ALFRED ADLER AND HUMANIST PSYCHOANALYSIS:
AN ALTERNATIVE
Dr Serge Kutek
A century ago the birth of psychoanalysis drastically
changed our human conception of thought. We discovered to
our amazement that our subconscious is at work at every
moment of our existence. Our inner self is not merely what
we are conscious of. It is deeply rooted in the dark areas
of our being, in our personal histories whose origins date
back to our ancestors who have left us their marks, if not
their painful scars. One of the essential contributions of
psychoanalysis is the opening it gives onto the mystery of
life in the sense that life is not only the subject of
study but the place where the human being comes to terms
with himself in his encounter with the other.
Psychoanalysis raises the question of ethics. This is at the
heart of our practice which cannot be conceived of without
it. Ethics lie in the passage of the human being from its
source to the place of emergence in the relationship of the
dialogue. Its subject-matter is, what is to come, what is
not yet known, what is to be found out rather than what is
to be. Ethics is not an acquired fact in the sense that it
is constantly being reinvented as its end- product is never
totally achieved. It is to be found there where the human
being reveals himself. It therefore belongs to the realms of
mystery.
In these times dominated by pragmatism where humanity is
losing itself in its quest for efficiency, productivity and
profitability it seems to us that is is crucial to place
the person of the human being in search of his destiny, at
the heart of our preoccupations. The very future of
psychoanalysis lies in the taking up of this challenge.
A Few Words About Humanism The Humanist movement, which
reached its apotheosis in the 16th century, places the human
person and individual dignity above all other values. Faith
in mankind is a central element with the emphasis being put
on man’s creativity and his freedom to choose between
animality and divinity.
Humanism proposes a model of human perfection. This model is
an ethical one for philosophers and moralists, an aesthetic
one for artists and a social one for lawyers and
politicians. This movement was inspired by ancient Greek and
Roman literature.
Humanists express the idea that man is working towards
intellectual, moral and religious self-realisation and
self-accomplishment. They emphasize the upwardly-aspiring
human soul which simultaneously encompasses both heaven
and earth. Education therefore takes on great importance and
its implementation can contradict traditional school
learning. A child must be taught in a progressive,
ongoing way from birth to adulthood and even beyond. It is
in this way that humanity leaves its natural state to enter
into the specific environment of mankind which is the world
of culture (Erasmus, ‘The upbringing of children’, 1529 ).
Humanism defines the movement of the liberation of man
through the rediscovery of intellectual and moral values
enshrined in greco-roman literature and adapted to modern
needs. It is also characterized by the spirit of ecumenism,
by the love of people and the desire for balance and
harmony between powers. Humanists are, by definition,
reformers, as can be seen in the ‘In Praise of Folly’ by
Erasmus(1511), More’s Utopia (1515-1516) and Rabelais’
Gargantua(1534).
In modern philosophical thought the word humanism has a
different meaning. For Karl Marx it is a criticism of man’s
alienation, whether it be religious or economic. Man’s
ambition is to rediscover his alienated being. Modern
humanism gives man his place as an individual free to act as
he chooses.
The anti-humanism movement in contemporary philosophy is a
criticism of classical and modern humanism. It unthrones man
from his position as all-powerful leader. Paradoxically,
anti-humanism is also a form of humanism as it confers on
man his rightful place. Martin Heidegger, in his “letter on
humanism”(1947), shows in fact that man’s dignity forbids
him from believing himself to be the originator of his
state. He is not the subject in the usual sense of the word
but the “Guardian of the Being”, that is to say, the place
where the being reveals himself and takes on meaning.
Freedom, thought and language are the requirements of the
Being who by making himself known to us calls us to him. It
really is man who speaks as long as words are left free to
come to him, for language is the “dwelling place of the
Being”. In other words, man is not the centre of the world,
another comes before him, that is the Being.
