contemporary psychotherapy approaches stress social rela-

tions and not just biological factors, striving for self-actualization and

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not being driven by the sex instinct, a subjective rather than objective

approach to helping and the power of the present rather than the impact

of early experiences. Adler stressed the importance of the relationship and

using empathy as a key strategy for helping. His approach is at the root

of cognitive behavioral, family, existential, phenomenological, schema,

humanistic, and person-centered approaches (Ansbacher & Ansbacher,

1956; Bitter, 2013; Carlson, 2015a; Carlson, Watts, & Maniacci, 2006;

Corey, 2016; Norcross, Hedges, & Prochaska, 2002; Watts & LaGuardia,

2015). A special issue of The Journal of Individual Psychology on neo-Adlerian

approaches to psychotherapy will be published in 2017. The special issue will

highlight the components of the leading therapy approaches that parallel

Adler’s theory and practice.

The individual psychology of Alfred Adler is based on a phenomeno-

logical, holistic understanding of human behavior. Adler used the term

individual psychology for his approach in order to emphasize the indi-

visible (undivided or whole) nature of our personalities and refer to the

essential unity of the individual psyche. Adlerians focus on holism and

how each person moves through life, noting that one cannot understand

an individual by analyzing their parts (i.e., reductionism), but all aspects

of the person must be understood in relationship to the total pattern and

in connection to social systems (Maniacci, Sackett-Maniacci, & Mosak,

2014). For example, you don’t have to listen to the entire song before being

able to state that it is by Beethoven. It is only necessary to uncover the

pattern or melody to understand. The phenomenological perspective sug-

gests that each person sees situations from a unique point of view. We

live our life and “act as if” our view of the world is accurate or correct.

When our views are distorted, our thinking becomes faulty, our emotions

destructive, and our behavior inappropriate.

The Adlerian-trained psychotherapist believes that all behavior has

a purpose and occurs in a social context, noting that one’s cognitive ori-

entation and lifestyle (literally one’s style of dealing with life) is created

in the ﬁrst few years of life and molded within the initial social setting,

the family constellation. The family constellation, including family atmo-

sphere, family values, and gender lines, proposes that your basic birth

AdleriAn PsychotherAPy

order (psychological, not ordinal) in the family emphasizes different

worldviews and life demands in order to belong within the family sys-

tem. This position in your family inﬂuences your lifestyle. Each person

is unique, and their style of life (i.e., lifestyle) is formed partly by seeing

how other family members react to different behaviors and attitudes and

partly from conclusions drawn as a child. The lifestyle is the character-

istic way that we act, think, and perceive and the way we live. It is from

the lifestyle that we select the methods for coping with life’s challenges

and tasks.

As mentioned previously, Adlerians understand all behavior as goal-

directed. People continually strive to attain in the future what they believe

is important or signiﬁcant. Adler believed that for all people there are three

basic life tasks: work, friendship, and love or intimacy. The work task is

realized when work is meaningful and satisfying. The friendship task is

achieved through satisfying relationships with others. The love or inti-

macy task is addressed by learning to love oneself as well as another.

Contemporary Adlerian theorists have outlined three additional tasks,

suggesting a need to master the recreational and spiritual tasks of life

(Maniacci et al., 2014) as well as the task of parenting and the family

(Dinkmeyer, Dinkmeyer, & Sperry, 1987). Mentally healthy people strive to

master each of these tasks, which ultimately represent the challenges of life.

Adlerian theory purports that humans are social beings and therefore

all behavior is socially embedded and has social meaning (Watts, 2000b).

Adler emphasized the importance of relationships and being connected to

others, including the larger community in which people reside. People are

viewed as always trying to belong and ﬁt into the social milieu. The outside

world shapes their consciousness, as does the world of the family. A hall-

mark of Adlerian theory is the emphasis on social interest, which is a feeling

of cooperation with people, the sense of belonging to and participating

in the common good. Social interest can be equated with empathy and

compassion for others. Adlerians value social interest to the extent that it is

viewed as a measure of mental health, noting that as social interest devel-

ops, feelings of inferiority and destructive behaviors decrease (Ansbacher,

1991, 1992b; Bickhard & Ford, 1991). Adler’s aim was the development of a

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philosophy of living that would produce a democratic family structure and

a healthy social interest resulting in an ideal culture for child development

(Dufrene, 2011).

Social inequality, in Adler’s view, is a disease that harms entire popu-

lations. He was one of the leading advocates for the rights of women,

children, and other groups marginalized by their social context. Adler

promoted equal pay for women in the workplace, addressed issues of

violence against women in society, and more generally promoted social

equality as a mechanism for improved psychological functioning (Bitter,

Robertson, Healey, & Jones-Cole, 2009). He was well aware that the health

of the powerful and the marginalized were connected and that the duality

of oppression meant that all people suffer in the face of social inequal-

ity. His ideas would parallel those of contemporary psychologist Daniel

Goleman (2015), who has promoted the importance of emotional, social,

and ecological intelligence. Goleman, like Adler, understands that happi-

ness and satisfaction in life are results of our relationships to self, others,

work, and the environment. Recently, Goleman has partnered with the

Nobel Peace Prize winner, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to emphasize the

importance of compassion and social interest. Their views also parallel

those of Adler’s social interest, also called Gemeinschaftsgefühl, or com-

munity focus. Adlerian theory is designed to provide opportunities for

an individual’s psychological health to flourish in a community where

social equality prevails. It introduces the possibility of creating a soci-

ety in which psychopathology is not only treatable but also preventable

(Dufrene, 2011).

