Existentialism, Adler, and Mueller

Heinz Ansbacher has commented on existentialism and Heidegger in THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ALFRED ADLER (p.16) and SUPERIORITY AND SOCIAL INTEREST (p.7-9).

For another "twist" on the roots of striving, read the following excerpts from Alexander Müller's unpublished manuscript "Principles of Individual Psychology."

---(beginning of Müller quote)---

To what extent is the feeling of inferiority a part of the normal development of a child and of human beings in general? According to a formulation by Adler: "to be human means to have a feeling of inferiority." "The historical progression of mankind is to be seen as the history of the feeling of inferiority, and man's attempt to resolve it." "Who can seriously doubt that the pitiful individual human being was given as a blessing a strong feeling of inferiority that strives for positiveness, security, and overcoming?" Adler, therefore, sees the development of mankind as the result of the surmounting of an inferiority feeling that, for better or for worse, is part of human nature.

According to our view, the inferiority feeling, in the broad sense of the remarks above, is a very strong incentive, a trigger mechanism, but not the sole cause of man's evolution. We believe that the primary impetus for the development and unfolding of man has its roots in his immanent creative power.

Perhaps "creative power" can be described as something that we experience, but is not accessible to reason. If one considers character as not innate or fixed, then the question arises: who or what shapes character? Is it education or the environment and people close by, or is it what a person experiences in earliest childhood? Are events decisive or is it how we experience them? On what do how one relates to one's environment and to personal experiences and how the person assimilates them depend? These are questions to which no conclusive answers can be given. However, the following seems important to us: if one does not adhere clearly to determinism, then there remains a question mark with regard to the manner of human behavior. Neither predisposition nor the environmental effect necessarily explain a person's basic behavior. The unique individual character entails an X-factor that can be traced back to nothing else but what we attempt to describe as "creative power."

---(end of Müller quote)---

Replies:

Who are Closer to Adler's Theory?, by Carmen Knowles, 4/21/96 Sources for Classical Adlerian Theory, by Henry Stein, 4/21/96 Co-operation, by t cummings, 5/14/96 Relevant Subject, by Carmen Knowles, 8/7/96 Inferiority and Original Sin, by Ed Riemann MSW, 10/13/96 Why Employers Terrorize Their Employees, . . . are they suffering from inferiority and their parents, by Joey Putman, 10/19/96 Re:Why Employers Terrorize Their Employees, . . . are they suffering from inferiority and their parents, by vaida, 11/22/01 Alfred Adler: On Time-Management and Business Practices, by Carroll R. Thomas, 11/25/01 Inferiority & Original Sin, by Ed Riemann, 1/20/97 Re: Inferiority and Original Sin, by Izaac Quade, 12/25/99

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