A CERTAIN VISION OF HUMANKIND
Alfred Adler’s vision of man is based on a few basic
concepts around which a dynamic and coherent theory has been
construed. As we will see in the course of this
argumentation, Adler’s ideas adhere to the classical,
modern and contemporary stream of humanism. The basis of
Adler’s theory is the feeling of inferiority. This makes up
the cornerstone on which the edifice of the personality
rests. At the beginning of his career, Adler, based on the
discovery of the vicarious nature of the internal balance of
the body, became interested in the inferior state of the
bodily organs and their psychic compensation. During the
period of his collaboration with Freud, he published in 1907
a book on the inferiority of the bodily organs. ”The
psychical compensation of the inferiority of the body
organs”. This publication is the starting point of Adlerian
theory as to the formation of the personality. At that time
Adler attributed the inferiority complex to organ
deficiency. He soon discovered that the inferiority is
innately human and independent of any link with the organs
of the body. Adler wrote of the inferiority complex : “this
feeling conceived and developed naturally, resembles a
painful tension which requires a solution to relieve it.
This solution is not necessarily pleasant as Freud
maintains, but it can be accompanied by a feeling of
satisfaction...” Further on he adds : “We have to consider
the history of mankind as the history of an inferiority
complex and the attempts made to remedy the ailment.....This
impulsion should not be considered to be morbid as ,on the
contrary, it is orientated towards acquiring control of the
outside world and not at all towards seeking a compromise
situation or a restful state of inertia....Man is in a
permanent emotional state of inferiority which spurs him on
constantly, making him act in order to achieve a greater
sense of security.” This last remark deserves to be looked
into. In fact, not only does the inferiority complex,
through its attempts at compensation, structure the
personality, but it also structures the course of history by
pushing humanity towards its own destiny. In this way
Adlerian theory takes on a cosmic and transcendental
dimension. Adler does not only bring us a therapeutic method
but above all a vision of mankind that goes beyond its own
individuality and which concerns the whole of history. This
quotation by Adler confirms what we are putting forward :
“Who could seriously doubt that the individual, so
disadvantaged by nature, has been providentially provided
with a powerful inferiority complex which propulses him
upwards towards a higher state, towards security and
conquest? This formidable and imposed revolt against an
inherent inferiority complex which awakens and renews itself
in every young child and toddler, is a fundamental part of
human evolution”. Man compensates his inferiority complex
by projecting himself towards a future goal of greater
security whose role is to preserve his ideal of personality.
This means preserving his internal cohesion while he
constructs his life at the heart of a community. It is in
this way that he works out a project which gives meaning to
the ‘todayness’ of his life, sheds light on his history and
guides his future.
According to Adler, security is an element that is
constantly sought for and never found. It is through the
fact of being sought for and not possessed that the quest
for security becomes a strongly motivating factor. It is
the answer to an unfathomable desire.
The idea of creative thought is essential to Adlerian
thought. This means that the workings of the human psyche
are not entirely determined by the surroundings in which
they evolve. The individual has the freedom to direct his
life in view of a finality guided by an intentionality. The
person as an articulate subject creates his own life. What
is more, there would be no possible therapeutic act without
this creative freedom. There could be no creativity either
without freedom. According to Adler, psychic phenomena do
not belong to the domain of their causal explanation but
need to be understood in terms of their orientation towards
a finality. This concerns the question of how rather than
why. The subject thus organises a directive fictional
situation, a source of energy around which he constructs
his way of being in the world which crystallises the
interpretation that he makes of himself and his
surroundings.
Adler shows that the subject creates himself in his
relations to another. He calls Gemeinschaftgefühl ( a sense
of community) the impulse towards the other without which
we could not live, which makes us recognize our similarity
and difference and which guides us towards a greater
existence. The face of the other reminds us constantly of
what we are in the process of becoming.. It is probable
that the Gemeinschaftgefühl, which takes root in the
early link with the mother reaches its most sophisticated
expression in our love life. This relationship is the
crucible of the process of humanization which continues
throughout the history of the person and throughout the
course of the history of mankind.
HUMANIST PSYCHOANALYSIS
How can Adler’s ideas be linked to humanism? The same
spirit pervades both of them. Man evolving towards a more
human destiny is at the centre of Adlerian theory. The
author has a more optimistic vision of man in that he sees
him freely creating his destiny in a vast, rich and often
tortuous compensatory reaction to his sense of original
inferiority. The creative force which drives on this impulse
is the desire to advance towards realising oneself fully.
