SOURCE: "The Psychology of Alfred Adler," in Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. XXI, No. 4, January-March, 1927, pp. 358-71.

[In the following essay, Vaughan provides a survey of the tenets of Adler's psychological system.]

The heterodox nature of the Freudian psychology and the authoritative, dogmatic manner of its presentation, both favored the rise of spirited opposition in its train. Prominent among the secessionists are Jung and Adler. Jung has gained a wide audience for his theories through the attractive literary form in which they have been advanced. Adler has been less fortunate in a literary way, for his heavy, involved style has obscured a system of psychology which, on its merits, deserves a larger public than it has reached. Convinced of the value of Adler's contribution, I believe it worthwhile to survey the principal tenets of his system in such a lucid manner as to awaken the interest of the general psychologist. I have selected those aspects of his theory that bear particularly upon the understanding of normal personality.

THE INDIVIDUAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL METHOD

Adler approaches the problems of psychopathology through what he calls the "Individual-Psychological" method. The task of psychoanalysis is to look for the life purpose of the individual, since it is in the service of this ideal that the symptoms assume their meaning. The individual psychological phenomena can be traced historically and genetically with reference to the person's plan of life about which all his activities are centered. Inasmuch as personal idiosyncrasies are related to the fiction of superiority peculiar to each person, traits of character can only be understood in the light of the goal of masculinity that constitutes the basis of that fiction. Conclusions should be drawn only when all the evidence is in and never from a single fact. Intimate knowledge of the individual's entire life, therefore, is essential to the legitimate interpretation of any one event in his career. Each case is to be judged only in its own peculiar setting. It is important to guard against over-generalization, to avoid "approaching the psychic life of the individual with a dry formula, as the Freudian school attempt" [The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology].

Adler's psychology is thoroughly purposive. Every psychic phenomenon is a preparation for the attainment of some end. "We cannot think, feel, will, or act without the perception of some goal." Every one, healthy or diseased, lives to achieve his peculiar ideal of superiority in his own particular way.

"Every marked attitude of a man can be traced back to an origin in childhood." It is the purpose of the Individual-Psychological method to lay bare the sources of the feeling of inferiority, especially those associated with childhood, and to follow out the compensatory career of the masculine protest with its accentuated fictions,—and thus to disclose the aim toward which the particular person is working and the means he employs to arrive at his ideal.

THE NEUROTIC INDIVIDUAL

Although the neurotic "shows no single trait which cannot likewise be demonstrated in the healthy individual" [The Neurotic Constitution], there are certain traits that appear in exaggerated prominence, such as egotism and anxiety, which express themselves in intense modes of self-assertion that are peculiarly characteristic of this type of person. A few illustrations will show how Adler has worked out his study of the neurotic personality.

The neurotic goes out of his way to assert his independence. Most of his strange ways can be traced to a background of unsatisfied wants, predominantly sexual in nature. Thus a woman, to avoid the assumption of the feminine rôle in coition, will evince obstinacy, wildness, and unruliness in order to escape the shame of submission. A female patient will display an open hostility for her male physician, refusing to submit to his authority. Another person will be habitually cruel in his treatment of others and his friends will be at a loss to understand such behavior in one whose nature is fundamentally gentle. If his motives are analyzed, it may be found that he has set his mind on dominating others and for the sake of his masculine guiding line he has determined to shut out all tenderness as effeminate. The peculiarities of the neurotic center about sex as it is related to the attainment and the exercise of power. The man who is sexually impotent strives to exercise authority in other fields: With the underlying concept of power in view, the traits of the neurotic fall into line, taking on a new meaning in a consistent whole.

It is natural that the neurotic, with his deficiencies, should be unusually sensitive to the estimate others place upon his dignity. Cursed with the "sentiment d'incompletude", and suffering under every slight injury to his self-respect, he grows over-insistent in his demands upon the respect of his associates. He looks for insults and he finds them, satisfying his suspicions but at the same time irritating the tender spots of his ego. To recover his lost dignity he may take an unjustifiable pride in his ancestry. He may develop a loud voice with which he noisily interrupts those who are conversing with him. He may become silent to impress others with the importance of his cogitations or loquacious to convince any listeners who may be dubious of his erudition. Or his self-esteem may be fostered by dreaming that he is dead and that all his relatives are mourning at the funeral. Though the means may vary in different cases, the end in view is always the enhancement of self-respect.

