CLASSICAL ADLERIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY FORUM ARCHIVE
No!
Henry Stein · 3/28/98 at 11:03 PM ET
Your comments reflect several misconceptions about Alfred Adler appear frequency in college texts, as well as other superficial overviews of the history of psychology.
1) It is a mistake to consider Adler a Psychoanalyst. His view of human nature, theory of personality, and approach to treatment were almost antithetical to Freud's.
2) It is also a mistake to consider him a Neo-Freudian. He was never a student of Freud, nor did he adapt or modify Freudian theory. There is some evidence that Freud modified his later theory to incorporate Adler's ideas. Indeed, many Neo-Freudians today are beginning to lean gradually in the direction of Adler's thinking.
3) Adler does refer to the unconscious, but does not invest it with the same significance or purpose as Freud. Adler considered the unconscious as the "not quite understood." He was quite explicit about the purpose of keeping the fictional final goal in the unconscious -- keeping it out of the spotlight of critical thinking.
I encourage you to read Alfred Adler's writings directly, not the simplifications of his philosophy, theory, and practice that rarely do him justice. Start with What Life Could Mean to You, by Alfred Adler; then read The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, edited be Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher. If you would like an in-depth comparison of Freud and Adler, read The Discovery of the Unconscious, by Henri Ellenberger. You might then be better prepared to discuss what you are hearing in your course.
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