Andreas Sofroniou

Adler, Alfred Intellectual Psychologist or Metaphysician Andreas Sofroniou

It is widely acceptable that Individual Psychology is a body of theories of the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler, who held that the main motives of human thought and behaviour are individual man's striving for superiority and power, partly in compensation for his feeling of inferiority.
Every individual, in this view, is unique, and his personality structure, including his unique goal and ways of striving for it, finds expression in his style of life, this lifestyle being the product of his own creativity.
An individual cannot be considered apart from society; as all important problems, including problems of general human relations, occupation and love, are social.
Regarding the psychodynamic psychology, Adlerians emphasise the foundational importance of childhood in developing personality and any tendency towards various forms of psychopathology. The responsibility of the optimal development of the child is not limited to the mother or father, but rather includes teachers and society more broadly.
Therefore, Adler argued that teachers, nurses, social workers, and so on require training in parent education to complement the work of the family in fostering a democratic character.
When a child does not feel equal and is enacted upon (abused through pampering or neglect) he or she is likely to develop inferiority or superiority complexes and various concomitant compensation strategies.
Finally, it must be pointed out to the reader that Adler strongly emphasised two extremely important factors in his advocacy of Individual Psychology, that of prevention and treatment.