A prominent trait of the neurotic is his childlike timidity. Conscious of his vulnerable points, he lacks the confidence one needs for competition. His policy is dilatory in all matters, ever anticipating the disagreeable consequences which ensue upon action. He may even bring about minor defeats to justify his caution. If he is inveigled into a test of strength and is defeated, he is ready with an alibi to excuse his failure. In the fear of defeat, insomnia may suddenly develop to furnish a reason to pardon his losses. "I didn't do well to-day. I didn't sleep much last night." His fearfulness precludes any peace of mind. At times the neurotic may conjure up small tests to give him confidence for bigger ones but when the bigger trials face him, he finds an excuse to withdraw. In his dread of the uncertainties of life, he may even resort to suicide to obtain security from humiliation.

The neurotic is obsessed with a persistent craving for power. His highest happiness lies in the domination of others. This goal is reached by several approaches—actively (compensation), by appropriating instruments of power, and passively (decompensation), by developing neurotic symptoms which attract attention to the individual's importance. The goal and the achievement may both remain in the unconscious as the subject, in ignorance of the real drift of affairs, believes he is working for other ends than those he actually is contemplating.

One of the active roads to power is that of greediness. Money is power. The accumulation of wealth is consequently the amassing of influence. In his greed for gain, the individual grows more and more avaricious, eagerly sacrificing the good-will of his friends while he hoards the funds upon which he intends to base his authority. His unconscious will to power encourages stinginess. Adler tells of a patient who made a bequest to a certain institution and who for the rest of the day suffered from an attack of depression. His generosity pained him because it meant disloyalty to his miserly ideal. Another was bitter in his contempt for women. In uncovering the motive behind his antipathy, it was learned that he wanted to avoid marriage, not believing that two can live cheaper than one.

Another of the active modes of compensation is the exercise of superiority through the derogatory critique. The neurotic disparages others to elevate his own self-esteem. He is apt to shed his faults by projecting them on to others and then to pour upon them a deluge of disdain. The neurotic is always willing to "run down" anybody so that he may call attention to his own superior worth. By lowering the standing of others he renders easier the task of surpassing them.

When the direct paths to domination have failed, the neurotic resorts to decompensation—he develops symptoms by which he imposes his authority upon those around him. A neurosis indicates the failure of the guiding fiction. The individual covers up his unsuccess by a smoke-screen of handicaps. He exaggerates his suffering until the family is all attentive to him. He weeps loudly enough to be heard. He excels others in pain. The neurosis serves to head off the humiliation of defeat. Everybody is obliged to make allowances for "the poor fellow", as he is sick and nervous. "Think of what I might have been, had I not been so seriously handicapped." Neurotic devices are likely to crop out in a time of stress when a crisis imposes a strain on the personal resources. Artificial deficiencies excuse the patient from taking a chance in the ring of competitive life. It is easier for him to lord it over others by being sick than by staking his ability upon an actual test of strength.

Decompensation is an unfortunate device for him who falls back on it, since it forestalls constructive measures. The power gained through the enlistment of sympathy does not bring the enduring satisfaction that comes through winning the respect of competitors on the ground of actual merit. The construction of symptoms reduces the chances for the correction of the inferiorities since the individual glories in a false prowess that blinds him to his faults. Decompensation stands in marked contrast to that mode of compensation by which the realization of deficiency leads to the actual conversion of the weakness into strength or to the compensatory development of another source of power.

