Holism
1) The whole is greater than the
sum of it’s parts. (Alfred Adler)
2) One can never regard single
manifestations of the mental life as separate entities, but one can
gain understanding of them only if one understands all
manifestations of a mental life as parts of and indivisible whole.
(Alfred Adler)
3) With every individual we must
look for the underlying coherence, for the unity of the personality.
(Alfred Adler)
4) When we try to pick out
anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the
universe. (John Muir - Naturalist/Environmentalist/Founder-National
Parks)
5) We believe our understanding
has reached a point where we can recommend an ideal treatment for
panic disorder. What scientists now understand is the brain’s
chemical makeup and wiring are intricately tied to our thoughts and
our emotions. Most importantly, they know that altering brain
chemistry with medication can alter thoughts and emotions, and
altering the way we think and feel through psychological therapy can
change the chemistry and wiring of our brains. There is no
separation between the brain and the mind. (Alan Leshner, M.D.,
National Institute of Mental Health)
Social Embeddedness
6) Individual Psychology regards
and examines the individual as socially embedded. We refuse to
recognize and examine the isolated human being. (Alfred Adler)
7) We can understand the
personality of the individual only when we see him in his context
and evaluate him in his particular situation in the world. (Alfred
Adler)
8) Two people cannot live
together fruitfully if one wishes to rule and force and the other to
obey. In our present conditions many men and, indeed, many women are
convinced that it is the man’s part to rule and dictate, to play the
leading role, to be the master. This is the reason why we have so
many unhappy marriages. Nobody can bear a position of inferiority
without anger and disgust. Partners must be equal, and when people
are equal, they will always find a way to settle their difficulties.
(Alfred Adler)
9) There should be no ruler in
the family and every occasion for feelings of inequality should be
avoided. (Alfred Adler)
10) Three problems are
irrevocably set before every individual. These are: the attitude
toward one’s fellow man, occupation, and love. All three are linked
to each other by the first.
(Alfred Adler)
11) All the questions of life
can be subordinated to the three major problems - the problems of
communal life, of work, and of love. (Alfred Adler)
Teleology
12) The mysterious creative
power of life is teleological, it expresses itself after a goal, and
in this striving every bodily and psychological process is made to
cooperate. (Alfred Adler)
13) Merely to institute a random
movement form moment to moment would never be enough, there must be
a goal for the strivings. (Alfred Adler)
14) All is Movement. (Alfred
Adler)
Phenomenology
15) In a word I am convinced
that a person's behavior springs from his ideas. We should not be
surprised by this because our senses do not receive actual facts,
but merely a subjective interpretation of them. (Alfred Adler)
16) It is not the child's
experiences which dictate his actions, it is the conclusions he
draws from his experiences. (Alfred Adler)
17) Meanings are not determined
by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meaning we give to
situations. (Alfred Adler)
Creativity / Uniqueness
18) The individual is the both
the picture and the artist, he is the artist of his own personality.
(Alfred Adler)
19) Do not forget the most
important fact that not heredity and not environment are determining
factors. Both are giving only the frame and the influences which are
answered by the individual in regard to his styled creative power.
(Alfred Adler)
20) The directed utilization of
instincts and drives, as well as impressions from the environment
are the artistic work of the child and cannot be understood in the
sense of a psychology of possession, but only of a psychology of
use. (Alfred Adler)
Inferiority
21) To be human means to feel
inferior. If we consider that every child is actually inferior in
the face to life and could not exist at all without assistance from
those close to him, if we
focus on the smallness and helplessness of the child which continues
for so long and which brings about the impression that we are hardly
equal to life, then we must assume that at the beginning of every
psychological life there is more or less a deep feeling of
inferiority.
(Alfred Adler)
22) It is not the sense of
inferiority which matters, but the degree and character of it.
(Alfred Adler)
23) The abnormal feeling of
inferiority has acquired the name ‘inferiority complex’.
(Alfred Adler)
Compensation
24) It is the child's
helplessness, clumsiness, and insecurity which necessitates the
exploration of possibilities... for the purpose of constructing a
bridge into the future where resides greatness, power and
satisfaction. The construction of the bridge (the process of
compensation) is the most important achievement of the child,
because otherwise he would find himself without composure, guidance,
or comfort in the midst of
overpowering impressions... (Alfred Adler)
25) The whole of human life
never proceeds along this great line of action – from below to
above, from minus to plus, from defeat to victory. (Alfred Adler)
Striving for Superiority
(Fulfillment)
26) It is the striving for
superiority which is behind every human creation. (Alfred Adler)
27) I began to see clearly in
every psychological phenomenon the striving for superiority
(fulfillment). It runs parallel to physical growth and is an
intrinsic necessity of life itself.
(Alfred Adler)
Vertical Striving
28) Once the goal of superiority
is made concrete, there are no mistakes made in the style of life.
The habits and symptoms of the individual are precisely right for
attaining his concrete goal... Every problem child, neurotic, and
addict are making the proper movements to achieve what he takes to
be a position of superiority. It is impossible to attack the
symptoms by themselves, they are exactly the symptoms he ought to
have for such a goal. (Alfred Adler)
Level Striving (Social Interest /
Community Feeling / Gemeinschaftsgefül)
29) Superiority striving
(striving for fulfillment) can take place in a satisfactory way and
lead to a proper feeling of worth only on the useful side, in the
developed social interest, where the individual senses himself as
valuable. Valuable can mean nothing other than valuable for human
society. (Alfred Adler)
30) Every human being strives
for significance, but people will always make mistakes if they do
not recognize that their own significance lies in their contribution
to the lives of others.
(Alfred Adler)