Adlerians understand the individual within their social context. There-

fore, the Adlerian is interested in the impact of culture and contextual fac-

tors on the individual. This contextual understanding is so embedded in

the essence of the approach that those who study Adler’s theory often

miss it. Carlson and Sperry (1998), as well as Watts (2003), attempted to

emphasize this aspect when they wrote about how Adler was one of the

originators of the constructivist approach. The community, for example,

was easy to see in Adler’s early writings. He wrote about how circus per-

formers as freaks of society were marginalized and ostracized, and how

AdleriAn PsychotherAPy

those working in the tailoring industry became blind from a poor work

environment. Thus, the environment and the context of that environment

inﬂuence the health of the individual. Later in his career Adler became

focused on how people were being affected by social unrest, the wars, and

the anti-Semitism/ethnic conﬂict/nationalism in Europe (Hoffman, 1994).

Adler also understood the many cultural differences of Europe as he

attempted to deal with problems of misunderstanding between warring

nations. Adler contended that so much strife and suffering could be avoided

through a sound education. He saw many countries trying to work out

their psychological issues, such as feelings of inferiority or insigniﬁcance,

and lack of attention, through war (Bottome, 1939).

Adlerians espouse a growth model, noting that one’s fate is never

ﬁxed or predetermined and that individuals are always in the process of

“becoming.” The Adlerian psychotherapist believes that the person who

is experiencing difﬁculties in living, or “psychopathology,” is not sick, but

discouraged (Maniacci et al., 2014; Sperry, Carlson, Sauerheber, & Sperry,

2015). The Adlerian psychotherapist also views their clients as capable of

using their creativity to choose alternative methods of dealing with life.

Psychopathology is understood as based in mistaken notions and faulty

assumptions, low social interest, discouragement, and ineffective life-

style (Sperry et al., 2015). The task of counseling and psychotherapy then

becomes one of encouraging the client to develop more social interest and

create a more effective lifestyle in order to master the tasks of life.

In practice, Adlerian psychotherapy is a psychoeducational, present/

future-oriented, and brief approach (Carlson, Watts, & Maniacci, 2006).

Though classic Adlerian psychotherapy, which is akin to long-term psycho-

analysis, is still practiced in some circles, this book focuses on a modern

and contemporary approach of Adlerian psychotherapy that is consistent

with other approaches that are more time-limited. Adlerian ideas and

methods have been effectively applied across the full range of settings (e.g.,

community agencies, schools, business, child guidance centers, hospitals/

medical centers, prisons, homes, private practice). The theory has been

characterized as “commonsense” or “blue collar,” yet it is still not commonly

practiced as Adler intended and modeled. While the fundamental principles

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of Adlerian psychology have remained the same, new techniques and

applications continue to arise, and the theory continues to evolve into the

21st century.

As one will discover when reading other books in the Theories of Psycho-

therapy Series, Adler’s original ideas serve as a foundation for most modern

theories of counseling and psychotherapy. Most of today’s prominent theo-

ries of psychotherapy, including person-centered therapy, existential therapy,

cognitive therapy, rational emotive behavioral therapy, logotherapy, strategic

therapy, constructivist therapy, positive psychology, and family therapy, can

ﬁnd their roots in Adlerian ideas (Carlson et al., 2006; DeRobertis, 2011;

Watts, 1998, 2000b, 2012; Watts & Critelli, 1997; Watts & LaGuardia, 2015;

Watts & Phillips, 2004). Adlerian theory espouses a philosophy of human

relations based upon social equality and emphasizes the inﬂuence of con-

textual factors. Further, as a psychoeducational model, Adlerian ideas can be

applied in individual, group, couples, and family counseling as well as in the

classroom and at the community level. As such, Adlerian theory is uniquely

positioned as a complete and effective approach to meet the expanding needs

of diverse clients across multiple settings (Carlson & Englar-Carlson, 2012).

We believe that therapists should not ask themselves if they are an Adlerian,

but just “how” Adlerian they really are.

This book provides a comprehensive review of modern Adlerian

psychotherapy. In the next chapter, we describe the historical tenets of

the Adlerian approach as a means of providing the foundation for better

understanding of the theory (Chapter 3) and the therapeutic process of

Adlerian therapy (Chapter 4). These chapters highlight the process and

practice of this approach, including a variety of case examples. The ﬁfth

and sixth chapters look at the research support and the future direction

of this important approach. Finally, a short summary, appendix, glossary,

and suggestions for further study are provided.