Alfred Adler Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography
Alfred Adler: Short Biography and Explanation of Theories. (2017). Adler.edu. Retrieved
11 October 2017, from https://www.adler.edu/page/about/history/about-alfred-adler
This article summarizes details from Adler’s life, to his theories and work, and his legacy. This is a great article to begin researching on Alfred Adler. It dedicates an entire part of the article to talking about how he began working in psychology. How he was invited to meet with Sigmund Freud and Rudolph Reitler, and they would meet regularly that then eventually grew to begin the psychoanalytic movement. Freud and Adler would work together often, Freud looking to Adler as one of his disciples. However, many of Adler’s concepts and views were very

The writing goes into extensive detail on Adler’s life to detailed descriptions on his theories. For example, throughout the piece the professor explains what Adler’s “theory of inferiority” means. How from as early as the age of 5 we begin to start feeling inferior to the people around us. How children all wanting to grow up is an example of this concept. Being in school, doing tests and always comparing ourselves to the person next to us who got a grade better than yours. To being forced to play a sport and dreading which team would be stuck with you on their side. The professor goes into detail on how Adler took his theory to how children can feel inferior as a cause of the way they were raised. If they went through some sort of trauma or they were neglected as a child. He even went on to classifying these feelings of inferiority to the level of energy you have, which then relates to your level of social interest. The first type being the ruling type, from childhood they tend to be rather aggressive and dominant over others. According to their level of energy, the ones with a lot of energy are the ones that hurt others, including bullies. Other with low energy hurt others by hurting themselves, for example suicides. The second is the leaning type, they are often very protective of themselves. They have low energy levels and therefore become dependent. The third type is the avoiding type, they have the lowest levels of energy that they have no social interest at all. Often excluding themselves from society entirely and isolating themselves in their own world. And finally the fourth type being the socially useful type. This being the healthy person, with the most social interest and the most energy. Adler also looked into how birth order could potentially affect the idea of inferiority. How depending on your place you may develop what Adler called the superiority complex, the drive to surpass