THE ORIGIN OF THE FEELING OF INFERIORITY

Adler, in his treatment of neuroses, was convinced that the seat of disorder invariably lies in an inferior organ. The organic deficiency is the weak link that debilitates the whole personality through the psychic disturbances involved. Somatic anomalies have been overlooked in the past because physicians have failed to see the defect behind the compensatory blinds. Adler found that specific bodily weaknesses are very common in the neuroses and he observed that a feeling of inferiority, an inferiority complex, is a complicating factor. As an analyst Adler was interested in organic inferiorities only as they form a basis for the psychical disorders to which they give rise. The Studie ueber Minderwertigkeit von Organen [Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation] was published in 1907 and on this work as a physiological foundation he developed the psychological theory propounded in his "Ueber Neurotische Disposition" of 1909, in which he traces the wide derangements of the psyche that flourish on the soil of the neurotic constitution. [W. A. White, in an introduction to Adler's The Neurotic Constitution, writes]: "The distinctive feature of Adler's approach to the problem of the neurotic character traits is that it approaches from the organic rather than from the functional side and in this way, I think, affords a very valuable viewpoint because it tends to bring together the organicist and the functionalist, who have too long been separated by the misconception of irreconcilable differences between mind and body."

There are five aspects in which one should examine organic imperfection.

1. Heredity plays a significant role in inferiority. Since the mechanism of transmission is sexual, Adler argues that an hereditary weakness must exist in the spermatozoa and the ovule. "There exist no organ-inferiorities without an accompanying defect in the sexual apparatus,"—an observation that he reiterates time and again under the principle of "manifold organ inferiorities". Heredity, according to Adler, must be considered in analyzing neurotic disorders, since "the accentuated traits of character are to be found already in the neurotic disposition where they give rise to peculiarities and perversions of conduct".
2. Disease is another factor to be taken into account in the study of inferiority. Disease picks on the inferior organ as the weakest spot in the defense of the organism. In renal pathology, it is helpful to remember that most renal diseases are due to a fundamental inferiority of the urine-excreting apparatus. Inferior organs invite disease.
3. There are certain definite stigmata that should be diagnosed as peripheral traces of an underlying organ-inferiority. Very often these outward signs, such as abnormal eyelids, are believed to be the whole thing and the physician fails to discover the fundamental disability of which the peripheral evidences are only indicators. Where stigmata are found, further search will reveal a deep-seated organic blemish at the root of the trouble.
4. Childish defects also point to underlying somatic imperfections. Wet garments should not be laid to wilful neglect but to organic inferiority. A child, following the pleasure principle, takes the line of least resistance and certain organs of the body which are the source of pleasure-giving sensations cannot be trained, on account of their inherent deficiency, to conform to cultural requirements. Lack of control of the bowels, for instance, indicates a basic organic deficiency. "The limitation of organic sensory pleasure for the benefit of cultural progress becomes the test of organic normality."
5. Reflex anomalies stand as indications of organ-inferiority. Both the deficiency and exaggeration of reflexes mark the presence of a defective physiological mechanism.

Inferiorities fall into two categories, the morphological and the functional. Morphological inferiority dates from the period of embryonic growth. "The organ inferiority usually enforces itself genetically in the individual and hinders embryonic or functionally related parts from fully developing … The inferior organ bears with it in morphology and function, its embryonic characteristics." Causes of deformity lie in a primitive lack of formative material, inflammatory processes during embryonic development, or the disturbing influence of a neighboring organ during the fetal period. If the faulty organ proves ineffective, regression occurs.

Functional inferiorities make up the chief group, since morphological defects manifest themselves through some disorder of function. The organism has to adapt itself in one way if it fails in another. Compensation through the central nervous system passes the burden on from the incapacitated to the healthy organs. It is a case of the strong helping the weak organs where environmental necessity calls for adequate performance.

The inferior organ is a handicap which nourishes a feeling of inferiority. Adler even goes so far as "to refer all phenomena of neuroses and psychoneuroses back to organ inferiority". Organic deficiency is very significant for personality through the range of serious psychological consequences to which it gives rise. One consequence is the attempt at compensation. "The realization of somatic inferiority by the individual becomes for him a permanent impelling force for the development of his psyche."

COMPENSATION

In each of us there is a persistent craving for security, a "Sicherungstendenz". The realization of a failing, by undermining the sense of certainty, exaggerates the determination to over-come the handicap. There is a tendency to do too much rather than not enough towards building up strength and we find the inferior organ may actually become supernormal (overcompensation). In the blind, for example, the touch organs grow supersensitive. It is possible, therefore, that the inferior organ may develop a functional capacity exceeding that of the normal. "The cause lies in the compulsion of a constant training in the capacity for adaptation and variability often adhering to inferior organs and surely also in the development of the related nervous and psychical complexes heightened by inner attention and mental concentration upon the weaker organ."