This is the road towards oneself in the meeting with our
fellow creatures. Like Abraham whose story is told in the
book of Genesis, we have to leave by the wayside certain
protections which offer a false illusion of security to go
towards an unknown place where we will find ourselves. The
face of the other reminds us of our own mystery, a
remarkable and necessary confrontation where our meaningful
story is created .
We cannot think of psychoanalysis without asking the
question of ethics which is at the heart of our practice.
Ethics is at the heart of the transitional movement of the
being into its relationship of dialogue. It is not acquired
in the sense that it is always to be reinvented as its goal
is never achieved. It is to be found there where the being
reveals itself . It is thus of the order of mystery. The
ethical intention in the psychoanalytical relationship,
whose goal is the concern for the self-accomplishment and
the greater freedom of the subject , is of the order of
transcendence in so far as it opens onto a future that is
rich in potential and onto a humanity in search of meaning
. This implies faith in a humankind that is capable of
goodness and love.
Adlerian humanism is not however, completely transferable to
that of the 16th century although the foundations are the
same : faith in man as a free creator of his own life,
respect for the other and transcendence towards being more
fully human, the important role of education. Adler
describes in actual fact the perverse consequences of over
compensation of the inferiority complex towards a condition
of omnipotence.. His vision of man can be compared to that
of Martin Heidegger who we mentioned earlier, as seen in
this perspective, the person who is decentred from himself
does not fall into the trap of suicidal omnipotence.
Actually the philosopher’s intuition tells him that the
Being precedes him. Man, says Heidegger, is the Da-sein, the
Being there, that is to say the place where the Being
materializes into thought.
The Being precedes the human, through whom he comes into
being, by making him grow towards all that is more human.
Adler expressed this idea by evoking the development of
humanity towards a goal of perfection, seen from the angle
of eternity. To say that man is preceded by something that
is bigger than he is, which makes and moulds him whilst at
the same
time giving him his place as subject, the unique place where
the Being emerges, confers on him his full dignity by not
placing him at the centre of the universe. We can guess the
dangers of an upbringing whereby the child is the King with
all the possible excesses leading towards the superiority
complex. Man works his way, through the relationship with
the other, towards what he does not know and which
nontheless calls and questions him. This questioning makes
sense insofar as it incites him to freely create paths of
life which raise other questions; The danger lies in the
temptation of a set response fixed into a dogma which leads
only into immobility and death.
CONCLUSION
Adlerian psychology gives a coherent, dynamic and optimistic
picture of man. Far from being a prisoner of his original
frailty, this frailty enables him to grow and to realize his
potential by projecting himself into the future.
The Adlerian man is free, although his freedom often leads
him to build walls which close him in. He creates his own
paths of life, which are an expression of his creative
power, to go towards what he does not yet know but which he
senses intuitively that he needs for his development. In
Adler’s vision of things, man matures through his desires
and is constantly moving towards what is not immediately
comprehensible but which makes sense.
Adler tackles the human personality in all its dimensions,
biological, psychological and social seeing in him a
tireless seeker of meaning. He makes of him a being who is
essentially spiritual. The danger in our technical society
dominated by the clamour for productivity and pragmatism is
not to hear the voice of our inner self calling us, the
part which echoes our feeling of inferiority and which calls
us to life. Forgetting the Being leads to dehumanization
and death.
What is original about Alfred Adler in the domain of
psychoanalysis, is his vision of the individual incarnated
in the terrestrial and the biological and yet at the same
time leaning beyond what is immediately apparent where the
potentialities of his humanity are unveiled. Man’s
suffering in the here and now of his present and of his
history really makes sense when it is understood in
relation to its constantly evolving existence. For these
reasons Adler is part of the humanist current. It is
essential today more than ever before to nuture oases of
words where a person can start to listen to himself in a
unique encounter with another who accompanies him for a time
on the paths of life. This is, we believe, the mission of a
humanist psychoanalysis.
Copyright ©
2005 International Association of Individual
Psychology
