Individual Psychology Alfred Adler

Type of psychology: Personality
Fields of study: Personality theory; psychodynamic and neoanalytic
models
Individual psychology is the personality theory that was developed by Adler after he
broke from Freudian psychoanalytical ideas. Adler emphasized the importance of
childhood inferiority feelings and stressed psychosocial rather than psychosexual development.

Key concepts

• compensation
• inferiority
• masculine protest
• private logic
• social interest
• style of life

Individual psychology is the name of the school of personality theory and
psychotherapy developed by Alfred Adler (1870-1937), a Viennese generalpractice
physician turned psychiatrist. The term “individual” has a dual implication:
It implies uniqueness (each personality exists in a person whose
distinctiveness must be appreciated); also, the personality is an indivisible
unit that cannot be broken down into separate traits, drives, or habits which
could be analyzed as if they had an existence apart from the whole.
The essence of a person’s uniqueness is his or her style of life, a unified
system which provides the principles that guide everyday behavior and gives
the individual a perspective with which to perceive the self and the world.
The style of life is fairly stable after about age six, and it represents the individual’s
attempt to explain and cope with the great problem of human existence:
the feeling of inferiority.