A special interest seeks to protect the vulnerable point from excessive strain and to give it a chance to grow strong enough to withstand its adversaries successfully, for it is especially the infirm structures that fall a prey to any dangers which beset the organism. When there is a call for reinforcements, the surplus energy is drawn from the central nervous system. Organic defect may thus be compensated by an excess of nervous activity. If the compensation requires too much effort and the central nervous system is overtaxed, there is a drain on the bodily resources and neurosis results. Where any part of the organism is unduly feeble, the constitution must be strong to endure the stresses involved in protecting its vulnerable spot. Some organ has to double up on its performance, as it were, to take care of the extra load left uncarried by the defective organ. The neurotic constitution, being unable to effect an adequate compensation for an inferiority, amounts to a predisposition towards breakdown or neurosis. Compensation, in any case, is a difficult task.

There are various types of compensatory activity, each appropriate to the need which it is fulfilling. (1) There may be vicarious replacement of function by a symmetrically situated organ, such as we find in the cerebrum, lungs, kidneys, and thyroids. (2) Compensatory aid may be rendered by a portion of an organ related to the defective organ, in the case of asymmetrical structures. (3) There may be the employment of another organ, such as we observe in the cardiac hypertrophy by which a deficiency of the kidney or lung is compensated. (4) Or, lastly, we may see the heightened use of the inferior organ itself.

Compensation tends to carry over into overcompensation. Beethoven and Mozart both had deformed ears. The fact that the same organ is apt to be inferior in the different members of a family helps to explain why they often suffer from the same disease or repeatedly follow the same, usually artistic, profession. Adler relates the case of one family in which three children suffered from otosclerosis. The other two children displayed marked musical ability, one of them afflicted with herpes of the auricle and both of them showing indications of organ-inferiorities in the mouth, nose, and sexual apparatus. Palatal reflex anomalies are found often in cooks, speakers, and singers. One patient with a deformed palatal cleft and pulmonary weaknesses, is an excellent singer. Says Adler, "I should only like to emphasize that to me the impression of the connection between a beautiful singing voice and the organ inferiority which I have outlined is a definite one, and that I have considerable material to support it."

THE ACCENTUATION OF THE FICTION

Under the impulse from his feelings of inferiority the neurotic seeks salvation for his self-regard in the elaboration of a fiction, a false ideal, after which he strives, in order to redeem his good standing. Unable to assert himself as a man of power, he acts "as-if" he were strong. In fancy he confers upon himself the glory withheld by reality.

The fiction comes into being to save his self-esteem. The fictitious ideal is a grandiose conception by means of which the individual bestows a symbolic style upon himself. The dream is never related to reality because it is beyond the possibility of achievement. Burdened with his handicaps the neurotic can only win success in the realms of fancy to which his ideal is accommodated.

The fiction, aiming as it does, at the maximation of the ego-consciousness, draws all the psychic forces into its service. No energy is left for actual accomplishment. All the neurotic's strength is dissipated in daydreams in which he appears in the rôle of hero. "All psychological powers are under the control of a directive idea, and all expressions of emotion, feeling, thinking, willing, acting, dreaming, as well as all psychopathological phenomena are permeated by one unified life-plan"—the goal of converting failure (inferiority) into success.

The concentration of energy upon one goal makes for efficiency in that one line. It is a wise move where the end is discreetly chosen. It is in the selection of his ideal that the neurotic plots his own doom. The plan he outlines for himself not only remains unrelated to reality but also beyond the bounds of realization for one of limited capacities. A "distance" remains between the dreams of the neurotic and their fulfillment, between his ideals and their accomplishment. He grows more unsure of himself—of his ideals and of his ability to attain them. A strain is imposed upon the personality as he tries to do justice to both the real and imaginary requirements facing him. The result is neurosis. Fancy dubs him a hero—but the glory fades as a dream, for the achievement is only fictitious.

