Alfred Adler's Theory Of Personality

Alfred Adler was born in Vienna on February 7, 1870. He studied Medicine at the University of Vienna and he graduated in 1895. In 1898, he began to practice as an ophthalmologist, although he soon replaced this specialty with general medicine, then with neurology, and finally, he opted for psychiatry (in fact, he is considered the first child psychiatrist). At first, he was attending the Psychological Society on Wednesday at Sigmund Froid 's house, but soon he turned away from the ideas of the famous psychologist (Adler didn 't think that mental problems always had their origin in sexual trauma, as Freud did). He founded Individual psychology and wrote books about it and about his theory of personality (topics that I am going to talk about

The concept of “individual” refers to “indivisibility”, that means that the individual can 't be divided into several parts (for example, the id, ego and super-ego of Freud 's structural model). That 's why this theory is also called Holistic Theory, in which social and cultural factors are of special importance. Alfred not only differs from Freud in his holistic position but also in his idea of teleology: for Sigmund Freud, the present is determined by our past experiences; nevertheless, from Adler 's point of view, our behavior is motivated towards a goal, that is, we are driven towards our purposes and ideals. The conscious and unconscious work together in order to achieve a certain aim, while Freud distinguished

The characteristics that Adler attributed to people according to their birth order are as follows: the firstborn children receive a lot of attention from their parents, but then they will sadly suffer the dethrone by their siblings, whom they will overprotect; they are prone to further problems due to the loss of prior privileges and to the supposed responsibility for taking care of their siblings. Middleborn children neither lived the dethrone nor were consented, although it is common that they feel out of place or become rebellious. The youngest children are aiming to being arrogant, consented and dependent on others because their siblings have always helped them, so they will have greater difficulty adapting to adult life. Only children never lose their supremacy; they are independent, self-centered and have no problem on being alone, but they find hard to share and compete with others. Finally, the twins; the one who is born first is usually the dominant; they are confident because of their closeness, but they find it difficult to be alone and have problems when they separate. Still, it must be borne in mind that these particularities do not always have to be