Working with &lllaos;criminals&lllaos;

Tim,

I appreciated reading your note. May i barge into the conversation here?

As far as practicing Adler's theory in working with those who are called criminals, my experience with probationers and parolees has been that it works quite well. Without being able to go into all the details here. After all, there are whole books written on working with these clients. The major goal of the criminal justice system is reputed to be the rehabilation of the criminal. To help them find where they fit into society and to become productive members. To Adlerians, this is the development of social interest. To achieve this, we might need to address different myths the client has developed and the mistakes in approach to life that results - overgeneralizations, false/impossible goals, misinterpretaion of life and life's demands, fluctuations in self worth and faulty values, amoung others. Sometimes, Adlerian counseling with offenders may appear similar to 'behavior modification' - we do highly value movement. Yet it might be more appropriate to describe what we do as 'motivation modification'. We seek more than to merely alleviate symptoms. We seek to help our clients go through a readjustment of fundamental premises and basic concepts they hold about their lives and who they are.

In your note you stated that you were under the impression that Adler was Humanistic. I would respectfully ask you to once again consult your historical sources. Humanism is usually associated with Carl Rogers, who developed what he called 'client-centered therapy' sometime around 1951. Whereas Adler died in 1937. Considering that Adler died 14 years before Humanism was born into this world, I think we might better say that Adler was Adlerian. This may be a moot point, but I hear Adler classified into so many schools or different therapies that I think it is important to keep this in mind. Actually, there is a good synopsis of Adler's contributions to later theories in "Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy" by Corey on page 66-7.

Replies:

Re;Working with & 111aos; crimnals &111aos, by Tim Chapman, 3/31/96 Difficulty in Pidgeon Holing Adler, by T. Cummings, 5/14/96

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