THE MASCULINE PROTEST

The "Sicherungstendenz" is especially strong where self-respect is jeopardized by the presence of inferiority. Assurance mechanisms are plentiful. A man who is drawn away from his ideal of chastity by lustful desires rears up in his mind, as an assurance process, the syphilophobia syndrome and behind this wall he feels safe. Bjerre has put the theory succinctly when he states that the neurosis is the negation of life; the assurance mechanism is the passive side of this negation; the active side is the masculine protest.

The masculine protest is a form of the will to power, under the impulsion of which a weak person aims to become strong—strong like a man. Manliness is the symbol of forcefulness and superiority. "The wish to be a complete man" is the heart of the protest against the limitations of inferiority.

Adler bases his theory of the masculine protest on psychical hermaphroditism. Every personality holds within its psyche both masculine and feminine tendencies. The conflict of these two elements can be resolved only by an adequate synthesis of the feminine with the masculine, with the latter side in authority. The neurotic denies his feminine trends instead of applying himself to synthesize them with the masculine. The result is a split personality.

The masculine constellation includes power, strength, greatness, riches, knowledge, violence, and victory. The feminine traits, not so brilliant an array, comprise the craving of a child for nestling, weakness, submissiveness, despair, helplessness, timidity, shyness, and fear of punishment. In short, masculinity means dominating power, femininity, cringing submission.

It will be easy now to see what the masculine protest signifies in psychological terms. Adler assumes that the feminine sex is inferior and that the superiority of the male is generally recognized. To be a complete man, therefore, is to succeed well in the art of self-assertion. The neurotic makes the next best move, in acting as if he were a complete man.

The attitude toward the contrasting trends, the feminine and the masculine, makes up the antithetical perspective. The mind tends to classify experience into high-low, above-beneath, strong-weak. It is the contrast between the opposing forces that exaggerates the masculine protest. The neurotic views everything in the light of his ideal of manliness. "This formula: 'I wish to be a complete man is the guiding fiction in every neurosis."

In woman the protest is to act like a man. The little girl who sees the large male genitals and wonders why she has no such organs, is seized with feelings of inferiority. Later in life she has to humiliate herself before man in sexual intercourse. It is she who has to submit to man and it is she who must bear the children. As a protest against her inferior role she assumes a defiant front. She becomes a "tomboy", a "heart-breaker", or a nagging wife, or she refuses to participate in coition. In man the protest is the aspiration toward completeness, toward the fullest development of masculinity.

The will to power, the masculine protest, is a force that drives us on to the perfection of our capacities. The aggressive impulse fed by the ideal of manliness refuses to acknowledge inferiority and clings steadfastly to the cultivation of strength.

ADLER AND FREUD

Let us first consider two points on which Adler diverges from Freud. In the first place, Adler attacks the view that the libido is the force behind the symptoms of the neurosis. Adler contends that the force, on the contrary, is derived from the adoption of an ideal end (a complete man) for the attainment of which the neurotic's powers are mobilized. In other words, the important thing is not the force behind the neurosis but the goal toward which the force is directed. The libido works in normal as well as abnormal individuals. It is not the libido, therefore, that is the critical cause of psychic disturbance. It is, rather, the fictitious nature of the goal upon which the neurotic is bent. The perversion of the libido is due to the abnormality of the ideal. Compensation, not sex, furnishes the motive force.

Secondly, sexual feeling is not the hub of the psychic universe. The sex-content of neuroses originates in the hermaphroditic antithesis of masculine-feminine. The sexual fantasy is a compulsion toward the masculine goal. Sex is symbolically represented in the neurosis by the end upon which all strivings are concentrated. Freud failed to recognize the symbolic character of the process, overlooking the fact that sex merely offers the most convenient terms in which to posit the antithetical scheme of the masculine protest. The Oedipus complex thus symbolizes the desire of the son to dominate his mother. Infantile sex wishes represent the struggle to outgrow the limitations of childhood. The sexual evidences are manifestations of a deeper tendency of human nature, the desire for power.

Though divergent in the details of their theories, Adler and Freud still remain in fundamental agreement, their denials to the contrary notwithstanding. Adler bases his whole theory on organ inferiority and psychical compensation. He approaches Freud when he admits that the inferior organ is most frequently sexual. Sex, for both then, plays a main rôle, though playing that role, to be true, from apparently different motives—the one out of sexual desire, the other out of the wish to dominate the opposite sex. It might be suggested that the domination of the opposite sex is actually an integral element in the satisfaction of desire, so that the apparent divergence, upon more thorough examination, dissolves into virtual agreement. The neurotic, in following out his masculine protest, resorts, to certain safety-devices, often infantile and regressive tendencies, that afford him a refuge from uncertainty. Why do we have these devices! A feeling of uncertainty threatens the integrity of the individual's self-esteem. The neurotic must posit a goal to make life bearable. "The entire picture of the neurosis as well as all its symptoms are influenced by, nay, even wholly provoked by an imaginary fictitious goal." Such is the service of fictions in thought, action, and volition. The motivation is sexual perhaps in its origin, but more specifically, the conviction of inferiority within the sex life.

CONCLUSION

Without going much into detail, I am going to select a few weaknesses in Adler's theory for criticism. Let us first examine the proposition that neuroses are most frequent among women during pregnancy, parturition, and climacteric, because these feminine periods impress upon the female a feeling of inferiority. Adler here has taken a contributing factor and elevated it to the position of sole cause. It seems to me that another account of the etiology is more sound. [in C. Mercier Sanity and Insanity] attributes the breakdown to what he calls the "indirect stress of internal origin". During puberty the development of the reproductive organs adds a new complication to the physical and psychical life. The beginning of love is beset with trials that were never known before. The presence of a new physiological structure aggravates the coenesthesis. During the menses, pregnancy, and parturition vast organic changes are taking place which are bound to have their effect on the psyche, exclusive of any feeling of inferiority that might be involved. At the climacteric, the reproductive organs again alter their structure and the change exerts another stress upon the nervous system. Painful menstrual periods, the dreaded "change of life", various female troubles with pregnancies scattered in between, lead the female to believe she pays a heavy penalty for being a woman. She envies man, not for his power alone, but the mere freedom from feminine ills which he enjoys. It seems more sane to place the responsibility for the neurosis primarily upon the strain which organic vicissitudes impose upon the nervous system and the psyche. Of course the feeling of inferiority may be one of the psychical effects, but it need not be the principal effect, much less the one eminent cause of the neurosis.

Next arises the question as to whether all women want to be men. Masculinity is symbolic of domination and femininity of submission, but how many of us use this symbolism in dealing with experience! The masculine protest, for most of us, is not the longing to be a complete man, but less symbolically the craving for power. There is no necessity that compels us to take the circuitous path through symbolism. We want power primarily and we want to be men secondarily, if that means power. Take the case of a girl, mentioned by Adler, who suffered from attacks of migraine. The headache was a neurotic symptom by means of which she hoped to rule her family. It was a part of her wish to be a man. But headaches are not especially manly. Neurotic symptoms savor more of childishness than of virility. If the dominant wish was to be a man, masculine hardiness would be a more suitable trait to develop. Migraine cannot represent masculinity, even symbolically. It is more honestly sensible to say frankly that what the girl wants is not a headache, or manliness, but power. The desire for domination is the crucial motive.

Strange to say, Adler is at his worst in his treatment of sex problems. Consider, for instance, his account of exhibitionism. A girl is seized with shame because she does not posses the large external genitals that belong to the male. She feels she has been slighted by her Creator. Thereupon, she conceives a plan to assert herself. She exposes her genitals "as-if" she were a man, satisfying herself by this procedure that she has convinced her audience that she must no longer endure the disgrace of being labeled a woman. What an absurd picture! Exhibitionism is motivated by sex desire. There is no pleasure in exposing one's genitals to the view of one's own sex. The exposure of the sex organs before the opposite sex, however, gives rise to the agreeable sensations of lust. Adler strains his theory to cover facts more simply and more adequately explained on other bases.

Adler has called attention to a point of view that is valuable for medicine and for psychology. The scheme of motivation embodied in compensation for inferiority can be legitimately extended to account for many of the mysteries that surround the strange ways of man. The work of Adler has given us a deeper insight into human nature.